Unbroken

Spiritual Training Cycle: Foundation (wk. 13/13)

Reading: Luke 15:11-24

When you first start CrossFit, it feels like the goal is simply to survive. But after a few months in the gym, as your fitness starts to improve, survival gives way to new opportunities. And one of those is doing the workout as prescribed, known in the CrossFit culture as ‘RX.’ For me, ‘RXing’ a workout is the feeling that my fitness has arrived. But beyond RX lies one even more elusive goal – completing a workout unbroken.

Unbroken means that you did all the reps without breaking your form or resting. Movement after movement, you just kept going – unfazed by the tasks set in front of you. I think in some way we all aspire to move through our workouts unbroken.

There is a curious little story that Jesus tells in the book of Luke, about a father and son. One day the son says to the father, ‘I wish you were already dead so that I could take my share of the inheritance and go live my life my way.’ For some reason, the father agrees, and the son sets out to distant lands to live his life his way. Eventually, he finds an ancient version of Las Vegas and starts living it up, from bottle service to Rolex and everything in between. The money runs out (it always does), and he finds himself broke and broken. He gets a job slopping pigs (the grossest job imaginable for a Jew).

It is here he has an awakening, “Even the servants in my father’s house have it better than I do. Maybe if I beg, my father will hire me to feed his animals.” He returns home, broke and broken.

A good distance off, the father is scanning the horizon – looking for a shape, a gait, a sign that his son is coming home. Suddenly dust appears on the horizon, along with a skinny silhouette. It is his son. The father runs. The wealthy, dignified, respectable old man cuts loose. He wraps his son in his arms, calls for clothes and dignity to be restored to his boy – brings him home, and throws a party.

The father’s love was unbroken. The Father’s love goes unbroken.

The boy’s selfishness, disrespect, and poor choices never fazed his father’s love. And it doesn’t faze God’s love either. As Romans 5:8 says, God demonstrates His own love for us that, while we were still selfish, prideful jerks living our lives our way, Christ died. God’s love goes unbroken.

Your poor choices, your doubts, your guilt, or your regret cannot break God’s love for you.

If you never believe, God will still love you.

If you never get your life straight, God still waits for you.

If you do worse, God doesn’t stop caring for you.

If you throw it all away, God doesn’t throw you away.

God’s love stays unbroken…even to the point of death. The cross couldn’t break God’s love, and the grave couldn’t hold it. So, the next time your Coach says, ‘try to go unbroken,’ may you recall the unbroken love of God.

Questions for Reflection:

When have you felt the love of God?

What are some of the habits, behaviors, and beliefs you think make someone unlovable?

What are some of the distant lands in your life you need to abandon so you can return to love?

Potential

Spiritual Training Cycle: Foundation (wk. 12/13)

Reading: Luke 19:1-10

Ring rows can be pretty easy. Depending on where you place your feet when you stand in front of the rings, they can be as simple as leaning back and then pulling forward while holding on to a ring in each hand. Ring rows can be pretty easy.

Ring rows are also the beginning to mastering one of the more challenging exercises in CrossFit, the Muscle-Up. Easy ring rows to hard ring rows to banded pull-ups to strict pull-ups to kipping pull-ups to chest-to-bars to muscle-ups. How long should this progression take? Wrong question - it doesn’t matter. All these exercises are CrossFit exercises. Wherever you are in your fitness journey, when you are doing these exercises, you are doing CrossFit. You start where you are and progress at your own pace. You don’t “become a real CrossFit Athlete” only when you master muscle-ups. You get to come as you are and grow from there. The journey to greater fitness is a road paved with potential.

Even Zacchaeus had potential

“Zacchaeus was a wee little man; a wee little man was he” was the humorous chorus young children sang in Sunday School a generation ago as they learned about one of Jesus’ followers. That’s because the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19 opens by letting the readers know he was short. But his stature was the least important reason Zacchaeus should never have been invited to become a friend of Jesus.

