Luke’s Notebook

My brother Jude (17, 18 on March 23rd) has been feeling sick the past few days, and today Mom took him to the doctor, and they found out that he has mono (infectious mononucleosis to the medically-minded). So he’ll be out of commission for a few weeks, it sounds like, but hopefully he’ll make a speedy recovery. I told him to be thankful he has mono and not stereo… ugh, dumb audio joke! Anyway, keep him in your prayers.

Calorie count for today is 1,360. Not bad at all for Day Eight. There have been a couple of really key foods that have helped this diet. So far, the most valuable foods have to be cereal and salad. Actually, all sorts of fruits and veggies, but salad in particular. It’s such a “good deal” on calories. Plus, it tastes pretty good, and you get that overall healthy feeling. Good stuff.

I need to wrap up a little bit of work on the website and then call it a night. I’ve been making a few changes to the main site (famteam.com) — mostly relating to the Flash animations that are up there — and it’s just improving day by day, in my opinion. We seem to constantly be finding a better way to do something, a better spot for a section — just different things to make the site more attractive. It’s fun.

I just finished working out in the rec room downstairs. I did quite a few exercises with the free weights, but I really wasn’t wanting to get on the cross-trainer to work out. I told myself that, well, maybe I’ll do five minutes, just to get a bit of cardio exercise. I flipped the TV on ESPN and started watching the Oklahoma/Texas college basketball game, which had about 10 minutes remaining in the first half. I suckered myself into agreeing to stay on the cross-trainer until halftime, and by the time the clock reached zero I was up to 28 minutes! I went ahead and did two more, finishing with a good workout with weights along with a half-hour of the cross-trainer. So I’m very satisfied!

It’s so helpful to have a TV in the rec room, because having something to watch really makes the time fly much quicker. It almost doesn’t seem fair how much it seems to help. But I’m not about to complain.

I made it through Sunday, spending 1,550 calories. It was close to the 1,600-calorie limit, but it was under! Yay!

Oh, and we won all three volleyball games tonight. Paul subbed for us in place of my Uncle Joe, and we took eight-year-old Wizzy along with us, since she asked if she could come and watch.

Now it’s time for bed. The alarm is set for 7:30, so I’ll have to be all set to get things underway in the morning. Farewell!

It hasn’t been a real easy day to be on a diet. And, yeah, I suppose I’m officially on a diet — for now, anyway. It’s not like I am in great need of a drastic weight loss, but a few of my other brothers are dieting, so I figured I might as well hop on the bandwagon and give it a go. I couldn’t imagine needing to lose more than a literal 10 or 15 pounds. Another reason I’m doing this is just because I want to try it out. It’s certainly not fun, but I kind of told myself, “Well, I could do that.” Now I’m saying, “Oh, yeah? Prove it!” =) I think it’s just a matter of doing the math — eating fewer calories than your body burns each day, and you should lose weight. That’s my approach to this. In time, we’ll see just how accurate that thinking is.

Today wasn’t easy for a number of reasons. For one, Sunday is the day we usually go to eat at Cici’s. With the pizza, pasta and desserts there, it’s not all that difficult to eat 3,000 or 4,000 calories worth of food. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if I hit similar numbers on previous trips to Cici’s.

I managed to “survive” Cici’s without eating that much. Actually, I calculated 1,200 calories, thanks to salad and thin-crust pizza. Since Cici’s was for planned for lunch, I skipped breakfast. So I was at 1,200 after lunch, with 400 remaining for the day. (I’ve been making myself stay under 1,600 calories for the past week.)

It got even harder when we came home, because Mom was kind enough to whip together some desserts — brownies, chocolate-chip cookie cake, and Rice Krispie squares. And then for supper, there were all sorts of tempting foods cooked — pizza, to little tacos, to popcorn chicken — oh, I had to run far, far away from the kitchen. I managed to grab some grapes from the fridge, but other than that, everything else was off limits tonight.

I’m kind of hungry now. I’ll probably pick up an ice cream cone from McDonald’s (150 calories well spent) after volleyball, so that would put me at 1,550 for the day — 50 shy of the limit. And that’d be just fine. Sundays are exceptionally hard on diets, but it looks like I may be able to make it.

So why, again, am I doing this? “But, Luke, you just did that carb diet thing a few months ago!” Well… I don’t know. I weigh 189.5 (was 192 a week ago), and that’s definitely not bad for me standing at 6′1½” or 6′2″. I suppose my thinking is that if I’m literally 10 pounds away from my ideal weight, why not get there as soon as possible? It would mean I could probably run a little bit faster and jump a little bit higher. Also, I kind of made the lofty claim to myself that, sure, I could do this. So I don’t want to get lazy and let myself down. =) It takes patience and discipline, definitely, but I’ve managed to survive a week of it. Not so much fun, though. I figure the more serious I am with it, the shorter I’ll be on the diet. Hopefully it won’t have to last longer than another two weeks or so. But I’ll just have to see how things go!

I’d better go get ready for volleyball. I’ve got a late game tonight — 9:30!

