If you’re like me, you’ve probably heard the term “spiritual muscle”. If you haven’t, you’re probably in good company with most of the US population and readers of this blog.
I know that I personally have heard that term thrown around every now and then. Always mentioned, never discussed. To me, it’s always been one of the many terms in the ever expanding arsenal of Christian jargon. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago at the gym, that I really understood what spiritual muscle meant to me. Since my “revelation” in the gym, how I view following Jesus hasn’t been the same. My hope is that many of your outlooks will be changed as well.
For those of you who don’t know me, or we haven’t kept in touch too closely over the years-I like to work out. I’m not jacked, or overly in shape, but it’s something that I like to do on a consistent basis to keep my stress low and my health high. So, being able to compare a lifestyle activity of mine to another lifestyle choice (following Jesus) has been a complete game changer.
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It had been a long stint on the road for work. I hadn’t been able to work out as much as I had wanted, and I was pretty run down. Due to my travel schedule, I hadn’t been able to attend my small group, church, or read my bible and pray as much as I would’ve liked to.
Not only was I physically out of shape, but I had let myself get spiritually out of shape as well. I felt anxious, sad and honestly all around defeated.
It was on the drive back home to Atlanta that I had a few hours to reflect on what had been going on in my life and why I was feeling so beat down. I knew I hadn’t been working out and more so, I knew that I had let my “spiritual guard” down over the past 3-4 weeks. I was annoyed, but I told myself I’d hit the gym when I got home, and popped on a podcast for the rest of the drive.
It wasn’t until I had my next workout that I truly realized how similar working out and following Jesus really are. I’m sure there are other articles or sermons about this realization I had- but I have never heard any of them and the following thoughts are what I personally came to recognize because of how they relate to my life.
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When I finally got around to my workout, I realized I was significantly weaker than I was a few weeks prior- during my last workout. I started to get frustrated and complain to myself that “it wasn’t fair” and asked myself “why can’t I ever just take a break?”. The self-pity continued on. Essentially, I was angry that I didn’t have results without putting in the work. It sounds silly and obvious as I write that now, but at the time I was so caught up in everything that I had to step back to understand how foolish I was being.
It was then when I realized I had been doing the same thing in my spiritual life. I had taken a spiritual hiatus. Not because I sat down and made a conscious decision, but because I was so proud of myself for how “good” of a Christian I had been over the past couple of months that I was able to justify relaxing my spiritual discipline while on the road.
I was confused on why I was feeling so down and anxious just as I was confused on how I was lifting so much less when I had previously being doing so well a few weeks prior.
See what I mean?
Our relationships with Jesus and living the Way he instructs us to, is JUST like working out. They’re both lifestyle choices.
Below are a few comparisons that I wrote down when I had this realization:
-We have to make living for Jesus a lifestyle. Just like when we’re serious about getting in shape that we have to eat healthy and stay well rested to complement our consistent workouts, we have to relinquish ALL aspects of our life to Him. We can’t just pick and choose certain aspects and expect top notch results.
-There’s no cheating, and you will pay the consequences. Steroids and “lose weight quick” diets might seem like life hacks in the short term, but we all know that they’re not sustainable methodologies to long term physical health. In my mind, I compared this to continuously sinning and using Jesus’ forgiveness as a way to have the best of both worlds. In both cases, you’re only hurting yourself in the long run.
-Supplements are good! As a big fan of protein powder, I understand that supplements can be helpful. As proper usages of different vitamins and nutrients can improve our results in the gym, the Bible, church, prayer and fellowship only further the intimacy of our relationship with Jesus, and how well we live by His teachings.
-Community is key. Workout buddies keep us accountable the same way that a small group or bible study keep us accountable and on track. I personally don’t have a consistent workout pal, but I know that when I have in the past, it made going to the gym MUCH more fun and pushed me harder to see more fruitful results. I’ve found this to be the same with Christianity. Having the fellowship of consistent community has helped strengthen my relationship with Jesus tremendously (shout out to The Gentlemen of Sunday Night).
-Sometimes the motivation isn’t there. There have been countless occasions where going to the gym is the furthest thing from what I want to do, just as there have been days when following Jesus has seemed to inconvenience my daily life. As many of us can relate to, once we actually get up and go to the gym on these days, it’s not that bad; and we feel so accomplished after. The same goes for making the tough decisions regarding following Jesus. It may seem inconvenient and be the exact opposite of what our flesh wants to do, but in the end we know it’s the (spiritually) healthy option.
-The more we use our muscle(s), the stronger they become. This is seemingly obvious, but I found myself unfortunately impressed with how easily I overlooked this fact of life. You don’t add an extra plate to your bench after the first time you work out just like you don’t wake up a changed person right after you commit to following Jesus. In regards to both, it’s a step in the right direction that will take consistent discipline and incorporation of everything mentioned above to achieve the desired results.
-Finally-it’s never too late. Just as someone that is extremely out of shape may feel overwhelmed by the thought of the gym and convince themselves that there’s no way they can undo the damage that has been done, those of us who have lived against Jesus’ teachings can feel hopeless as we consider the thought of getting “spiritually in shape”. Yes, some of us might have more obstacles to overcome and more habits to break than others, but there’s certainly never a point of no return.
All in all:
Similar to working out, following Jesus takes time, consistency and discipline before we start seeing the results we want. Just like eating a Twinkie every day won’t help us get that summer bod we so badly desire, continuing to live against the teachings of Jesus won’t help us achieve our spiritual health goals either.
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