A Spiritual Workout

Until about seven months ago, I had a problem that God was really dealing with me about.  I had smoked for more than 15 years, and after the birth of my daughter and a heartfelt prayer for God to re-open the door into ministry, God seemed to be saying, " Enough is enough."  So, my wife and I began the process of kicking the habit; however, ridding myself of the habit was simply not enough.  I wanted to do more than break the habit, I wanted to begin to undo some of the damage that the habit had caused; so, I eventually took up running.  Now to say that I simply "took up running" is an over-simplification. To begin with, I had to talk myself back into the gym.  Once that was done (and trust me, it took some time) I began a "couch-to-5k" program that, after the first week, left me wheezing, coughing, out of breath, and, for the most part, completely miserable.  During the second week, I began to curse the treadmill, the gym, the gym owners, and anyone who seemed to be enjoying themselves in this inane and torturous activity.  And then, the strangest thing happened:  I began to feel better.  My energy levels went up, my weight went down, my strength and endurance have increased, and now, after several weeks, I can actually run for nearly two miles without stopping.  Trust Papa (God, if that makes you more comfortable) to quickly pop that bubble of pride.  

Yesterday, week six, day two of my couch-to-5k program, I am plodding along and wanting nothing more than to quit, when Papa uses the fact that I have no choice but to be quiet (considering that I cannot breathe) to point out a startling and simple fact.  He said, "You know, this works with your spiritual muscles, too."  In my exhausted state, I had just enough time to think, “What muscles would those be?” before He provided me with an answer.  Everyone knows the verse - 2 Peter 1:5-7: add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance, etc. etc.   Exhausted, sweating, and utterly irritable, I left the gym wondering what in the world that had to do with my spiritual muscle. That was until, with a divine chuckle in the background, I looked up the same verse in the Amplified Bible.  This is how it reads:

(5) For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence),(6) And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety),(7) And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love.

“Oh!  So this is where we were going!”  Just that quickly, Papa managed to highlight a problem with my thinking.  Rather than a list of qualities that I was supposed to pick-up on my journey with him, I was presented with a set of spiritual muscles that needed exercising.  This was not a list of things which I should be concerned about simply “adding,” but steady progression of exercises that would lead to strengthening my ability fulfill the commandment of Christ:  to love.

Much like fad diets, futuristic machines, and funky food programs promise quick results with very little effort; however, the modern Christian seems to want a Slim-FastTM faith: a shake on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and maybe Wednesday, and then a sensible lifestyle.  The fact of the matter is that our faith requires just as much, if not more, work than our body does in order to keep it fit and healthy.  We must exercise our faith.  We must exercise our self-control.  We must exercise our brotherly affection.  If we do not, then we can expect the cellulite of the Christian character to quickly develop: impatience, fear, anger, envy, etc. Paul, in his first letter to Timothy, goes so far as to note that “bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”   We are not called to blessed lifestyle that requires nothing from us, nor are we called to be bench (pew) warmers, seated on the sidelines while there is a race to be run.  In every epistle, in every gospel, in every story passed down to us from the beginning, there has been that element of struggle, that moment of truth, that shining example of exercised faith.  We are called to take up our crosses, as heavy as they may be, to forget those things that are behind us, and to “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

And remember: Exercise, whether physical or spiritual, never takes more than it gives back.