Exercise is important to me. I love it because it has so many benefits for our being, both physically and spiritually. And most mornings I either get out and run with Danielle, sometimes David, and sometimes I just stay back and do some the lines of my p90x fav’s (push-up/sit-up combo).
This morning David and I went for a run. David loves adventure! And being very fond of it myself, we chose to run somewhere we haven’t been before. We chose the Jerusalem forest.
What we really didn’t think about was the fact that the main path thru the forest was downhill, rather down-mountain. So after running ten minutes downhill, we had to turn around and jog back uphill. We started out strong, but halfway back up the path we realized that we were going to need to walk for a bit.
As I slowed down, a convicting thought came into mind. “Who’s strength am I running on?” “Is my faith so weak that I don’t trust God to give me the strength to finish the run?”
And then I realized what a great application this has in our lives with Christ! I don’t like the pain that comes from running uphill; however, if I don’t keep going, I can never reach the top of the mountain, and see the beauty that lies below.
Often times our lives with Christ can be hard an extremely challenging. It is very tempting to want to slow down and walk. That way the pain will subside and we can relax where we are. But this means we give up on growing stronger in our faith, and we are relying just on what we can manifest out of our own human strength.
The danger here is that we can begin to get comfortable with the “walking thru life” that we settle for. We will gradually slip into that lukewarm Christianity that causes Christ to spew us out of his mouth. For we have settled with serving ourselves and ultimately worshiping ourselves. That is the same as worshiping idols. Only we don’t have to carve this one. We just stare at it in the mirror and feed it all the sweet things this life has to offer.
That isn’t what Christ has called us to….
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength… And Love your neighbor as yourself.
