Minimal Equipment

Spiritual Training Cycle: Submission (wk. 5/13)

Reading: Psalm 116:1-7

The evolution of an athlete’s fitness journey can often be seen by one essential, yet basic item – their gym bag. In the sport I train in, CrossFit, the starting point is no bag at all. Who needs a bag when you walk into a community fitness gym full of bright, shiny toys? But then it begins. Usually with a jump rope. Next thing you know, you’re schlepping a rope, a belt, and some tape – plus that water bottle!

The bag simplifies our life. Or does it? All those little compartments and pockets in your bag are like sirens calling out, “Fill me.” “Buy more stuff and put it in here.” Before long, you are a portable gym. You then pass through the phase where you’ve got every gadget plus extras to share. Knee sleeves, wrist wraps, headbands, Thera gun, lifting shoes, mobility tools. Someone stop the madness!

Then one day an epiphany. You realize you don’t need all this stuff. You think back to the beginning when it was you and a rope. And maybe some tape. The evolution of the gym bag is like the evolution of life. We learn that we are most fulfilled with minimal equipment.

This is how I want you to approach the spiritual exercise of simplicity. Simplicity is letting go of unnecessary complexities and distractions in order to deepen your connection to God. It is the art of returning to the simple life, learning to rest in the Lord and find joy there. Simplicity gives you the freedom to live in the here and the now.

Simplicity gives you the freedom to live in the here and the now.

In physical fitness training, sometimes equipment is unnecessary. Other times, it’s distracting. Walk into any large commercial gym and you’ll see. Planet Fitness, for example, offers its members over 20 different machines. Just machines. Next time you’re there, be sure to get a few sets on the angled leg curl machine. Now, do I think you can get in a quality workout in a gym like that? For sure. But you’ve got to navigate a lot of stuff and you must know what you’re doing.

You also need to realize gyms like that, perhaps without meaning to, feed the mindset that, “new is better.” When the latest machine hits the floor, so does the post on social media. And the trigger in your brain telling you to go try it simply because it’s new develops the unhealthy habit of always wanting the latest and greatest. As Morgan Wallen reminds us, “I don’t think Jesus done it that way.”

The gym is an illustration of life. Simplicity is the process of letting go and letting God. The first step is, well, simple. Identify the things in your life that are unnecessary or distracting. To do that, you’ll need a clear set of priorities. Once identified, you then begin the process of removal. For some people, it’s activities. I know parents who masterplan their lives around their children. From dance to horseback riding to sports to hobbies, life becomes a complicated and convoluted mess. Time to simplify.

For others, it’s possessions. A 2023 GMC Yukon Denali SUV is great. It also starts at over $80k. Just because you can afford it doesn’t mean you can afford it. Like it or not, vehicles are status symbols. The display of wealth through possessions is death by a thousand cuts. And wealthy parents feed this unhealthy habit to their kids. I know this is the culture we live in. I’m just asking you to ask yourself this, “Is _______ necessary and does it deepen my connection to God?” If not, time to simplify.

Full confession. I own a gym bag. And it has everything in it I listed earlier. All that stuff is in my bag. But not for long. I’m going to dump it out and ask myself if I really need it. If not, I’m giving it away. My challenge is to do that with your life. Engage in the spiritual exercise of simplicity and return to resting in God. The secret to a great life is to live it with minimal equipment.

Questions for Reflection:

What distracts and preoccupies your life?

How could you create more space in your life to love and serve God?

Winning the battle

Spiritual Training Cycle: Submission (wk. 4/13)

Reading: Luke 8:4-15

In life, we can’t stop the battles from coming, but we can prepare ourselves for when they do. For example, the battles we fight for our physical health can include weight gain or weight loss, chronic diseases such as diabetes or high blood pressure, or our mental state including stress and anxiety. To fight these battles, we must be consistent in our pursuit of fitness, develop and maintain healthy nutrition habits, get adequate sleep, drink enough water, and follow a routine schedule of physical exercise. Pursue these long enough and results will follow. One day when the doctor discontinues your blood pressure medication or you feel more confident in your clothes, you might say to yourself, “I wish I had started this sooner.”

However, it’s much harder to win the battles we face when we are caught right in the middle of them. Instead of preparing for the battle, we panic. Maybe you’ve been through a battle to lose weight. After you reached your goal, what did you do when war time was over and it was suddenly peace time? If you ditched the meal plan, ignored healthy habits, or skipped going to the gym, when the cake and cookies come calling again, you won’t be ready for the fight.

In life, the battle is always changing. Are you prepared when work gets slammed, and your job battles with your family commitments? Are you ready to go back to the gym after an injury? It’s in times of peace you need to make the necessary adjustments for the future battles to come. Simply put, what you plant today is what you reap tomorrow.

In the same way that fitness is a hedge in the battle against our physical health, the Word of God is a hedge in the battle against our flesh. The flesh is the set of internal desires that seek to limit our connection to God. When you are vulnerable to attack by the flesh, you seek only what feels good, looks good, and pleases you (Galatians 5:19-21). This puts your life at risk. Just like your health is at risk if you mainly eat processed foods or spend most of your time on the couch or in an office chair, your relationship with God is at risk too. Those self-serving, self-preserving desires inside you can leave you permanently disconnected from God. That’s why we need help winning the battle.

