Godly Advice from the Gym

You can't tell it by looking at me but I work out. Really! I'm not kidding. You may find it even more amusing if you learned that one of my work out partners is Paul Rambaeu. If you do not know Paul, let's just say that he looks like he belongs in a gym. I look like I should be going around asking folks if I can collect their towels for them.

Paul being the more experienced between us played the role of "trainer". As trainer one of his jobs was to spout out motivational sayings, most of which sound pretty stupid anywhere but the gym. There was one exception. Paul always coached to "go to failure". Going to failure simply means that you continue doing repetitions of a certain weight until you hit a point that you actually can not complete the rep. At that point you have gone to failure. Going to failure actually tears down the muscle so that as it heals it grows back stronger and bigger.

I think God has been shouting the same advice in my ear for a long time. What would it look like in my spiritual life if I "went to failure" with my faith? What would it look like if I stepped out on my faith so far that success was clearly dependent on God? Too often I stay well within in the safe boundries of my faith, never exercising certain spiritual muscles.

When Paul (the apostle, not my muscle bound friend) writes "I can do all things through him that gives me strength," he is not writing from the corner office of success. He is writing from prison. Paul was not afraid to "go to failure" with his faith. He stepped out so far that he was bound to fail, at least fail as most of us would define it. It is clear that each time Paul was knocked down, beat up, or put away God was healing him stronger for the next challenge.

So Paul (my buddy) thanks for challenging me to "go to failure". I pray to step out in bold ways and involve my energies in things that are bound to fail outside of God's power. But fail or not I am convinced that God is calling us all to live life at a level far above anything we dreamed about or imagined was even possible.

See ya in the gym!
Can I get you a towel?
Scott