What if we were Real?

One of my favorite music artists is Mandisa, not only do I love her music, but she is just an amazing light of Christ. I have many of her songs on my "running" play-list. Her new album is titled "What if we were real" and has a lot of great songs, one of which is the same as the album title. This is the inspiration for my post today. I'd like to pretend that no one has ever noticed that I'm pudgy. I've always been self conscious about my "size" and get my feelings hurt very easily with any comments concerning my "size". It's because of this that I basically avoid all talk on social networks about my weight-loss or need thereof. When posting pictures on fb I am very careful and break out into a sweat when I see that I've been "tagged" in a photo. But, today I am going to be real with all of you and show you a very incriminating photo.

This is a picture from my Duathlon.  It shows all the loose skin on my arm.  Not very attractive, but it is the reality of 32 pounds of weight-loss.  In fact, I have to use a product called "glide" on the soft loose skin under my arms so that I don't get chaffing on long runs.  I decided to post this embarrassing picture because I know that 1). I'm not only one with "bat wings" and 2) we all have things that we are self conscious about.  A couple of the lines from Mandisa's song that really speak to me are "But what if I share my brokenness

What if you share how you feel.  We'd think a little less of ourselves, We'd care about someone else, 'Cause we'd know just how they feel.  Maybe we could let someone love us, Maybe we'd be a little more like Jesus.  Why can't we learn to real?"

So here I am being real.  I have a long way to go, there is going to be a lot of loose skin and I'll never have a perfect body.  My legs will always be too big and my boobs too small.  But, God looks on the inside.  I am trying to honor Christ through my weight loss and exercise.  I am trying to give it to him as an offering of love (I get in the way of that a lot of the times).  I am learning to turn to Him rather than food.  One last Mandisa link.  This is an interview that was done.  If you don't have time to watch the whole thing, then watch the last 2 minutes.

I hope this helps you feel like you can be a little more real too.