
In the past year I have been working out pretty faithfully, and I am happy with the results. I'm no Hugh Jackman, but I've gained a considerable amount of muscle compared with what I had 4 years ago. I'm about 185 lbs today while I was about 165 my sophmore year, and much of it is muscle. It feels good, but if you know anything about building mass with a work out program, you know that in order to gain muscle
you must gain a percentage of fat along with it. This is called the "bulking phase" of a workout plan. You eat a ton of protein and food and lift a ton of weight to stimulate muscle growth. Once you've gained a significant amount, you enter the "Cutting Phase." This is the phase that involves a lot of cardio to shed all of those excess fat cells that came with the muscle. The result is a healthy, lean muscular look.
I think a similar principle can be applied to our spiritual growth. God takes us through seasons that give us extraordinary insight into His Word, whether it be through a sermon series or a Bible class or a good book. We grow immensely, but along with our spiritual muscle comes excess fat or bad theology. While these pounds were probably necessary at the time to allow us to grow comfortably, you know that you'll be better off if you burn that fat.
My college years served to enlighten my mind to the Christian's role in God's plan. This past year has expanded my awareness of the Lord's role in His mission on this earth. I've concluded that the Lord is so powerful and so worthy of our trust that there is little reason to worry about personal inadequacies with regards to serving Him. Also, I've learned to silence the voice in my mind that tries to make me feel guilty when I've done nothing wrong. Even better I've removed many idols from my life, including ones that were occupying the high places. This is all good, spiritual muscle.
Yet along with that growth has come with some false ideas. I've learned to rely on the Lord so much that I might be losing sight of what he may be waiting for ME to do. In previous posts, I've talked a bunch about having a willingness to do nothing and replace our ambition with faith. This is all well and good, but when the Lord calls you to actually DO SOMETHING, you should have no argument.
Needless to say, I believe the Lord has recently challenged me to start a cutting phase: the depression has got to go.
I've allowed myself to live life in an attitudinal rut for quite a while now (especially at work), and just recently I've seen that it is all my fault. I've allowed self-pity to sneak in to my life. When I should be exhibiting Christ to people around me, I've been acting like a sissy girl about my circumstances. That evidences a lack of faith, and communicates a false message that our attitudes should be subject to our feelings. My life has been preaching a false gospel.
No one can control their feelings, but we can control how we respond to those feelings, and I have let my feelings run me right over. Though Jesus was a man well aquainted with the sorrows of life, I do not believe he was the unrelenting downer of every group he found himself in. At some point we have to rise up against our feelings and take responsibility for our attitudes.
Enough with the whining. No more complaining. I have been reminded that I alone hold the keys to my spiritual vitality. God's not going to appear in front of me and do some kind of dance to jar me from my grouchiness. It is completely up to me how I respond to my circumstances, and I feel that I will not make it to the next step until I learn that every day is a gift and should be lived to its fullest potential.
The thing about cardio is you just have to do it. Don't think about it, just start running. Get on that stair stepper and start sweating! Like Nike says...
Just Do It. Perhaps this will serve as a fitting theme to the next couple of months for me to shed this fat.