The Need to Care

 Several weeks ago I told a group of teenagers that were boasting about something they like to do that is harmful to their health that some day they were going to care. They may not care now what they were doing that was harmful to their health but some day they would care and it may be too late. The picture the three of them put on facebook for all to see was their act of rebellion to show the world they didn't care as they made gestures to the camera.

Recently my doctor put me on an additional medicine to manage my cancer. Its a drug that could raise my cholesterol level. In precaution to see where my cholesterol started out I had blood work done. Guess what? It was high. Along with my cholesterol, my blood sugars are high, and my blood pressure is high. Go figure!

Two weeks before I was diagnosed with cancer I had lost over 30 pounds and finally got myself under 200 pounds. I was so tickled and proud of myself that I finally was getting somewhere in the weight loss game. After I found out about my cancer I lost my ability to care about my weight. Instantly it was, "Well I'm dying of cancer then what is the point of trying to lose weight and maintain it where it needs to be."

As the result of that attitude I have now in a year and half gained back 37 pounds. When my cancer doctor told me I would have to go on medication to try and get everything down to where it needed to be I thought, "No way." I need to get my weight down first then see if medication is needed.

On my way home that day from the doctor's I got to thinking about how I was no different than those teenagers who were boasting about their choice of lifestyle. To demonstrate my thought I went out and bought a candy bar to take a picture similar to the one they did minus the hand gesture to prove my point. With me no hand gesture was necessary because the wing expansion of my upper arm was all the gesture needed to the camera to demonstrate the fact that I didn't care.

Quicker than it has for the young teenagers my time has come that I better start caring again. I can't stop myself from getting cancer, or stop it from going out of control but I can my weight, my blood sugars and blood pressure. Today I talked to a nutritionist and I told her that I'm not fat, I am undisciplined. And that is the truth with all of us, we aren't fat we are undisciplined. We need to start caring to the point we are willing to take care of that which has been entrusted to us, our bodies.

My rebellious behavior isn't justified simply because I'm an "older" adult and not a teenager. Age has nothing to do with it. Those girls need to start caring now and so do I. We shouldn't wait until we "feel" like doing it we need to discipline ourselves into doing what we know is right and do it now. Right for us, right for our bodies, right in God's eyes.

"The time is now to start caring before its too late." Those were my words to the teenagers' weeks ago, and now they are the very words I find myself feasting upon today. For when we start to care it shows up in our attitude and its rewarded in our actions. After all, why wait till we are brain dead to stop doing dope, why wait till we have destroyed our liver before we stop drinking, why wait till we have a heart attack before we decide to lose weight, and why wait till we have lung cancer before we stop smoking. Waiting is bad for us and good for our enemy. Now is the time, not later to start caring.

**After I took this picture I didn't eat the candy bar I hope you know, I fed it to our three baby pigs. They loved it!