Fit Soul Chapter 1 - Fit For Detachment

Hey, it's Ben Greenfield. As you may already know, every Sunday I'm giving you a free chapter of my new book Fit Soul, which you can get for free@fitsoulbook.com in digital version and the print version is also available over there for a minor cost, just the shipping and handling and printing costs for the book. So again, that's fitsoulbook.com I hope you enjoy this free chapter and if you would like to go access previous chapters, you can find them in my podcast feed and you can also go to fitsoulbook.com Chapter 1 Fit for Detachment let's Talk Attachments. The world in which I spend much of my time full of fitness junkies, exercise enthusiasts, biohackers and healthy living zealots tends to be pretty darn attached. Attached to our perfectly comprised meals, pantry and kitchen. God forbid we swing open the refrigerator door and not have enough organic stevia for our superfood smoothie. Attached to our daily exercise session so that we can feel guilty, unhappy or even mildly depressed if we must take a walk in the sunshine because of a tweaked shoulder that makes us miss the gym. Attached to that wearable that magically tells us whether we are rested and ready for the day or whether we had a bad night of sleep, no matter how we actually feel. Data doesn't lie, right? Yep, we're the ones making a mad scramble in a hotel room to find something to prop our feet up for our morning poop because the Marriott doesn't have squatty potty stools, ripping sheets off the bed to make blackout curtains to remove every sliver of light at night, and wandering around the gym looking for the vibration platform, the ketone esters and the blood flow restriction bands. Because that's what we need for a good workout, right? We're the ones who go on a camping trip with 15 extra pounds of gear, our supplements, our noise blocking headphones, our special sleeping pillow, and our miniature infrared light device. We're the ones heading out to the restaurant with our special backup healthy sea salt and extra virgin olive oil so we can eat just like we do back home. Perhaps you aren't part of this extreme health enthusiast world and you're chuckling at this seeming ridiculousness, but we're all attached to many, many objects and pursuits. Perhaps they're not healthy things per se. You can be attached to wine and weed, coffee and energy drinks, epic vacations and adventures, cars, boats, homes, gardens, pets, shoes, or even just your favorite coat. But can you and I release those attachments Are all these attachments in life weighing you down, keeping you chained and distracting you from being fully satisfied with the immense beauty of simplicity? Or are you able to view them as simply pleasures, comforts and blessings from God that you've perhaps grown to become attached to your body, your biohacks, money, drugs and supplements and microdoses, food knowledge, podcasts, books, the social media feed and direct messages daily or hourly? Check in can you look at any of these and as Anthony DeMello says in his book Awareness, I really do not need you to be happy. I'm only deluding myself in the belief that without you I will not be happy. But I really don't need you for my happiness. I can be happy without you. You are not my happiness. You are not my joy. I challenge you this week to say that statement to anything and everything you're attached to. Verbally, aloud and enthusiastically memorize this statement if you must. I did. Then I spent a month practicing saying this phrase even to my morning cup of coffee, and it was quite powerful and eye opening. I really do not need you to be happy. I'm only deluding myself in the belief that without you I will not be happy. But I really don't need you for my happiness. I can be happy without you. You are not my happiness. You are not my joy. As you begin this practice, also consider the following in the same way that it is not within your human power to resist every last temptation that this world throws at you, it's also really not within your human power to fully detach from anything in life. To experience both resistance to temptation and release from attachments, you must rely upon the power that God bestows upon you. For example, John 8:32 tells us that we shall know the truth, and the truth shall set us free. First Corinthians 10:13 says, There is no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, will not suffer you to be tempted above what you're able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape that you might be able to bear it. Jesus prayer in Matthew 6:13 finishes with a call to lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.

Amen.

