After I asked, my Father brought up Romans 12:9-21 to me. It is a challenging section of scripture. It is the prototype of a "none of me, all of thee" mindset, that 19th-century hymn.

Indeed, that section of scripture from Paul, Romans 12, is now something I have been meditating upon. This dramatized version is effective, for too often, we will apply emphasis on bark when the totality of the forest is needed.

Indeed, this passage is difficult for beneath this smiling veneer, I have always been a fighter, like my father before me.

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But, it does not mean I do not fight in a general sense. Clearly, there is the armor of God and Ephesians 6:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12, ESV

Yes, it is easy to fight in a perceived zero-sum game. But the true fight is against the supremacy of self, the supremacy of Satan. How easier it is to channel a curse to cast against my enemy than to dwell on a blessing for their betterment? Furthermore, how often am I like Jonah!

Upon far less weightier matters, I have been feeling good this morning! I am ready to start rolling on my new weightlifting regimen. I just gotta spin together a worksheet that I can chronicle in my retrowave Trapper Keeper.

In the context of another Fat Focus day, I am also pretty happy with how my cold brew coffee turned out this morning. I am picking it up again, this time with a French press. The morning, by pre-Vitamixing a stick of butter with a ½-cup of hot water, I have removed butter shenanigans—perhaps I will try ¼ in the future? I then pour a 2-cup serving as it runs.

Lemme backtrack: for a 36-hour fridge journey, I added 4 cups of water into the French press to 6 tablespoons of pre-ground ALDI Gingerbread—I am in the Christmas spirit!

C'mon, who wants to do a road trip with me to Finland to visit Santa Claus? (www.visitrovaniemi.fi) I want to rush things—let's skip spring, summer, and fall—ASSUMING my beard receives all of that unfettered growth!

Finally, I am breaking in my new sandals today. I gotta admit: I miss how my old pair is formed to my feet. Sliding into the same model again reminded me of a homeward run through a soaked with dew from the long-bladed grass that paralleled the train tracks on Southern Ave just past Oak Court Mall. I felt alive!