When I go to the gym, I usually go in the afternoons because nobody is there. Granted, there are a few people, but they’re usually the less annoying ones, the ones that don’t flex their muscles in front of the mirror. Those guys just annoy me. Seriously – if a person cares so much about their body image that they’re looking in the mirror during their entire workout, flexing their muscles for more than five minutes at a time, and then walking around with their chest puffed up and a cheesy grin on their face, then I think they have some serious issues.
If you have so much pride in yourself because you look aesthetically pleasing, you need to go sit with the Lord for a while and ask the tough questions.
Thankfully, what I really want to say has nothing to do with body image. It has to do with spiritual image. I think I just got on a tangent for a minute, ran with it, and I’m going to leave it. If those first two paragraphs up there hit home – good.
But I went to the gym yesterday afternoon and worked out a little bit. Sometimes it’s hard for me to go to the gym because I don’t care much for the ‘gym smell’… and the people who flex their muscles with pride. So I’m going about my thing when I notice one of my friends in there, Rusty Jackson.
After I had been doing ab crunches and stuff, trying to strengthen my core because I’ve noticed that it helps with my back problems, I walked over to the dumbbells so I could do some shoulder exercises. Rusty was over there so I figured I would squeeze in a good talk with him while doing so.
I walked over there and just said, “what’s up,” you know… the traditional guy phrase for initiating conversation. It allows us to feel the other out. If there’s hesitancy in the response, you know that the other dude just doesn’t really want to talk. Thankfully, there was no hesitation in Rusty’s response. We started lifting our weights when he looked at me and said, “dude – your spirit’s looking strong!”
And quite honestly, what he said caught me by surprise.
He continued, “Yeah man. You’re looking really good. You just got thru a difficult time or something and it made you stronger, didn’t it? You’re walking with more confidence and strength. I like that. I noticed it.”
To spare you of details, I had just gone through some inner turmoil that lasted about two weeks. I feel great now, and quite honestly, stronger in a spiritual sense. Rusty confirmed that for me.
And so I think I like going to the gym. Not only is it a place that I can build myself up physically, but it’s someplace that I’m also sharpened spiritually.
I like having brothers like Rusty scattered all over this town. You never know what you’re going to run into.
