Big Shoulders

Spiritual Training Cycle: Surrender (wk. 8/13)

Reading: Exodus 34:27-32

When I started CrossFit in 2013, I was completely new to the sport as a whole. After a workout one day, I overheard a few athletes talking about something they referred to as “The Open.” The conversation revolved around some guy named Rich Froning and whether he would win both “The Open” and “The Games.” I tell you, the language of CrossFit. It’s like a whole other world. As I watched Froning not only win “The Games,” but dominate the field, I was curious to know more about him. A documentary about him was released a few years later, and in it, Rich told the story of how his life changed when he became active in his faith. I thought that was so cool because my life was doing the same. I’ll never forget one of the commentators on the documentary talking about Froning’s attitude regarding workouts. He described him as, “compliant.” No matter the workout, Rich’s demeanor never changed. The commentator remarked that Rich had the ability to handle everything with ease. My dad had a term for that – big shoulders.

When it comes to physical fitness, shoulders are key. I laugh when new athletes in our gym talk about how we do “shoulders” all the time. Why wouldn’t we? They are part of almost every upper body movement imaginable. The shoulder muscles are responsible for maintaining the widest range of motion of any joint in the body. If you want to move large loads long distances, the training you do will develop some big shoulders. I don’t mean big in terms of physique, like you might see on a bodybuilder. I mean in terms of strength. From kettlebell swings to wall balls, if an object is connected to your body and in motion, the shoulders are carrying load.

But my dad didn’t mean big shoulders in the physical sense. He was referring to people who could make the stresses of life look easy. Have you ever known anyone like this? I have a friend who went through an incredibly difficult time, hit by two major life events that would have tanked anyone. Yet he carried these new burdens well. And he still wanted to know how I was doing. I would describe him as incredibly resilient. But the key to his resiliency wasn’t his ability to bear more, it was his ability to lay it down.

To live a spiritually fit life, you need to learn to lay burdens at the feet of Jesus. Your struggles, your fears, your anxiety, and all the other things weighing you down don’t prove how big your shoulders are. In fact, they will do quite the opposite. And let me tell you why this skill is essential to feeling connected to God – because God wants your burdens. He has the biggest shoulders! Two things will happen when you start to live life this way. First, you’ll feel more peace than you have before. You’ll realize this is how it was designed to be. And second, other people will notice, and start to bring you their burdens. Not for you to carry, but for you to help lay them down.

The technical term for this is intercede, which means to intervene on behalf of another. From prayers to fasting to generosity to compassion, there are a number of practical ways to intercede. When you go before God with someone else’s needs, it reminds you how blessed you are and what a blessing it is to put others before yourself. I don’t think people who handle difficulty well have big shoulders. I think they’ve learned to rely God and let Him carry their load.

Questions for Reflection:

Can you think of someone in your life who has big shoulders? In other words, they can bear the weight of other people’s needs and struggles with ease. What do you think makes them able to do that?

Does following Jesus obligate us to intercede for others? What does that look like in your own life?

Wanted

Spiritual Training Cycle: Surrender (week 7/13)

Reading: Daniel 1:8-16

How many of you would say you’re big fans of tension? That’s right, tension. You just love to lean into the hotly contested issues of wearing masks or getting vaccinated. Maybe you enjoy relational tension, which you developed as a young child during the holidays when your awkward uncle who had no filter would come over and completely wreck the whole experience. And now we don’t even need holidays, thanks to the supposedly “unscripted” reality shows on almost every network. If you’re like me, you probably enjoy getting as far away from tension as you can. But tension isn’t always bad. In physical fitness, tension is the process by which we grow. The barbell or kettlebell or assault bike is not so much an obstacle, but rather the path to better health. To be your best in life, tension must be more than just needed – it must be wanted.

The truth is we live in tension whether we realize it or not. Think of yourself like a rubber band. When is a rubber band at its best? When it’s stretched. In the same way, we’re really at our best when we’re in tension. Of course, that can be both healthy and unhealthy. Unhealthy tension leads to breakdown. Think of those moments in your life when you’ve been pulled between too many things. This kind of tension leaves you feeling paralyzed, overwhelmed, or inadequate. When you learn how to make tension work for you, the outcome is completely different. Healthy tension leads to healthy transformation.

