Challenges

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

Reading: Genesis 3:1-13

The annual CrossFit Open finished up last month. Athletes around the world all competed by doing the same workouts in their respective gyms over a three-week span. This year’s final workout included wall-walks. Wall-walks are particularly challenging for me. With a chronic low-grade lower back inflammation along with always-tight shoulders, getting flexible enough to do a good wall-walk is very hard for me. So, I did the scaled option that enabled me to modify some of this workout. My (younger and much fitter) friend David counted my reps and kept an eye on the clock during my workout.

To be honest, I didn’t do very well in the workout. I traveled the prior week. Not only did I skip my training while on the road, my eating and sleep habits were less than ideal. As a result, my performance had a few extra challenges.

My friend David didn’t care about my challenges And yet, David – and the rest of the athletes who had gone earlier and were now cheering for me – didn’t focus on my unexpected challenges. They cheered for me as I accomplished what work I could.

This reminded me of what a healthy fitness community is all about: encouragement and support. David saw my lack of conditioning yet remained encouraging about what I could do, not what I couldn’t do. He and my fellow athletes all do this with one another: we accept each other where we are and challenge one another to move forward.

If I’m being honest, there are times I “shave” some of my workouts. A 30-second hang becomes a 27-second hang. 12 calories on the assault bike ends up being 10.5 calories. 15 kettlebell swings turn into 14 kettlebell swings. But during this Open workout, I had another challenge – David. He was right there, counting and timing. No “shaving” allowed. Sometimes the challenge is not just what you do, it’s also what you hide from doing.

“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’” – Genesis 3:8-10, ESV

In Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve miss the mark. Their choices are driven by their own selfish wants and desires which went against the grain of God. We call this sin. God’s first response to Adam and Eve was not, “What did you do?” – Instead, it was, “Where are you?” - while their actions were wrong, their hiddenness was what God challenged.

Our human nature presents challenges.

If you look closely at Jesus and the people He interacted with, you’ll see He spent a lot of time with sinners and the less-desirable elements of ancient Jewish society. Jesus embraced their challenges and loved them as they were. The people who frustrated Him who those who hid their sin behind big titles or self-righteousness. God knows that sometimes your choices can be a challenge for you. But He doesn’t let those choices define you. Rather, through a process of confession and repentance, He uses those choices to refine you.

In a healthy culture, like the one in my gym, the same process happens. When I choose to do things like eat poorly or train inconsistently, I don’t have to hide those choices out of fear of shame or guilt or persecution. Instead, I confess them to my coach and my friends where I’m met with love and accepted as I am. Over time, I may make better choices and be celebrated for the results. But the encouragement and support, the love, remains consistent even when I don’t choose what’s best for me. Don’t let the weight of your poor choices define you. Allow the love of God to work through those choices to refine you. That’s the real challenge.

Questions for reflection: Where have you tried to cut corners at times?

Where do you need to be more honest with yourself?

What’s keeping you from transparency with God?

Against the grain

Spiritual Training Cycle: Examination (wk. 2/13)

Reading: Genesis 4:1-12

“Don’t round your back.” “Keep your core engaged.” “Shoulders down and back.” It may take a few classes before these cues get stuck in your head. As coaches, we say them repeatedly. Despite what you may think, it’s not because we’re trying to make your workout harder (that’s what burpees are for). We say them because your body is designed to move and behave in a certain way.

The dangerous thing is that your body can do all sorts of movements without proper or safe form. You can deadlift 300 lbs. with a rounded back. You can roll your shoulders forward, kipping away at pull-ups. The problem is that you can be successful doing the right thing the wrong way for a long time. But eventually, it will catch up with you. Out of nowhere, it seems, your elbow starts to ache, your shoulders are stiffer, or you’re getting an MRI on your spine. These are signs that your body is moving against the grain.

Our souls work the same way. There is a way God has shaped our soul and sin moves against that design.

Take Cain, a simple farmer and one of the first humans. He and his brother, Abel, both make sacrifices and offerings to God. God accepts Abel’s but not Cain’s. We don’t know why God rejects Cain’s sacrifice, but Cain does. Apparently, there was a right way of doing the right thing, yet Cain rejected that. He wanted the reward without following the process. God warns Cain that sin wants to destroy him. Instead of choosing to do the right thing the right way, he has another idea. If his brother were out of the picture, then God would have no choice but to accept him. Cain gives in; he chooses what he thinks is the easy way. Abel dies, Cain is cursed, and sin wins. Sin is moving against the grain of your soul.

If you’re like me, you want to have meaningful relationships with the people that matter most to you. When those relationships are threatened, our tendency might be to lie – often to protect the relationship.

For example, sometimes we lie about our needs. We pretend our needs are being met when deep down there’s a fear of being rejected. We can also lie about something unhealthy in us. Buried feelings become secrets, and instead of a relationship built on trust, lying wrecks the relationship rather than protecting it. Like rounding your back in the deadlift – you’re pushing yourself further from your goal and going against the grain.