“He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.’ So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.” - Luke 19:1-6, ESV

A little historical perspective Here’s the quick background: The Roman Empire was the political superpower of the day and had total military and political control over the Jewish nation. One of the main reasons the Jews hated the Romans was because the Roman government imposed burdensome taxes. And Zacchaeus, a Jew, was a tax collector for Rome. He turned his back on his Jewish brothers and sisters and became part of the Roman occupation. To make matters even worse, Zacchaeus didn’t just work for Rome, he got rich off commissions from extracting burdensome taxes from the Jews. His potential for God’s love looked limited. But when Jesus saw wee little Zacchaeus’ tree-climbing efforts as He passed by, He recognized Zacchaeus’ heart and asked to come to his home. Zacchaeus was so touched, he immediately promised to give away fifty percent of his wealth and make more than full amends to anyone he had defrauded. Jesus loved Zacchaeus even though He knew he had been a wealthy traitor to his people. He saw Zacchaeus’s potential and invited him to come as he was and grow from there.

Spiritual Ring Rows Here’s the lesson for all of us who feel like today we can only do “spiritual ring rows” - like CrossFit, you don’t become a real follower of Christ after you make progress in becoming a better person; Jesus wants you to come as you are and grow from there. God sees the potential in you!

You have the potential to be loved by God just as you are. There is nothing in your past, present, or future that is greater than God’s love for you. You have the potential to grow. Today, you may feel like you hardly know God or the Bible or even how to pray. God’s love through His Spirit will teach you and draw you closer to God. And finally, you have the potential to change. Athletes who limit themselves by refusing or resisting new challenges or more difficult progressions don’t see what’s possible. God sees what’s possible in your life, and He has all the coaching you need to get you there. All you need to know is that you have potential.

Questions for Reflection: What potential do you think Jesus sees in you?

What gets in your way of thinking you aren’t good enough to be accepted by Jesus?

Where do you need to give yourself grace and allow Jesus to let you come as you are?

Partner Workout

Spiritual Training Cycle: Foundation (wk. 10/13)

Reading: Luke 10:25-37

Our gym publishes the next day’s workout at 8:00 p.m. the night before. Full disclosure, I’m a coach, so I know well in advance what the workouts are. But I’m also an athlete. And as an athlete, there’s a part of me that forgets them as quickly as possible to avoid the opportunity for excuses and skipped workouts. At 8:01 p.m. on some evening long ago, I opened my phone and took a long, slow glance. Instantly, my body was riddled with anxiety. My mind had already begun to open the excuse vault so I could go searching for just the right one. With heart racing and eyes dilated, I set my phone back down on its plate charger. My wife looked over and said to me, “Babe, what is it?” I sighed and cried at the same time, “It’s a partner workout.”

A famous athlete used to say, “Some days you’re the hammer, some days you’re the nail.” When it comes to partner workouts, I’ve been both. If you don’t do this style of workout in your gym, essentially two people split a workout in half, alternating reps, sets, and/or exercises. After only one workout like this, you realize the most important part of a partner workout is to choose your partner wisely!

If you get to choose at all. I was in a class one time where apparently, they chose a permanent partner two years before class. I was walking around reliving the rejection of a middle school dance just looking for anyone. Unfortunately for me, the only person left was the bodyweight RX guy. You know that guy? He does Murph in like 25 minutes in a vest unpartitioned. Yep, that was my partner. Oh, and to top it off, the workout opened with five minutes of max synchro burpees. Just what old bodyweight Bobby was hoping for. Me on the other hand, not so much. And because it was synchro, all he could do was stare and wait while I huffed and puffed to get off the ground. What I needed was some of his synchro fitness!

But not all partner workouts are like that. Typically, you find yourself with someone whose strengths are different, and hopefully complementary to yours. That allows each of you to carry the other when the time is right. Partner workouts teach you to value others when they carry you.

Which translates perfectly into our Bible reading today. Jesus tells the story of a man in need of help. He’s been robbed, stripped, beaten, and left to die on the side of the road. Two people pass him by without helping at all. Then a third person comes along and decides to lend a hand. After bandaging the man, he carries him by donkey to an inn, stays the night, then pays the innkeeper to take care of him until he returns. That’s what love does. It carries you when you need it most.

Love can carry you past the history you have with someone. It can carry you to the point of forgiveness or restoration or true healing. Love can carry you beyond preconceived notions or socio-economic differences. Love is the great equalizer. And finally, love can carry you when you can’t carry yourself. No matter how difficult your life or your circumstances, let the love of Jesus comfort you as He carries you. It’s the best partner workout you’ll ever experience!

Questions for Reflection:

When has the love of God carried you?

How can you be a better partner to those you love?