Homecoming

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

Reading: Luke 15:11-32

I love homecomings. Let me tell you what I mean by that. After coaching athletes for more than a decade, I’ve had a few leave. Some leave because they change jobs or move to different states, but there are others who leave without realizing it. Leaving a lifestyle of fitness is often a slow and progressive process. New stresses in life cause athletes to adjust their gym schedule. Sometimes old temptations or habits come calling, beckoning just beyond the bay doors. Others get hit by injury, and some just set too high an expectation and they burn out along the way. I’ve seen athletes like this come and go. But my favorite moments are when they return, the homecoming moments. Many times, they walk in quietly, almost hoping I won’t notice them. With slumped shoulders and head hung low, it’s as if they’re waiting for me to pounce on them. To call them out. To question their commitment to themselves and to their general wellbeing. Instead, they hear two words from me loudly ring out across the gym – welcome back!

It’s hard to come back. If you’ve never had to face a comeback then you haven’t been in fitness long enough. I’m not trying to put something bad on you, I’m just telling you that the tension of life will try to pull you away. And it’s a slow pull. When you move from three days a week to two days a week you don’t feel it. When you quit pushing yourself like you used to you don’t notice it. When a season of sports for your child means limited workouts for you, the effects of that move are subtle. The next thing you know, your clothes start to fit a little tighter. You’re opening the belt up another notch or taking to leggings and sweatshirts all the time. And this little voice in your head starts to whisper things like, “You’re too far gone.” Your brain starts running a continuous loop of how difficult and challenging it will be to get it back. As life slowly pulls you away from fitness, you dread even the thought of walking back into the place where it all started because you’re embarrassed of who you’ve become. If that’s you, I want you to know it’s time to come home!

It’s also hard to stick with it. I give a shout out to all of you who pay it in week after week. Sometimes I just want to pull a “before” photo out to remind some of my athletes how far they’ve come. You are the veterans of the gym, but it’s easy for the gym to feel like something you have to do rather than something you get to do. And one of the great things you get to do is welcome people back. But let’s face it, you’re battling your own emotions when someone whose been gone a while comes back. Some of you wonder why we coaches pay so much attention to those people. The voice in your head says, “You know I’ve been here the whole time and this person just walks in after being gone six months and now they’re all that?” Your brain starts running a continuous loop of how you will smash them in the WOD to assert the fact that you are physically superior. But put yourself in their shoes and remember this – God’s grace was first given to you, so shouldn’t it be the first thing you give to everyone else?

Join the welcoming committee. Be part of the community in your gym that leads with grace. Realize that shame and guilt are easily defeated with a big dose of grace. I pray that by the grace of God we would see homecomings in gyms all around the world. And as people finally get up the courage to turn off the negativity and turn on the morning alarm again, they would hear the sound of grace ring out – welcome back!

Questions for Reflection:

Who do you more identify with in today’s reading – the younger son or the older son?

God’s grace ultimately restored the younger son. How has God’s grace restored your life?

Grace

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

Reading: Titus 2:11-14

Happy New Year! No doubt, many of you have already begun to put plans into action for some new things this year. Whether that’s a new eating program, gym rhythm, or Bible plan, January is the perfect time to start something new. And our Building Spiritual Fitness devotional is getting an upgrade as well, beginning with our spiritual training cycles. Just like strength cycles help you grow physically, this year you’ll have four training cycles to help you grow spiritually, one each quarter. A Building Spiritual fitness training cycle is made up of three key components. The first is a spiritual concept. This is where you grow in your understanding of major concepts taught in Scripture. Next is a spiritual exercise. Here, you’ll learn how to apply practices which have been around since the early church. Finally, is a spiritual need. These are the kinds of real-world things you need to do to experience the most life has to offer. We’re kicking off the year with our first training cycle on surrender, beginning with the spiritual concept of grace.

“God’s grace is repulsive.” I’ll be honest with you, the first time I heard my seminary professor utter those words, I was bewildered. Given that they’ve provided the same shock value for you they did for me, let me explain. Let’s begin with American culture. Whether you realize it or not, you live in a performance reward society. Trust fund babies aside, the way people earn a living is by working for it. Your performance brings rewards, and it also brings merits. In our gym, we use a software platform that tracks performance over time. When the system recognizes an athlete’s performance is better than it was, they are rewarded with a trophy. I’m not gonna lie, I love getting those trophies. That silly little digital icon is the result of sometimes more than a year of consistent hard work. Like the Smith Barney commercial from the 80’s slightly paraphrased, we get trophies the old-fashioned way – we earn them.

But not God’s grace. Grace isn’t a trophy to be earned, it’s a gift from God to be enjoyed. It’s not based on performance; it’s simply given through God’s presence. And I’ll prove it to you. In the Gospel of Luke is an account of Jesus’ crucifixion. On each side of Jesus hung a criminal, who were both being crucified. Just before Jesus dies, one criminal says to Him, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus replies, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43). This is the grace of God.