That’s how we use the spiritual exercise of fasting. Fasting is a practical process to create healthy tension. When we remove something in our life that amuses, comforts, or nourishes us, it creates a void. That’s tension, but it’s not necessarily healthy. The healthy part comes from replacing what we’ve removed with a time of prayer and conversation with God. Let me show you what I mean. Here’s what I refer to as the “fasting equation”

FASTING = YOU – [ SOMETHING X TIME] + PRAYER

Here are some practical examples:

Amusement

FASTING = YOU – [INSTAGRAM X 7 DAYS] + STILLNESS PRAYER

Comfort

FASTING = YOU – [COFFEE X 21 DAYS] + MEDITATIVE PRAYER

Nourishment

FASTING = YOU – [LUNCH X 3 DAYS] + PRAYER WALK OUTDOORS

You only need to know three things – What you’re removing; How long you’re removing it; And what kind of prayer you are going to supplement your fast with. Like any new exercise, it will take you some time to develop quality fasting. But like I say about double unders, nobody ever got them doing single jumps. Add fasting to the spiritual rhythms of your life and watch God use healthy tension to create healthy transformation.

Questions for Reflection:

Of comfort, amusement, or nourishment, which would you say most limits your connection to God?

Write your own fasting equation by filling in the blanks.

Fasting = You – [ ______ X _____ ] + ______

Core Work

Spiritual Training Cycle: Surrender (week 6/13)

Reading: Luke 4:1-13

In humans, the origin of physical strength is our core. Some people toss around the word “core” like it’s an accessory movement you do at the end of a workout. But spend enough time training and you’ll realize the core of the human body is essential to every functional movement we perform. The core is the foundation upon which all movement will be built.

And while I don’t think it’s necessary to exhaustively list every muscle that makes up the core, let me say that I’m not just talking about abs. Think of the core as the torso. It’s the essential base of the body. Your limbs, your neck, your head, and the rest of your body is an extension of your core. Which is why it’s vital that our core be strong. To build core strength, you need to do core work.

In spiritual fitness, fasting is a remarkable exercise for core work. What is our spiritual core composed of? Desires. You desires generate the images you visualize in your life. They spark the goals you set for yourself. And they essentially drive the output of your life. Even though people know you outwardly by what you say and do, the truth is they don’t know you at all. Because all those behaviors are being driven by your core desires, and only you and God truly know what those are. But honestly, we’re pretty lousy at determining our own desires sometimes. That’s where fasting comes in. When we remove something from our life in order to know and love God better, it tells us more about why we crave that thing or eat that thing or think those thoughts. Fasting reveals our deeper desires.

Spiritual core work is essential for a spiritually healthy life.

In 2013, I opened a CrossFit gym. As a lifelong athlete, I was drawn to CrossFit by the variety of exercise as well as the communal aspect of the training. I wanted others to experience what I was experiencing and starting a gym seemed a great way to do that. But the truth is my pursuit of fitness was more about self-admiration than anything else. I wanted to build a community of people who admired me as an athlete, coach, and business owner. I also desired to project a false sense of reality to the world about who I really was. I hid my brokenness behind my fitness.

That same year, I also began to activate my faith in God and start my spiritual fitness journey. Amid that, I felt God calling me to give my gym away. Not to bankrupt me or maroon me on an island, but to trust Him more deeply. After many false starts, I finally made the decision to give my portion of the gym to my business partner. In hindsight, this was the beginning of perhaps the largest fast I’ve ever done. It was only then that God began to reveal what was really going on. He showed me why I built that community and how I used fitness as a security blanket. He also began to rewire my desire. Fast forward to today, and fitness is no longer something I hide behind. Instead, it’s the biproduct of my pursuit of God. I don’t work out to hide who I am, I do it to honor God with my body. Fasting creates space for God to rewire your desire.

So, here’s my question to you – Do you really know why you do the things you do? When you inhale a sleeve of girl scout cookies or sprain your finger from scrolling social media or get sucked into the gossip circle, do you know why you do it? Fasting and prayer will help you find your why. Until you know your why, your behaviors won’t really change. You might have 21 days of self-control, but eventually that thin mint will come calling. Make this the year you incorporate fasting into your spiritual training and watch God rewire your desire.

Questions for Reflection:

Has denying yourself something ever revealed a deeper desire about why you engaged in that behavior to begin with?

Which temptation Jesus faced most resonates with you?