This evening, Paul and I drove over to St. Louis’ Lambert International Airport to pick up my Grandma and Grandpa Arndt, who were returning from a cruise they took off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was my first time ever visiting the airport, so it was a neat experience. Paul dropped me off at one of the gates, and I went in and met up with Grandma and Grandpa at the baggage claim section.

As we were driving home, they were telling us all about their cruise. It sounds like so much fun! All-you-can-eat buffets, theaters, pools, gyms — oh, yeah, and you’re on a huge ship, traveling to islands. That would be something fun to try out someday!

This afternoon, I had a different task. Dad asked if there was anything I could do about the box on famteam.com that showed the latest blog (FamTeam Today!) entry. It wasn’t the most attractive, and I told him I’d see what I could come up with.

I ended up creating a Flash file that will fade between an attractive “FamTeam Today!” screen to the latest blog entry, in crisp, clear text. Another advantage to this — and I hadn’t really even thought about this until my brother Mark asked about it when I was showing him the feature — is that this looping animation on famteam.com will automatically show the latest entry. Every time the animation resets, it checks for the latest blog entry. It ends up being a very attractive alternative to what we had, and it actually provides better functionality. So it’s a win-win situation! Check it out at famteam.com!

Sunday comes. I have to decide if I’ll allow myself to freely eat, or if I’ll be conservative with calories. For now, I’ll play it by ear.

Another early-morning workout. I woke up at 7:30 this Saturday morning and went down to the rec room. Again, I did some free weights, then a half-hour on the cross-trainer, a few more free weights and some sit-ups. A good workout and a great way to kick off the weekend!

It’s really satisfying to have the workout over and done with and to just have it two days straight that I have officially worked out. I don’t plan to work out tomorrow, since it’s Sunday, but hopefully I’ll pick it right back up Monday morning.

I’ve got some scoping to do. I’m working on a 150-page depo, and I have roughly 60 pages to go. So… here goes.

This morning, I made myself wake up early and work out in the rec room. I’ve been trying to eat smarter and downsize a little bit, and I figured I should go ahead and work out. Though I’m not the type to automatically jump out of bed early in the morning, I thought it would be smartest for a number of reasons to get the workout done in the morning.

One: I don’t have to workout for the rest of the day!

Two: It helps to wake me up and get my body going, get the blood pumping.

Three: Evidently, metabolism is higher in the morning and so it’s ideal to workout then to burn calories.

Four: It’s just good for discipline, to make myself work out.

Of course, this was the first day. I’ll hopefully do it tomorrow and eventually be in a nice little habit of working out in the mornings. If I can just make it part of my routine, then that’d be great, because it would just be something I do almost automatically.

Anyway, I lifted some free weights, but I spent most of my time on the cross-trainer, going for 25 minutes as I watched FOX 2 News. I felt pretty good afterward, and it’s just a great sense of accomplishment to still be early in the day and already have a workout under your belt! I hope I can make myself stay with it.

Within the past few months, I’ve made a handful of entries expressing the danger that somebody is in if they’re not following God. My goal has never been to hurt, offend or scare anyone. The truth of the matter, however, is that this is a very serious issue. Whenever each one of us dies, we’re going to spend eternity in one of two places. I hate to call somebody stupid, but, honestly, it is stupid if you care more about what you’re doing today, what your friends think of you, how you can get your desires — if you care more about those things than where you’re going to spend eternity.

I think Christians are oftentimes misunderstood for a variety of possible reasons. But I want everybody to know that I, Luke Arndt, am a human being. I am a sinner. I have bad habits. I have shortcomings. I have temptations. I have numerous flaws. I don’t always have the perfect attitude. I don’t always do the right thing. I’m a very imperfect person. Left to myself, you might say I’m a mess. And I am, compared to the lofty standard that God has called everyone to — perfection. I’m not close to reaching that on my own. But, thanks to Jesus willing laying down his life for us, I can ask God to forgive me of my sins and know that I have a clean slate. Since Jesus Christ took my punishment, I can freely say, “I’m forgiven!” and don’t need to have my shame weigh me down. Hebrews 10:17 — “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”

What a staggering thing it is to realize that! Not only am I forgive, but God has forgotten about my sins.

My point is, you can’t reach a point in your life where you’re too far to surrender and ask God for forgiveness. Because the only difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is Christians are forgiven sinners. Are they perfect? No way. Christians still make mistakes, do wrong things — are very imperfect. What matters, though, is if we’re willing to swallow our pride and ask God to forgive us, and then choose to obey Him.

That’s the first part. I’ve written enough about how I think it’s just dumb to go on living a life like there’s no God. But what I have realized is that there are so many blessings that you receive when you are following God! It’s just incredible.

My brother, Mark, and I were talking recently about just all of the amazing things that God has done in our lives. There are so many blessings — both intangible and very, very tangible — that we have experienced year-in and year-out.

