Keep working toward being the best YOU can be.
What and who do you idolise?
We are taught that idolatory is placing our longings for what only God can provide in the hands of a creature instead of the Creator. What and who do you idolise? Have you thought about this?
Have you thought about this – when I live for my work, or my wife, then I have made them my UN-true God. When I have failed … and I will fail… multiple times… (I can be sure that an UN-True God will be powerless at the point of my greatest cry out for help & need).
What will happen then?
Pose name: Rear Lats-Spread
You’re looking at a well-sculptured, world-class back. I built this with Trust in God first, and trust in – ME.
SHAME on YOU
What will happen is … I will experience the shame of failure and misplaced Trust. Why is trust is important? Because, it is. Read about Trust here. The authors of the Bible are very clear that dependence on an UN-true or “False” God will inevitably result in loss, pain and most horribly – shame (Isaiah 42:17; 44:9-11).
It seems that a False God will always disappoint.
Here is a story about shame .. I’m sure, each and every one of us can relate
A friend of a friend once told me that she waited for her mother for what seemed like 3 hours at an airport once. She had a wait ‘in-transit’ and notified the ‘busy’ mum about the opportunity to meet. The mum agreed two days before this was to occur.
She waited.
And waited.
She told herself not to put too much faith in her mum, for fear that she might forget and she told herself not to build up to much faith in her mum. Her mum was full of energy and vitality and had so much time for everything and everyone but …
Her.
She waited.
And waited.
Going through what she would say to her mum over and over in her head. All the things she wanted to share with her.
Time passed.
She did not come.
After the first hour, she would stop looking up to see if her mum would be there and just buried her head in her book. But, it wasn’t perfect, heck, nothing is ever perfect. So … she would hesitantly …
Look up!
Hoping that she would finally see her there, but no.
No one.
She would feel an immense wave of self-hatred and shame. The worst feeling one could feel, of all the feelings you could feel that is negative, shame is the lowest of the low.
Pose Name: Back Double-Biceps
The extent of Back Development highlights the extent of development the athlete has in the understanding of the sport of physique sculpting. Not resorting to illegal performance enhancing drugs is a choice. Building muscle the “natural “ way allows you to hang on to it, even if you don’t work out for a while.
There is no hope
She hoped.
She was looking for hope. Hope that she would connect with the Woman who was her False God – the one who could bestow or retract her life.
But THAT Idolised God … the woman she called her mum …
Failed her.
And she was ashamed.
The question is not why did she allow that to happen, the question is why do we all experience that feeling of shame at least once in our lives? Why, I ask? Why do we allow ourselves to be hurt and shamed by False Gods? They are not worth it… there is only one God and he is not a False God.
Persons must ‘open’ their eyes … open their minds.
Pose Name: Side Triceps.
One of my favourites … in my gym of 7 years. Everything we achieve in life and everyone we interact with in life, is founded on Trust.
Losing Face
Shame is the lowest level anyone can experience out of all the negative, low consciousness levels, lower than even Guilt. It is perilously proximate to death, which may be chosen out of Shame as conscious suicide or more subtly elected by failure to take steps to prolong life.
It seems, death by avoidable accident is common in this circumstance. We all have had some experience in our lives so far of .. ‘losing face’, becoming discredited, or feeling like a ‘non-person.”
We all want to be Mr or Mrs Invisible when we feel shame, hanging our heads and slinking away. In primitive societies, even in Biblical times, from which we all come from, banishment is equivalent to death. Remember Cain, the brother of Abel? He was banished.
The equivalent of death, it was.
Shame, as Freud determined, produces neurosis. It’s destructive to emotional and psychological health and feeds in to low self-esteem.
This ultimately leads to the development of physical illness. “It seems that the Shame-based personality is shy, withdrawn, and introverted.” (Dr. David R. Hawkins, Power v Force)
Do you harbour any shame from your childhood? I would suggest you work out a way to rid it from your inside, from your soul before it’s ugly head rears itself further down the track in your life.
Training efficiently and effectively under the “safety umbrella ☔️ “ helped me get to 2 x world 🌎 championships.
The conservative approach to training is always the best way in the long term (it may take longer, ie., it took me 10 years to get to the World 🌎 stage, but I did. With all my joints in tacked. No injuries in almost 30 years of lifting weights 🏋️♂️ is a great record to have.
The Greatest Loss – our failure to trust … GOD
The greatest loss is the greatest shame.
And what is that ‘greatest shame?” It comes down to something I mentioned at the beginning of this blog. It comes down to Trust.
Yes, trust.
It is our ultimate failure to trust God.
What is your ‘world-view’ on trust? Is it the Bible’s interpretation of Trust, at it’s essential core? What is the Biblical version of Trust? As I see it –
Trust seems to involve a reliance on God for what seems to be the most essential to our being, to us – being human. And what is that, you may think.
Trust in God.
He is the only TRUE God
S.O.S
Well, it is fundamentally the whole-ness of our soul, our spirit. The intact-ness of it, all. One should never lose one’s soul/spirit to anything or anyone that could be considered to be a False God.
Why is the soul important?
Well, for many reasons but one reason is that anyone or anything should not be allowed to shame or disgrace or possess our soul – that quintessential core of who we are.
That ‘essence’ that will live forever … eternally with God, our True God … no matter what is done to our body, reputation or temporal security.
S.O.S
Save Our SOULS.
Please.
True GOD.
Cheers & AhoY!
The Old Cap’n Viking Pirate Evangelist Muscled Monk … & shame
Don’t instill shame in your kids. Teach them to have a relationship with God, the True God
Help people strengthen their resolve, internally, with their own souls
so… that nothing can tear it out.
Changing lives. Empowering people. One life at a time. 