Collectively, from these three anecdotes of Scripture, I can clearly identify two ways that you and I can be empowered to release attachments to anything in life. One Immersing ourselves in truth, particularly by reading and hearing the absolute truth of the Bible every day and two Praying earnestly to God each day for resistance to temptations, and in the case of attachments, praying for a way of escape from that attachment. So in summary, Anthony de Mello's quote that I gave you earlier should always be accompanied with daily immersion in Scripture, along with a prayer to God that He would empower us to release whatever attachments we happen to be experiencing in our daily life. Finally, in Ecclesiastes 1:2,9, you can read the words of King Solomon, a man who had it all. Here's what he said. Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away and another generation comes. But the earth abides forever. The sun also rises, and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes towards the south and turns around to the north. The wind whirls about continually and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place from which the rivers come. There they return again. All things are full of labor. Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The that which has been is what will be. That which is done is what will be done. And there is nothing new under the sun. This is a man who God gave everything to. Yet he knew that despite our never ending search for belongings, pleasures, wealth, power, status and materialistic goods, everything in the absence of God is all vanity that eventually slips away like the wind blowing through the desert sand. Perhaps this is why it's so hard for those who pursue their precious attachments as their primary priority in life find it so difficult to discover the eternal happiness that comes from God.

The rich young ruler in Mark 10:17:30.

Is probably the penultimate example of this difficulty.

It goes like this. Jesus was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before.

Him, and put this question to him.

Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments.

You must not kill, you must not commit adultery, you must not steal, you must not bring false witness, you must not defraud, honor your father and mother.

And he said to him, master, I've kept all these from my earliest days. Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him. And he said, there's one thing you lack. Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me but his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.

Does that sound familiar?

Well hazard a guess that the rich young ruler could very well have frittered away the remainder of his short life.

On this earth, continually seeking more and.

More to fill his God shaped hole in his soul and may have unhappily passed away on a couch of plush.

Cushions in a giant mansion somewhere. Sadly, he was not fit to detach.

Are you in the book Absolute Surrender which I will link to@fitsoulbook.com chapter one. That's chapter with the number one. You can find the first step to become fit enough to surrender everything to God, including your attachments. Here's what author Andrew Murray writes in that may be a very earnest, godly devoted believer in whom the power of the flesh is still very strong. That's a very solemn truth. Peter, before he denied Christ, had cast out devils and had heal the sick. Yet the flesh had power and the flesh had room in him. Oh beloved, we have to realize that it is because there is so much of that self life in us that the power of God cannot work in us as mightily as he desires that it should work. Do you realize that the great God is longing to double his blessing, to give tenfold blessing through us? But there's something hindering him and that something is a proof of nothing but the self life we talk about the pride of Peter and the impetuosity of Peter and the self confidence of Peter. It is all rooted in that one word, self. Christ had said, deny self. And Peter had never understood and never obeyed. Every failing came out of that. But Andrew goes on to explain there was the turning point in the life of Peter. Christ said to him, you cannot follow me. Now Peter was not in a fit state to follow Christ because he had not yet fully given himself up for Christ. But when he went out and wept bitterly, then came a great change. Christ previously said to him, when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. At this point, after weeping and giving everything up to Jesus, Peter was surrendered, converted from self and free from attachments to rise to his true calling and to fully understand what was truly important in life. So you might be thinking, well that's the problem with me. It's always the self life, self comfort, self consciousness, self pleasing and self will that keeps me from giving up all my attachments. So how are you to get rid of all the selfish self thoughts? Well, it's only by surrendering all to God and fully following Jesus that you can rid yourself of attachments. Nothing else can give deliverance from the power of self. Trust me, I've tried. And what else does God ask you to do? Well, Luke 9:23 is quite clear. It says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. So once again I ask you, are you fit enough to detach, to deny yourself, and to take up your cross daily? If you find yourself struggling with releasing attachments, it can often help to become more self aware of your decisions, your thought patterns, and most importantly, your presence. And in the next chapter, you'll discover.

How to do just that.

In the meantime, for resources, references, links, and additional reading and listening material for this chapter, visit fitsoulbook.com Chapter 1.