New Power

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

Reading: Acts 1:1-11

In your pursuit to live a fit and active life, you’re going to need some benchmarks. Benchmarks are an essential component of measuring fitness over time. If your goal is to improve your fitness, and I have no doubt it is, you need a way to chart your progress which is where benchmarks come in to play. In CrossFit, we have a number of benchmark workouts, known as “The Girls.” First introduced in 2003, these workouts were designed to test a broad spectrum of fitness as well as function as repeatable workouts for benchmarking. Sometimes, just hearing the word “Fran” is enough to raise an athlete’s heart rate. But no matter how much you love or despise thrusters and pull-ups, every time you complete Fran, your goal is to do better than you did last time. And when you do, congratulations, you’ve got new fitness. And with new fitness comes new power.

Power is simply a function of what you’re moving, how far you’re moving it, and how fast it’s moving. As weight and distance increase so does power. As the amount of time it takes to do a workout like Fran decreases, your power increases. New power comes from moving larger loads longer distances in shorter periods of time. Which is why consistency is so critical to building fitness. Fitness is the biproduct of increased power. And the best way to build power is to be consistent. For some athletes, that’s being disciplined to be in the gym Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. For others, it’s the discipline to push the longer WOD’s, even when you don’t “feel” like it. When it comes to power, the output is the result of the input.

When it comes to power, the output is the result of the input.

Our spiritual lives function in a similar way. In some sense, I think we all want to be able to do more reps in life. By that I mean things like acts of kindness or letting go or learning to say no instead of being over planned. Sometimes we need to move more weight, like dealing with added responsibilities or addressing new difficulties or caring for others who are struggling. All of these require power. They take effort, which can leave you feeling drained or inadequate. You see, the output of living your best life is the result of the input. And the input of spiritual power must come from God.

It is God’s grace that enables us to receive power at all. By His grace we are active and living human beings made in the image of God, created to do great things which God has already prepared for us. This is the power of our Father, the Creator. Jesus prepares our hearts for this power. His resurrection is the ultimate defeat of death, guaranteeing eternal life for all who call on His name. This is the power of the Son, the Restorer. And it is the Holy Spirit who gives us this power. The power to embrace difficulty, to love others, to weather the storms, to live the most satisfying life possible. This is the power of the Spirit, the Sustainer. As you develop the capacity to handle life better, remember the output is a result of the input. You don’t just have new spiritual fitness, you’ve got new power.

Questions for Reflection:

Have you seen the power of the Holy Spirit at work in someone else’s life? What did that look like?

How important is baptism to you?

Gut Feeling

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

Reading: Romans 8:5-17

We are in week three of a nine-week strength training cycle in our gym. The focus of the cycle is tempo. In other words, we are slowing things down and creating what we like to call, “time under tension.” This is a critical concept in the development of fitness because positive tension results in positive outcomes. As we increase the time we remain in positive tension, the greater the likelihood for a positive outcome. But tempo training varies from our normal strength cycles in that we don’t use percentages. The reason is that not everyone responds to tension the same way. Especially when we slow it down. Sometimes athletes are feeling great and can go a little harder. Other days, they may be having an off day. Instead, we use words like light, moderate, and heavy. The athletes use these words along with the other critical component of their training – gut feeling.

Gut feeling. I’ll be honest, when you’re new to CrossFit or strength training, you don’t have much of a gut feeling. You just don’t know what you don’t know. Great coaches help athletes learn to develop a gut feeling. For example, if I have an athlete with an endurance background and little barbell experience, their gut feeling to go heavy probably feels like shear terror. I’ll work with that athlete slowly exposing them to a slightly heavier stimulus over time so they can build the confidence necessary to achieve heavier lifts. For my experienced athletes, they might grab a barbell off the rack and just the weight of the bar alone feels like 100 pounds. Their gut is telling them to back it off that day, and their gut is probably right. You can’t make fitness a mathematic formula. You must learn to use your gut feeling.

But we all know sometimes our gut feelings are wrong. Because feelings can be wrong. Have you ever gotten a text message from someone that said, “we need to talk.” What did your gut tell you? That you were in trouble? That they were upset with you? That you forgot to put the toilet seat down? Well, that last one may be right. But nine times out of ten that feeling is wrong. The person wasn’t mad at you, they just had an idea or something they didn’t want to forget to tell you. Gut feelings can be helpful, but they are far from foolproof.

Gut feelings can be helpful, but they are far from foolproof.

There’s another guide though that proves far superior to gut feelings – the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just use our feelings, He reshapes them. The process starts when you make an active decision to put your faith in Jesus and trust Him with your life. When this happens, the Bible says we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives us new direction. Instead of being focused on ourselves or our feelings or just us in general, we start to see the world in a new way. We start to see it God’s way. And just like a good tempo strength training cycle, the Holy Spirit creates positive tension in our lives. Tension is proof we are in process. As you grow in your spiritual fitness, the Holy Spirit teaches you to become more aware of your selfish feelings and you get better at surrendering to God. Over time, going with your gut really means going with God. And that’s a gut feeling you’ll never regret.

Questions for Reflection:

Do you think the Holy Spirit influences the decisions you make? Share an example.

How does being selfish make you feel and why?

Restoration

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

Reading: John 1:1-18

In September of 2010, I had a serious bike accident. In my LBC (Life Before CrossFit), I too was a die-hard endurance athlete. After a few years in the world of triathlons, I switched my focus to road cycling, and in the Fall of 2010, I flipped my bike going just over 26 miles per hour. One quick evaluation by the EMT sent me to the ER, where the doctor determined I suffered a grade three A/C joint separation in my left shoulder. Sling in place and pain meds on board, I sat in the passenger seat of my buddy’s car pondering just how fragile life is. I still have my cracked helmet which I show the kids every so often. After a few more consultations and evaluations, I began the long slow road to recovery. I started the process of restoration.

Restoration is defined as, “a return of something to a former, original, normal condition.” And that was my goal – to get back to normal. I’ll never forget my first physical therapy appointment. If you’ve had a shoulder injury, you’ll relate to this. My doctor had me do what are known as “spider walks.” You simply stand next to a wall, place your fingers on the wall at about hip height, and “walk” them as far up the wall as pain and mobility will allow. I maybe went three inches before I let out a shout in pain. Three inches. Devastating. My doctor said four words, “It’s a starting point.” I thought to myself, “Well, it isn’t a very good one!” But that’s what I had to work with, so that’s what I worked with. Restoration doesn’t feel significant when the process begins. But it’s not about the beginning, it’s about the ending. The end of restoration is where a new opportunity emerges – transformation. Restoration prepares you for transformation.

Restoration prepares you for transformation.

The same is true in our spiritual lives. Like my bike accident left me with a physical injury, we are all born with a spiritual injury, which is separation from God. Unlike my rehab program, there is nothing we can do to heal this injury on our own. No amount of being good or doing good or giving a lot of money away can resolve it. But the great news is that Jesus restores what we cannot. Jesus restores our connection to God! Do you know what that means? Freedom! Think about how limited my range of motion was from my shoulder injury. When I could finally move again, all I wanted to do was get out there and experience motion. When your connection to God is restored, you are finally free to live a fully new life. A new kind of peace. A new kind of joy. A new level of durability to handle whatever life throws your way. Jesus is offering you a life of transformation. A life that starts with restoration.

Questions for Reflection:

Where have you seen spiritual restoration in your life?

What are you still hoping God will transform?