In Luke Chapter 8, Jesus tells a story to a large crowd of people to illustrate how God’s Word helps us. It’s a parable about a farmer who went out to sow seed. As the story goes, the seed would one day mature and grow depending on the condition of the ground where it landed. All the seeds started well, but not all took root. Have you ever started well but ended poorly? Did you lose 10 pounds only to regain 15? Maybe you deleted social media only to reload it weeks later and binge away. Sometimes in life the fitness and health seeds you plant don’t take root. After enough times of not seeing the results you want, you might be tempted to quit. But don't give up. Keep planting seeds.

If fitness is the seed we cultivate for our physical health, God’s Word is the seed that needs the right soil to cultivate our spiritual health. Jesus later explained to His disciples that the soil of our soul should hold God’s Word patiently with an honest and open heart. In other words, Jesus nourishes our soul.

When we open our heart, allowing God to nourish our soul, over time we are transformed from the inside out by the work of the Holy Spirit. We need God’s word to nourish us at all times. Why? Because our flesh is always ready for a fight. Especially in peacetime!

No matter where you are in the battle, be nourished by the Word of God as He directs your steps and helps you in the fight against the flesh. Jesus died so you would never have to fight these battles alone. In the midst of your battles, you can come to Jesus. Through His power, you’ll find new strength as He nourishes the soil of your soul.

Questions for Reflection:

What battle is God winning for you right now? Where could you use His help?

What does a nourished soul look like?

Limits

Spiritual Training Cycle: Submission (wk. 3/13)

Reading: 1 Timothy 4:7-16

“Murph” – if you’re a CrossFit athlete, you know this workout, and probably both look forward to it and dread it: a one-mile run followed by 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air squats, followed by another one-mile run. If you’re experienced, you can do the workout while wearing body armor or a weighted vest. While this workout is well-known in the CrossFit community, no matter what athletic community you belong to, you know – the toughest workouts require you to face physical and mental challenges designed to push you to your limits.

What’s a limit? It’s the outer boundary or edge of something. Some limits are fixed while others are fluid. For example, the edge of the cliff at the Grand Canyon is fixed. You go too far and despite what you want, gravity is taking over. The limits of fitness, by contrast, are fluid. The goal of exercise is to eventually push an athlete beyond their current limits. When that happens, the body’s physiology adapts, the brain exchanges fear for confidence, and new limits are formed. The journey to new limits is all about progress.

When it comes to our spiritual life, we have limits too. We have a set of internal desires that seek to limit our connection to God. Scripture refers to this as, “the flesh.” And while many people think the problem with fleshly desires is that they have no limits, that’s not always the case. Our internal desire for self-preservation works the opposite way. It imposes artificial limits through the unhealthy production of excess fear.

Fear can be a limiter. It can be paralyzing. Fear can also trigger a whole host of fleshly emotions like inadequacy, insecurity, and anxiety. Think about how these show up in your fitness journey. Sometimes all it takes is thinking about a breakthrough to have a breakdown. Why do you think so many sedentary people remain that way? Do you think seat-belt extenders on an airplane is what someone dreamt of as a child? No. But the overindulgence of food combined with the insecurity of body image, or the fear of ridicule, or the thoughts of inadequacy compared to others stopped everything dead on the tracks. Limits choke off life as they tighten. All someone needs to reverse the process is momentum. And momentum starts with progress.

Just move. Just lift. Just try. Just get out there and go for it. Progress pushes past the limits. And the beautiful thing is that progress is different for everyone. Some athletes do ring rows in Murph instead of pull-ups. That’s progress. Some athletes completed Murph in under 45 minutes last year so this year they wear a weighted vest. That’s progress. But that progress isn’t only having an effect on the physical body. It’s also battling the paralyzing side of the flesh. It’s showing us what’s truly possible.

That’s what the Apostle Paul wanted for a Pastor named Timothy. Timothy was thrust into a difficult situation and asked to lead. He had his own feelings of inadequacy and probably, like many of us, wondered if he had reached his limit. But his spiritual coach, Paul, knew that more was possible. And so rather than give some rah-rah speech, Paul told Timothy to get to work. To make some progress. To set an example.

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example to the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and purity. 1 Timothy 4:12

Paul wanted Timothy to push past his limits. To be an example to others in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and purity. In other words, just do something. Make some progress. Don’t talk about it – be about it. Paul wanted the church to see Timothy’s progress and he wanted Timothy’s progress to build his perseverance.

Think about it. Every time you take on a tough workout, every time you pick up a heavy barbell, every time you give it everything you have, you build perseverance. The fear that once held you back doesn’t hold you anymore. Progress builds perseverance. So, what progress do you need to make? In other words, what fear, or fears, are limiting you? Maybe you need to pray out loud for other people. Maybe you need to stop waiting for the right moment to step out – the moment is now! The battle to overcome our internal desires is not about control. It’s about letting go of control. God is shaping and forming you in the midst of everything life is bringing your way. And He’s taking you to new limits.

Questions for Reflection:

How do your internal set of desires affect your physical fitness journey? Do they hold you back or propel you forward?

How could your journey of spiritual progress inspire others? What would you want them to know?