When Jesus spoke those words, God’s grace saved the thief from a lifetime of eternal separation and instead welcomed him home into Heaven. This is what’s known as salvation or redemption. The very grace saving missionaries into Heaven is the same grace saving murderers. See why it might feel repulsive? Because that’s not really fair, is it? Not in our performance reward culture it isn’t. A murderer’s reward couldn’t be spending a life with Jesus. And yet it is. God’s redeeming grace is a mystery I don’t think we’ll ever fully understand until we’re reunited with Jesus, and He explains it to us.

But the thief missed out. Because God’s grace isn’t just redeeming, it’s refining. It’s how we live our best life here and now. I have a good friend who’s been through some difficult things in his life, things he brought upon himself by his actions. But when he received God’s gift of grace, it changed him from the inside out. He became a completely new person, full of life and truth. In fact, it’s hard to believe he could have ever been such a bad person. The thief missed his chance to have God refine His life. This is why grace is hardly repulsive. In fact, I think it’s incredibly attractive. The closer we grow to God the more we want to know who He is. It’s His grace that draws us in. And we need that grace don’t we. Because the truth is the more God refines us, the more painful the process becomes. Those deep seeded feelings of jealousy or bitterness or inadequacy or fear don’t just rise to the top on their own. God draws them out as He draws us in. But His grace is sufficient, even if we’re never able to fully let those things go.

Questions for Reflection:

Do you think God’s grace is a free gift with nothing expected in return?

Does it seem fair to you that a murderer and a missionary can both go to Heaven by the same grace of God? How would you explain that to someone else?

Sandbags

Reading: Genesis 32:9-30

Earlier in the fall, a friend and I attended a cool event called True Strength. True Strength is a three-day faith and fitness camp hosted by FAITH RXD. I got introduced to the camp in the summer during a visit to College Station and was excited when the time finally came for us to go. Since most of you reading this have a passion for both Jesus and CrossFit, a True Strength camp would be right up your alley. The days were broken up into workouts, coached clinics, Scripture teaching, and small group discussion. They have some phenomenal coaches on staff and the event was first class all the way. On the final day of camp, they arranged for us to workout at a nearby ranch. As my friend and I loaded into his jeep and headed out, I was struck by all the wildlife as well as the beautiful sunrise. When we parked and hopped out, just through the mist of the early morning, I could see on the pavilion something waiting for us. I shook my head and grinned slightly as I wondered what in the world we were going to do with sandbags.

When it comes to awkward objects, I’ll put sandbags near the top of the list. Athletes and coaches have devised all sorts of ways to lift, twist, and otherwise contort these bad boys. The final day of camp was no exception. Our instructions were simple. We were to pick a heavy sandbag, clean it over our shoulder in rapid fashion six to eight times, then bear hug it while squatting to failure. Man, sometimes I can’t believe the things we do for fitness! On top of that, everyone not going was to encourage those who were with an incredibly loud voice. There was plenty of yelling not only from the onlookers, but also from those tackling the challenge, including me. I am not one to draw attention to myself during a workout, but coach made it clear that every squat was an opportunity to let out the fears and insecurities inside, and with every deep roar I could feel it happening. After everyone finished, I caught up with Ben Alderman, a True Strength coach, CrossFit games athlete, and the owner of Iron Mile Fitness in Sacramento, California. As we replayed the challenge and talked about the spiritual side of the workout, Ben said something so profound I couldn’t turn loose of it, “The bag was always too heavy to carry.”

Think about the sandbags of life, those unnecessary burdens we carry that weigh us down and keep us from fully experiencing all we could. Like the sandbag of always trying to have it all together. Have you ever found yourself exhausted from trying to project to the world that everything is great? I have. The truth is when we carry this burden around, what we’re really trying to do is mask the inadequacy inside. We want people to think we have it all together, but in reality, we’re barely holding on. What about financial burdens? I’ve seen people carry the sandbag of debt or they’re living month to month simply to maintain a lifestyle they really don’t need. I’ve watched husbands and wives toss this sandbag back and forth trying to blame the other for the burden they carry. And then there’s the burden of who we are. The sandbag of our identity. For 39 years, I built my identity around things the world told me to. Things like my career, my bank account, my body image, it was all about me. But there are costs that come with living a lifestyle like that. It cost me relationships, it cost me time I will never get back, and it cost me personally because everywhere I went that sandbag came with me.

That’s why Ben’s words were so powerful because they reminded me the sandbags in my life were always too heavy to carry. I was just afraid to lay them down. That is, until I met Jesus. When I began a relationship with Jesus, He offered me an opportunity to let it all go. In fact, He did more than that, He offered me a new identity. No longer did I have to be some selfish arrogant prideful guy, I could be someone different. For seven years God has written a new story about me. Here’s what’s crazy though – God knew all of this was going to happen before I was ever on the planet. All I needed to do was lay it down. What do you need to lay down today? What sandbags are you carrying in this life? I know they may feel like security blankets, but they’re robbing you of the richest, fullest, most satisfying life you’ll ever live. Give them all to Jesus and realize they were always too heavy to carry.

Questions for Reflection:

If the burdens of the past are forgiven by Christ, why is it hard to let go of them?

Can you recall a time in your life where you felt like you wrestled with God? Describe the experience.