Going against the grain can take on other forms. Like when we turn to money or an inappropriate relationship to make us happy. When we put others down to lift ourselves up. When we deceive to protect our image or our anxiety. When we cheat to get ahead and hoard our extras so that we can feel secure. Happiness, esteem, protection, security… this is what the Bible calls shalom. It is the sum of our ultimate desires because it is how we are designed.

But your soul is designed to find shalom with God. Sin is seeking shalom apart from God. Your soul is designed to receive blessings. Sin is trying to take blessings by force.

When we zoom out wide enough, we see that all our moves against the grain are selfish pursuits of happiness, love, significance, security, or peace. Opening that browser to the wrong website, gossiping about those down on their luck, overeating or over-drinking, cheating to get ahead – all of it, in some way, is the pursuit of shalom. But it is not God’s plan for shalom. And it is not how your soul was designed. Like rolling those shoulders forward, the short-term gain becomes a long-term problem.

Here’s the good news, God has grace for us. Not just forgiving bad choices, but grace to teach us new ways to handle life. New ways to pursue shalom. So much of following Jesus is learning to move the way your soul is designed. You’ll never have the ultimate satisfaction you desire in life when you find yourself moving against the grain.

Questions for Reflection:

Do you see shalom as the goal of your selfishness?

When has selfishness become the obstacle for what you most desire?

Where do you feel God’s grace teaching you to move the way your soul was designed to move?

Movement Pattern

Spiritual Training Cycle: Examination (wk. 1/13)

Reading: 1 John 1:1-10

In the Fall of 2009, I flipped over the handlebars of my road bike and hit the pavement at just under 30 miles per hour. By the time the dust had settled and the EMT arrived, it was clear I was injured. Later that morning the ER doc broke the news: I had a grade three A/C joint separation in my left shoulder. After determining surgery was not mandatory, I set my rehab plan in motion, beginning work with a good chiropractor. He introduced me to an exercise I had never heard of – the spider walk. My job was to touch the wall with my left fingers and then “walk” them up the wall until I felt pain. Then I would “walk” them back down again. Six inches into my first spider walk I cried out in pain and dropped my arm. My doc said, “Ok, there’s the start of your movement pattern.”

If you’ve ever had to deal with an injury, then you know the importance of a movement pattern. When the body is in stress or pain, it will restrict movement to reduce either one. And while that sounds like a good thing, if you work within that reduced movement pattern too long, it becomes THE movement pattern. In other words, if I didn’t get to moving my shoulder, I could be stuck with a long-term limitation. My shoulder needed to be pushed beyond what was comfortable to restore itself fully and regain its movement pattern.

Not only do we have physical movement patterns, but we also have spiritual movement patterns. Humanity has a deep intrinsic need to be connected to God. But our movement pattern toward Him is limited by a selfish and self-serving set of desires inside each of us. When our choices are driven by those desires, our connection to God is limited by sin.

Now don’t change the channel yet. Stick with me and give me some room to explain. Sin has been defined by many in the religious world as this awful thing you do that you shouldn’t do. You know, like when you murder someone or cheat on a spouse or spend money to buy a bunch of stuff to impress people you don’t even like. Surely that’s not you, right? And based on definitions like those, we end up convinced we don’t sin because we don’t do terrible, awful things. But that’s not what sin is.

The simplest definition of sin is missing the mark. For example, if you had the opportunity to say something encouraging and you didn’t, you missed the mark. That’s sin. But simple definitions often lack context, so let’s put some in there. The reason sin misses the mark is because it’s against the movement pattern of God. When you act out of emotions such as jealousy, envy, anger, arrogance, pride, or lust, you limit your full potential to be connected to God and to others. And like my injury on the bike, if you’ve been operating this way for any length of time, you’ve got a deeply ingrained limited movement pattern. A pattern you can’t fix on your own. You can try to stop these things, but eventually they come back.

You can’t fix you – only God can.

Easter is a time of year when it seems like many people are thinking about God. Even those who don’t consider themselves religious often show up to a church brought by a family member or friend. They don’t show up because they want religion. And neither do I honestly. They show up because they want connection. They want to feel connected to God. They want to be connected to their true mission and purpose in life. Maybe you do too. If you want a deeper connection to God and a richer, fuller life, the great news is that Jesus can change your spiritual movement pattern. He can bear the weight of your jealousy, your rage, your selfishness, your ego, your worry, your addiction, He can bear the weight of all the marks you miss – all of your sin. He can restore your connection to God. Don’t let a life of missing the mark define who you are in this world. Instead give your life to Jesus and let Him show you who you really are.

Questions for Reflection:

What limits your connection to God?

What does God’s freedom from sin feel like?