I wrote these words a month or so ago, but they seemed fitting to share in the midst of New Year resolutions. I hope that you find encouragement in whatever your circumstances may be:
It has taken me years to realize, most of my life actually, this one point: the disciplines of the physical body are profoundly spiritual. When I started a little over a year ago on the mission to get fit, it didn't occur to me. I did the things I was supposed to do: eat right (or at least, increasingly better than I had) and exercise. The weight started to come off while the muscle began to become stronger, more defined. A couple of months of progress, and then it seemed like nothing was happening at all. No matter how hard I tried in my own strength to make something happen, I couldn't do it. I couldn't will that scale to budge, or anything else for that matter.
As I walked through this journey throughout the last 16 months or so, I realized that the road to becoming fit parallels a journey of faith. It takes a million small moments, a million small decisions, to walk faithfully with the Lord. Having faith doesn't come out of nowhere, only showing up in the big moments or decisions we have to make; it's practiced in the quiet, everyday moments of our lives. And so, I have come to realize, is any discipline worth having. It is the sum of those everyday moments and decisions that ends up defining what we become.
There was a point awhile back when I said to myself: I wish I could just choose to wake up today and be thinner and fit and exactly where I want to end up. I wouldn't say no if it happened, but the reality it, the growth comes in the process. It's in those hard moments, the struggle, the place where hope seems futile, that God meets me. He sees my need, He knows me intimately, and He cares about me deeply. And, most of all, He will never abandon me. But He used those moments I wish would go away to strengthen the roots of my faith, to give me a deeper knowledge of Him that I otherwise would not have known.
So, in the struggle, in the midst, I have decided that it doesn't matter how long it takes. I don't need to wake up tomorrow and have met all of my goals. The journey is not merely physical, but deeply rooted in my spiritual growth. Oh, that He might change me through and through.
And so, on mornings like this January one, when all I want to do is continue sleeping when my early morning alarm goes off, I make myself get up and run. I decided to set a goal for 2016: to run 1,000 miles. And, well, those miles aren't going to run themselves.
It has taken me years to realize, most of my life actually, this one point: the disciplines of the physical body are profoundly spiritual. When I started a little over a year ago on the mission to get fit, it didn't occur to me. I did the things I was supposed to do: eat right (or at least, increasingly better than I had) and exercise. The weight started to come off while the muscle began to become stronger, more defined. A couple of months of progress, and then it seemed like nothing was happening at all. No matter how hard I tried in my own strength to make something happen, I couldn't do it. I couldn't will that scale to budge, or anything else for that matter.
As I walked through this journey throughout the last 16 months or so, I realized that the road to becoming fit parallels a journey of faith. It takes a million small moments, a million small decisions, to walk faithfully with the Lord. Having faith doesn't come out of nowhere, only showing up in the big moments or decisions we have to make; it's practiced in the quiet, everyday moments of our lives. And so, I have come to realize, is any discipline worth having. It is the sum of those everyday moments and decisions that ends up defining what we become.
There was a point awhile back when I said to myself: I wish I could just choose to wake up today and be thinner and fit and exactly where I want to end up. I wouldn't say no if it happened, but the reality it, the growth comes in the process. It's in those hard moments, the struggle, the place where hope seems futile, that God meets me. He sees my need, He knows me intimately, and He cares about me deeply. And, most of all, He will never abandon me. But He used those moments I wish would go away to strengthen the roots of my faith, to give me a deeper knowledge of Him that I otherwise would not have known.
So, in the struggle, in the midst, I have decided that it doesn't matter how long it takes. I don't need to wake up tomorrow and have met all of my goals. The journey is not merely physical, but deeply rooted in my spiritual growth. Oh, that He might change me through and through.
And so, on mornings like this January one, when all I want to do is continue sleeping when my early morning alarm goes off, I make myself get up and run. I decided to set a goal for 2016: to run 1,000 miles. And, well, those miles aren't going to run themselves.
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