November 16, 2006
Be Invincible and Lift Weights
I just got back home from working out. I started working out twice a week at the end of the summer and its been a great experience, but I go through these weekly cycles of utter soreness that have started to become a regular part of my life. While i was traveling, I didnt get to work out at all, so coming back into it for the past couple weeks has been tough. I did these deadlifts on Tuesday night and now my back is killing me. It all reminds me of a Bagpipe article that I wrote back in the day on working out for the glory of God. Now you have to understand that Ive worked out more in the past few months than I have in the rest of my life put together, so this article was a little bit tongue-in-cheek for me. I was just feeling really "pumped up" that week I guess. I certainly didnt apply it at the time. But you might enjoy reading it. Its entitled "Be Invincible and Lift Weights" and it was written by a 155 pound weakling who spent more time reading 18th century Scottish philosophers than he ever did in a gym.
Be Invincible and Lift Weights
By Todd Willison
One thing that most college students seem to suffer from is a lack of exercise. During my first few years as a college student, I rarely exercised. I often set big goals for myself at the beginning of a semester, but I quickly buckled under the pressure of studies and an overactive mental life that caused me to find more pleasure in a comfortable room where I could contemplate my existence than in a gym.
I could attribute my avoidance of the gym entirely to work overload or to unsharpened life management skills, but I know in my mind that another factor was at work: the factor of fear. Let s face it. I still have nightmares of the sixth grade when going to gym class meant two things: humiliation and pain. Yes, I was a skinny geek and the bigger kids in the class discovered that quickly enough to pinpoint me as the locker room punching bag. I have just recently realized that my years of seeking bodily protection from the principal indeed had a prolonged effect on my mental conception of physical fitness. In my mind, to be physically fit meant to avoid the gym at all costs so as to avoid any risk of bodily harm. Needless to say, I did not try out for any sports in high school.
I wish I could say that my middle school fear of exercise was wiped away by the time I reached my early twenties, but that isn’t the case. Last year, I was twenty-three, five years out of high school, and entering the gym still felt like having a cross-cultural experience. But, thankfully, things have started to change. As of this semester, I have reached a point where I can walk into the gym and face the iron. I still struggle with my fear of the iron. I hear the iron trying to intimidate me, saying, Run away, fool, before I beat you up like the big kids in gym class!
But my perspective is changing. I am beginning to realize that the iron’s opposition to me is actually its most benevolent gift. Henry Rollins points out this insight, saying "When the Iron doesn’t want to come off the mat, it s the kindest thing it can do for you. If it flew up and went through the ceiling it wouldn’t teach you anything. That which you work against will always work against you nothing good comes without work and a certain amount of pain."
I find this perspective to be Biblical. Hebrews 12 says, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.”
We often apply this verse to the spiritual life, what Charlie Meadows calls the life of the mind, but I believe it can also be applied to the physical life. In fact, the two are so intertwined that I don’t believe that one can improve in one area without improving in the other. There are numerous passages in the Bible that call Christians to a lifestyle of spiritual discipline by using physical imagery. In II Timothy 2, Paul calls Timothy to be a good soldier, a committed athlete, and a hardworking farmer. Hebrews 12 uses the imagery of laying aside every weight to win the race. Most notably, Paul says in I Corinthians 9:27, “Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” In each of these passages, imagery of physical laboring is used to express what spiritual labor should look like in our lives. Spiritual discipline is hard work. It takes labor and extreme dedication of the mind to devote oneself daily to the activities of prayer, Bible reading, and acts of mercy. So how can one expect to understand how to discipline oneself spiritually in these areas without having a corresponding understanding of physical discipline, which is the descriptive mirror of spiritual discipline?
I am trying to make the following point: If you are having trouble committing to spiritual disciplines, try lifting some weights. If you have difficulty delving into the Scriptures on a daily basis, get out and run the cross-country trails. Put yourself in the mindset of discipline. Face your fear and feel the pain. It is quite amazing to cross a personal threshold and see results.
All of a sudden, you have perspective, a point of reference for what discipline looks like. Remember my fear of the iron and how I thought the iron only wanted to hurt me. I allowed my misconceptions of the past to affect my future. It is the same way in our spiritual lives. We allow guilt, regret, and hatred of our past failures to keep us from exercising our souls with the tools of grace that God has given us: the bench press of prayer, the ab machine of faith, and the treadmill of the Word of God. Remember, that when these tools work against us it is actually for our good. We do not have to be afraid.
II Timothy 1:7 says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind, and I John 4:18 reminds us that perfect love casts out all fear.
It is true that our spiritual condition should be the primary motivating factor for taking care of our bodies. We take care of our bodies because we are a temple of the Holy Spirit. But it works the other way around. Facing the gym now and confronting the iron head on will help you in developing the Iron Mind, the mindset you need to be one who takes the act of discipline, physical or spiritual, very seriously. Don’t be like me, avoiding the gym out of fear or laziness. Remember Proverbs 12:24, which says, “The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting, but diligence is man s precious possession.” Remember that by God’s grace you are invincible, for if God is for you, who can be against you? So be invincible and lift weights. Run the race, fight the fight, and have a little bit of gusto. Strengthen those feeble arms and weak knees. The iron is calling you and to refuse it now is to flee from faith into fear. Just remember. The iron can never hold you back. It can only take you forward.