Dr. J's SOAP Notes

Saturday, April 22, 2006

God's gifts are many and varied, but usually, one primary gift functions through each of us and when we know what gifts we have, it can be very liberating. As time passes we actually grow in our gifts--we learn our strengths and we learn our weaknesses.

One of the biggest mistakes we can make, however, is comparing ourselves with someone else and our gifts with their gifts. You see, God is not going to help me be anyone but ME, and God is not going to help you be anyone but you. In sport, we lose this focus many times. WE try to compete against someone else or become jealous of another's gifts. If you understand the nature of the almighty, you will come to realize that He is not calling us to compete with others, but to love and help one another. It is ironic, but God gave us each our gifts so that we could enhance other people's gifts, never allowing us to fall prey to the spirit of jealousy that is so prevalent in our society.

Think about this.............we think that first is best, but really what is best is where God wants us to be. Some people are intended to be number two, but they never become number one at being number two because they are spending their whole life wishing to be like number one and resenting them for it.

I cannot tell you how much I respect people who are honest with their evaluation of their gifts and talents. They share them so freely in order to enhance someone else and their gifts. On the other hand, I feel empathy for the person who tries to be something they are not. You see, when we are jealous of someone else, that jealousy actually prevents us from knowing what our gifts are from above. Picture this, God put gifts in us for the enjoyment of others, and God places gifts in others for our enjoyment. I have a story about this........last weekend I was visiting Colette. We worked on my routine for the Team U. I watched as she moved to the music I had prepared. I saw how she put little moves here and there. I could not repeat it for nothing. But you know what she told me? She said, "Malea, now you go do it and put your passion into it!" "Show me what the song means to you!" I thought that was so great! I was not jealous of how she got the feeling in 10 minutes and mastered the moves in 15 minutes. Instead, she allowed me to enjoy the song from her point of view. It was simply amazing!

Remember this, when we fight against our calling or are dissatisfied with what we have been given, we fight against the work of the Holy Spirit within us. Let us submit to Him, develop the gifts He gave to us with His help, and live for the glory of God.......not our own glory!

1 comment:

UnknownSunday, April 23, 2006 8:22:00 AM
Thanks for the inspriation. I certainly agree with you on this.

I am thinking a lot of the gifts my Mom gave and instilled in me. My love and my interest and some talent in music I got from her among many other gifts. She is a pretty amazing woman. I don't think that I told you that she was the North Dakota State Mother of the Year in 1972 due to all the work she did in our church and community. She was church organist for about 30 years as well as directing choirs, teaching Sunday School and doing pretty much everything in the church in our small town of about 1800 people. She was for about 6 years the Western North Dakota President of the American Lutheran Church Women, which gave her a seat on the Board of Regents at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, where I went to college. She was on the board when I was a student but didn't help me through though - hehe. Then she was also very active in the community, giving piano lessons to hundreds of kids and some adults, being on the library board, women's study group, etc. Pretty much everyone knew Ella Stedje in Hettinger, North Dakota. I have always been very proud of her. She helped put my brother and me through college being a piano teacher. She didn't have a bachelor's degree but she ran circles around us and really ran our household. She was a very organized person and did a great job of prioritizing. And she had a wonderful faith in God that she passed on to many people.

She isn't doing very well right now. She is 92 and will be 93 May 30 if she makes it. Two weeks ago she seemed to basically stop eating. I just think it probably is drawing close to her time to leave us and join Dad, who passed away last July 1. I am able to get her to eat a little. On Friday I brought her a plain Mac hamburger and she ate most of the beef and some of the bread. I got her to eat a little pop corn. The most she has eaten is awhile. But the nurses say she just is refusing all food at meal time. Just don't know how long she can live without eating much. I'm concerned but I know that if it is her time, she is ready. She is ready to go walking again with Dad. She has had a great life and I really don't want to force food down her when her body is preparing to shut down. I'll keep you posted. It is hard to pray for her to recover because she has some ahlzheimers (she does know the family which is a blessing) and if she starts eating again, what will that do to improve her situation? So I can just pray for God's will in this. She can't be my Mom that she used to be. At least she feels good and has no pain. Just is getting more tired. It is kind of selfish isn't it that we want to keep her here instead of letting go so she can be with Jesus and with Dad which is her wish.

Thanks for your email and your faith! Talk to you soon.

Workouts are going well. I like the new program. Take care!

Phil
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Who is Dr. J

Background:

She is originally from Spencer, Iowa. Malea is a graduate of Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. She attended medical school at the University of Osteopathic Medicine in Des Moines, Iowa. She graduated from her Family Practice Residency program at Iowa Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa in 1998.
In her spare time, Malea trains clients on physical activity and nutrition, spends time with friends and her wonderful father, and loves to watch football. What is better than bodybuilding? “Wolverine football on Saturday and Vikings football on Sunday!” Malea also loves basketball as March Madness rounds out a wonderful basketball season. As you may have guessed, Malea is very sports oriented, having been a four-sport athlete in high school, and a three-sport athlete in college.

Why I do what I do:

Jensen approaches her medical practice with the same determination as anything else she does. “The effort to understand how to promote more active lifestyles has been of great importance to the health of this nation. Schools, workplaces, and families need to weave physical activity into the fabric of their daily lives. The key to lifetime fitness is consistency!”

What I Do Away From Work

Dr. Malea Jensen is the total package. She’s exceptionally bright. She’s remarkably attractive. She’s a doctor. She’s a bodybuilder. “I have been competing in bodybuilding since 1996,” Jensen explains. “Bodybuilding was never a whim”, Jensen says. “I have always admired men and women with muscle. Initially, it was not my ambition to get up on stage and pose, but this has been a way to extend my competitiveness. It is an ambition of mine to keep fit and look lean, with muscular detail.”

She credits her father for pushing her to “give 100 percent,” whether it was school, work, or one of the many sports at which she excelled.

Mission Trips

Why does Dr. J go on mission trips? You are probably thinking I go so I can do medical work. It’s funny, our culture has formed us from our earliest days to see our significance in terms of WHAT we do. It is old school thinking that mission work is all about giving and doing for the poor. This is true to a certain degree. Missionaries, when asked if they were successful during their mission trip, often speak of their success by what they have done, whether spiritually or materially. But really our significance as people comes not from what we do, but from WHO we are. So, to answer why I go on mission trips...it is for nothing less than for the sake of conversion...my own conversion! This conversion has to do with a change in the way that I view my own life - what I do, what I have, who I count as friends, what questions I ask myself, what issues I pay attention to, who and what I give my allegiance to. In essence, I have to leave my world where I have control and go someplace I have never been...to a place where I am poor and powerless. It is hard to do this at “home.”
Any time you enter a third world country, you will see the poor, but more importantly, you enter into the world of a deprived people and share not only their pain and struggle, but also their hope! To see this is so amazing!