Ancient stories still make sense? Yes, if you actually think about it

In my personal tradition for Lent, I've been listening to selected books of The Bible while running. Now, if you're unfamiliar with The Bible, hang on with me  - the best is yet to come. This year, I have gone through 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles and about to get through 2 Chronicles.

From flickr by Adam Dimmick

Those are very interesting books from, in Christian-speak, the Old Testament. In short, these are the stories of God's people, their constant pendulum of accepting and following God, moving away and ignoring God, then back again. And again. And again.

Much like real life.

The first time I went through these books of The Bible, I came away confused but intrigued. To me, having some knowledge about these years of kings and kingdoms helps explains so much the teachings of Jesus and his followers that came later. Get even a little grasp of the Old Testament, and the New Testament makes a lot more sense, in terms of location, groups of people, what people do and say and why, and much more.

One book that helped me a lot in my journey on this is the book "Making Sense of the Bible: Rediscovering the Power of Scripture Today," written by United Methodist pastor Adam Hamilton. I downloaded the audio version from my local public library and listened to it several months ago.

Here's just a brief sample; click here to read the longer post (and find links to some of his previous posts):

'The Lord is my strength'

The LORD is my strength and my shield;
       my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
       My heart leaps for joy
       and I will give thanks to him in song.

-Psalm 28:7

There's physical strength - important. Then there's strength of faith in God - even more important.

A stroke can weaken muscles, no doubt. In this Lenten season, take some time to take your strength of faith to a higher level. Read his word. Pray. If you are able, attend church services - and if you don't have a church home, it's a perfect time to find one.

A good church home if you happen to live in or around Columbia, Mo. - Community United Methodist Church.

Lent ends not on the day that Jesus died on the cross, but with his resurrection. Talk about strength!

God, through health professionals, can often help with physical strength in stroke recovery. One recent study adds to the discussion:

There is some controversy surrounding strength training in stroke patients, as some rehabilitation groups feel that strengthening stroke-weakened muscles will also increase spasticity and pain. But that's not what Dr. Janice J. Eng and Dr. Jocelyn E. Harris, of University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, found.

They pooled results from 13 studies that recorded how strength training exercises, versus no strengthening intervention, affected overall arm strength and function in 517 stroke patients with mild to moderately impaired movement of the upper limbs.

On average, strength training lasted for about one hour on 2 to 3 days a week for 4 weeks, although some of the training periods extended as long as 19 weeks. Most interventions used small weights, resistance bands, and gym-type pulley weights to build muscle.

The combined results suggest, "strengthening does not increase spasticity on a permanent basis," Eng told Reuters Health in an email. Rather, strengthening may actually reduce muscle spasticity, she added.

 (Image from Printables 4 Scrapbooking)

On this Ash Wednesday, prayers for stroke survivors...

A snippet from from Beliefnet's Prayer Library

Remove the sudden fear that befalls them.
Endow them with courage in the struggle
to recover what has been lost.

As Lent begins, a time to meditate the suffering and death of Jesus, we can pray, too, for others suffering.