The Gym and Jesus

For a while now I have felt out of shape, and I knew that there was no reason that Jeff should be throwing his disc farther than me in disc golf other than the fact that I had not maintained that all cherished high-school fit body that I once had.  So, a few weeks ago I joined the local gym.  Since I started going I have felt great.  Full of energy, and all of that good stuff.  I have been going pretty regularly, but I have reached that point that everyone does in their attempt at physical fitness.  You know the feeling.  When the initial fun of “loosing weight to look and feel great” give way to the “man this getting up before the sun to beat up my body is getting old” attitude.

I was thinking.  The gym is a lot like church.  Or, more accurately, getting in shape physically is a lot like the Christian life.  Think about it.  Everybody knows the consequences of living an unfit and lazy life.  The evidence is all around us.  It is clear that eating too much, or not the right things, or filling your body with drugs or alcohol will kill you.  From ER to Grey’s Anatomy to House we see the evidence of what slacking off physically can do.  The evidence is clear, your body will continue to age and as it does you will become weaker and weaker until the day that you finally breath your last.

The interesting thing though is that whatever causes you to breathe that last breath, doesn’t matter.  At that point it doesn’t matter how often you went to the gym or how many twinkies you ate, because at that moment, when you die, the only thing that matters is what you did with the evidence of Christ.  All of the book smarts about healthy eating, and all of the power bars and all of those miles ran don’t make a difference to Jesus.

Just like needing to be physically fit, people everywhere know that they need a savior.  They know that something is lacking in their lives.  It’s a void that all of the money, sex, and power in the world cannot fill.  And people feel that.  They feel the hopelessness that an unfit spiritual life consists of.  And people, in general, and especially in our culture know the name of Jesus, know what sin is and know that they need something that they don’t have.  And for those that don’t know this, it is the responsibility of those who Jesus to teach and show people who Jesus is and why they need Him.

One of the problems though with this metaphor is that everyone has a different idea of what it means to be fit and how to get there.  Wether it’s carbs, cals, or cardio, everyone’s got an idea.  And to get yourself fit, the how isn’t too important.  In other words, in the physical world, it doesn’t matter who you believe or what route you decide to go, just do it and get in shape.

The same is not true for your spiritual life.  Yes, there are many different ideas out there and many different “ways”, but only one matters.  Spiritual life is not like picking your diet.  You don’t have a bunch of different choices to pick from, just one.  Do you do it Jesus’ way or not?  All of the smarts and all of the scholars in the world could come up with millions of “logical” ways to do it, but if isn’t just a retelling of God’s way, it is wrong.

There is only one way to deal with the fact that one day you will die and that apart from Christ there is nothing but hell to pay.  Living like Jesus through the power of Jesus for the glory of Jesus is what life is all about.  Life, physically and spiritually, begins with Jesus.  But without Jesus there is no spiritual life.  A man can run a marathon in record breaking form and smile for the cameras and accept his crown, but without Jesus, that life that he shows is nothing.  He is but a dead man walking or running or smiling or whatever else it is that he does to feel alive.  Without Jesus life is death.

So at some point in your life the message has got to impact your life to change.  Physically you’ve got to commit yourself to lifelong fitness and spiritually you’ve got to commit yourself to living for Jesus.

And, like the gym, living for Jesus is hard.  Faith seems so easy at first.  It feels so new and fresh that you can never imagine coming down from that new believer high.  But two months later when you loose your job or run into a new hardship that you never faced as an unbeliever reality begins to set in.  Spiritual life isn’t as easy as you once thought.  When many people become Christians they think that all of their problems will be solved in an instant and that life will be nothing but good news and greater living.  And as time goes by, without the proper (spiritually) healthy living, the feeling that you once had as a new Christian can grow distant.  And when put up against the reality of life and the sin of the world, faith can begin to crumble.

Like committing yourself to becoming physically fit, committing yourself to Jesus is full of challenges and trials.  It is filled with great moments, and it is filled with moments of utter exhaustion and doubt about the future.  Sometimes being a Christian is an act of great love to be near God and sometimes it is more an act of the will.  Sometimes it’s easy to get up before the sun to help out at church and sometimes it is the hardest thing that you can do.

But it’s worth it.  It always is.  No matter how hard you have to fight yourself to get up out of that comfortable bed, to go to the gym, or to go to church, it is always worth it.  Sometimes you have to make yourself do what your lazy body doesn’t want to in order to enjoy the things that God has for you.

But getting up doesn’t mean that you’ve done everything that you needed to.  For example, my gym has plasma TVs all over the place.  It has a spa and a cafe.  It is In fact everything that you could ever want in a gym, or everything you could possibly want to keep you busy why others think you are working out.  But just because it has all of the amenities and has a bunch of people getting fit doesn’t mean that you are working out.  Just because everyone around you might be getting in shape doesn’t mean that you are.  Just like church.

Just because there are people around you worshipping, doesn’t mean you are.  And just because you go to church doesn’t mean you go for Jesus.  It is entirely possible to go to church and miss Jesus for the amenities of the service.

The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 4:8 that “physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

I encourage you, as I do myself, to be committed to your spiritual health.  Don’t slack on God.  No matter what you do physically, you are going to die, and when you do, you will meet the God of everything.  And nothing matters but Jesus at that point.  So, yes, be healthy.  Be fit.  But remember you are going to die physically one day, but spiritual life is forever.  Don’t slack on your spiritual health.  Live for the One who offers the fountain of living waters, through life with Him, so that you will never thirst for unfulfilling things again.