Exhibit A: This home. Throughout the building project, there were just so many incredible things that happened. It’s like every single day we would wonder, “I wonder what God is going to come up with next!” Seriously, there were so many things that just all came together and ended up working out perfectly. What I wonder is, why did this whole house project “work”? Why didn’t the house end up looking like it was built by the Three Stooges? It’s risky to be your own general contractor. Why did everything just fit together so beautifully? Why didn’t we fall flat on our faces or get in way over our heads? Well, I truly believe that God was behind the entire project. And it’s so cool to see how many real-life “things” God is into. He wanted to bless us with this house, which is a very real, practical, tangible thing.

There are literally countless intangible benefits that I can’t even begin to list. The best way I can describe it, I guess, is favor — being in God’s favor. When you obey Him, He blesses you! God is our Father. Isn’t that kind of what parents do? If you’re proud of your kid, you’re going to want to reward them! There are so many extremely practical decisions and situations that will just end up working out so well, and a lot of times it doesn’t even make sense except to realize that, hey, God was orchestrating that whole situation!

I believe Psalm 112, where it says (paraphrasing), “Blessed is he who fears the Lord, who finds delight in His commands.” The awesome thing about being a Christian is that we’re not out to impress God or to act good so He’ll reward us. When you realize what an amazing gift we have been given by having Jesus die on the cross to bear our sins, there’s just an amazing sense of grattitude! You’d be thankful if someone saved your life, right? How about if Someone saved your soul?! Saved you from forever in hell and gave you a chance for eternity in heaven? Since we are so thankful, we can’t help but praise God and desire to obey Him, to deny ourselves, to give Him glory. And He, in turn, blesses us for that!

I want to make one thing very clear as I wrap this up. I think a lot of times people will think, “Oh, you’re a Christian? Good for you. Me, I happen to like to drink or party or serve myself. But it’s cool that you don’t have that desire.” Well, Christians are people, too. We all have pretty much the same desires. Christians are wise enough to know that while, yeah, you’re definitely going to be saying “no” to yourself quite a few times, it’s so well worth it in the end. I’d much rather “miss out” on a few things in life and have a place reserved in heaven than to always be serving myself and on a path leading to damnation.

By the way, life is FUN! Honestly, it’s a blast. I feel sorry for the people who have to do the “cool” thing or follow the culture and the latest trends in order to have a good time. I wouldn’t have it any other way. The satisfaction, the excitement, the anticipation, the peace, the joy, the wisdom — wouldn’t trade it for the world.

This afternoon, Jude and I went to the YMCA in downtown Belleville to play basketball with our friend, Steve, and his cousin, Mark. I can’t remember the last time I played a real basketball game — other than casually shooting around — but it could very well have been 10 months or so.

Anyway, we played four two-on-two games. The first two games, it was Jude and I versus. Quite honestly, we didn’t do so well and lost both games to 16 against Steve and Mark. After that, we took a water break and decided to mix up the teams. It ended up being Steve and I versus, and we won the next two games, but they were both close games.

All in all, it was fun to play again. My feet were kind of hurting afterwards. I guess I’m not used to having that really quick footwork that basketball requires. I was also pretty rusty shooting, but thankfully size and speed doesn’t really go in a slump. So I was able to get some nice rebounds and make some shots from up under the rim.

I’m going to head off to bed. I still have a fresh idea of something I really want to write about, but it will just have to wait.

Here I Go Again - Casting Crowns

Father, hear my prayer

I need the perfect words

Words that he will hear

And know they’re straight from You

I don’t know what to say

I only know it hurts

To see my only friend slowly fade away

Chorus:

So maybe this time

I’ll speak the words of life

With Your fire in my eyes

But that old familiar fear

Is tearin’ at my words

What am I so afraid of?

‘Cause here I go again

Talkin’ ’bout the rain

And mullin’ over things

That won’t live past today

And as I dance around the truth

Time is not his friend

This might be my last chance

To tell him that You love him

But here I go again

Here I go again

Lord, You love him so

You gave Your only Son

If he will just believe

He will never die

But how then will he know

What he has never heard?

Lord he has never seen mirrored in my life

Chorus:

But here I go again

Here I go, here I go

Chorus:

This might be my last chance

To tell him that You love him

This might be my last chance

To tell him that You love him

You love him, You love him

What am I so afraid

What am I so afraid

What am I so afraid of?

How then will he know

What he has never heard?

Sometimes it’s so hard to share your faith with someone. But there’s so much at stake — if somebody isn’t right with God, then they’re in deep trouble. And there’s no guarantee that they will be around tomorrow, so while you have the opportunity to share with them, please do it. For me, it’s not always the easiest thing to do. But I think we need to at least do our part.

It’s not up to us whether or not somebody is going to choose to accept Christ and turn their life around, but what we can do is love them and plant that seed. It can definitely be awkward, but I think it’s well worth the discomfort or the “weirdness” to get the truth across. After that, the ball is in their court. Since we all have free will, you obviously can’t control them. What you can do, though, is share with them what you know, and how you’re genuinely concerned for them and want to see them in heaven. And pray for them. God can work on people and do incredible things.