Small Steps

Reading: Genesis 3:1-13

About eight weeks ago, my wife broke her ankle. Not just one bone, not just two bones, but three bones. Since then she’s been through a trip to the ER, a visit to the orthopedic surgeon, surgery, being immobilized in a cast, and now finally cleared to start making contact with her foot again. It’s been an emotional time, but we’ve seen the Lord’s blessing in all of it. Including her first appointment for physical therapy. Like CrossFit coaches, Physical Therapists are also students of range of motion. It’s interesting to see the similarities in what we both do. Range of motion is the name of the game in my wife’s recovery process. At the end of her first session, they wanted her to walk with crutches. We had tried this at home a few days earlier so I knew she could do it. But something changed at the Physical Therapist’s office. My wife went from hobbling on her foot to actually walking on it. Assisted of course, but real walking. As we hopped in the car to head home, I complimented her on the steps she took and asked what she thought the difference was. Her response surprised me as she replied, “The Therapist said I needed to take small steps.”

Small steps. The genesis point for the next phase of her recovery wasn’t found in some special exercise or gadget. It was the simple reminder that in order to achieve big things, we must start small. Isn’t that the opposite of how we feel sometimes? Take muscle-ups for example. For those of you that may not know what a muscle-up is, it’s a gymnastic movement performed on the rings where you start from a dead hang position and then end in a fully locked out position where your upper body is above the rings and the rings are parallel to your hips. It’s quite impressive. I would call it a big step! Long before you ever end up locked out in the rings, you’re going to have to take some small steps. You’re going to need to start with strict pulls ups and strict dips. You’ll then need to develop the hollow and superman positions and learn to put those together in what’s known as a gymnastic kip. You’ll then need to supplement with band assisted positional work on the rings as well as kipping pull-ups on the bar. All of this will hopefully one day lead you to the muscle-up. There is no muscle-up without small steps. This is why consistency in fitness training is so important. Every workout, every rep, every drive to and from the gym is a small step. I like to tell athletes that fitness is found in the next rep – you just don’t know which one!

The journey of Spiritual Fitness is also one of small steps. It’s easy to look at someone’s ability to flourish in this world and think, “I want that too.” But discovering your purpose in this world and building the durability to handle whatever life throws at you are like muscle-ups. They’re not achievable in one step. What most athletes don’t realize is all the small steps they take in the gym are really battles in their mind. They are learning to believe new truth about who they are and what they are capable of. They slowly progress from the belief that they could never do a muscle-up to the realization that now they can. Obviously, this must be combined with daily training. You can’t simply will yourself to do it. This is where we find great overlap in Spiritual and Physical Fitness. Spiritually speaking, there are thoughts that you have about who you are and how you work that need rewiring. I call this truth exchange. Your ability to grow spiritually develops from the process of exchanging old thoughts for new ones. If you’re “not a people person” then guess what, you’ll never be one. But how lame a life lived from the perspective that people are the enemy. You’re made for community, to exist in this world to encourage and be encouraged by others. In order for that to happen, you’ll need to exchange your former truth for something like, “I’m becoming a people person,” or, “God, show me the value in the people around me.” Daily spiritual training provides the battleground for truth exchange. To live your best life is to give yourself over to the process by which God exchanges your truth for His. It’s a journey marked by small steps.

Questions for Reflection:

What’s one of your greatest accomplishments in life? What was the first step you took to get there?

What’s it like to take a step backwards? How do you come back from that?

What step is God asking you to take right now?

Breaking Rust

Reading: James 4:1-17

“Exercise is the stimulus that returns our bodies to the conditions for which they were designed.”

Have you ever had to break the rust off a bolt? Maybe you haven’t personally, but you’ve seen someone else do it. Rust forms on metal through a naturally occurring process known as corrosion. Oxygen, which is a good thing by the way, can have a negative effect on metals which are exposed to it for long periods of time. The rust that forms on metals can become incredibly strong, eventually preventing a machine from working at all. Amazingly, the simplest remedy to rust is activity. Consistently using machines prevents rust from forming. I don’t want to get in the weeds on lubrication and all that, so forgive me mechanical engineers for the simplicity of my illustration. Which leads me back to breaking rust. If I want to “free” the bolt, so to speak, from its frozen and inactive state, I must apply a greater amount of force than normal. Given enough force, the rust will break, the bolt will operate again, and corrosion has to start all over.

The same can be seen in chronically inactive people. Your body was made for movement – period. It was never designed to be inactive for extremely long periods of time. Think about people who are injured and required to have bed rest for weeks or months. Healthcare providers actually have to come in and reposition these patients on a consistent basis otherwise they develop sores on their body from constant contact with the bed. We were made to move! However, we live in a world of automation where movement is a choice rather than an obligation. We drive everywhere, sit down when we get there, lie down when we’re tired, sit up to eat, and at the end of the lay down to sleep. Most people are in a chronic cycle of limited activity, or to put it in fitness terms, reduced range of motion. And guess what? That leads to corrosion as well. This is why it’s so difficult for people to start and maintain a fitness program. It’s like breaking the rust off a bolt. Their hips don’t fully open, their backs are in terrible shape from poor posture at a desk, and their muscles have weakened from limited use. Here’s the thing – all this awaits us too the day we stop moving. Daily movement is the buffer against corrosion. Don’t think that your current fitness can protect you. A Formula One car will rust just like an old lawnmower if you quit moving it long enough.

While most people can comprehend this process from a physical perspective, they don’t see that it can happen spiritually as well. Your soul can become corroded. Instead of rust, think bitterness or anger or envy or greed or pride. These are the effects of a corroded soul, one that has a chronically reduced range of motion. Now, that might lead you to think, “Ok Trey, so what does a soul look like with a full range of motion?” So glad you asked! Full range of motion for the soul is daily communion with God. When we limit our connection with God, we leave our soul vulnerable to the corrosive effects of this world. Regardless of what you think about God, know this – He loves you and He is for you. He wants you to experience peace, joy, and purpose in this world. You’ll only come to know these experiences by experiencing Him. The longer you limit the range of motion of your soul, the more force you’ll need to break the rust. You’ll make excuses for why you don’t spend time with God. You may try and explain God away altogether. And over time that’s going to take a toll. Start by spending just five minutes a day with God. Maybe take the first five to tell Him why you don’t believe. He’ll listen to you. He’s patient and loving like that. Culture has another term for corrosive people – we call them “toxic.” Toxic because their spiritual condition not only negatively impacts them, it does the same to people around them. Spiritual inactivity is the gateway to toxicity. I invite you to break the rust and see what God’s got for you on the other side.

Questions for Reflection:

Do you know someone you would describe as toxic? What characteristics or qualities make them that way?

Do you think spiritually inactive people know their souls have corrosion?

What does a spiritually active life look like? Does it look like yours?

Accessibility

Reading: Galatians 6:1-10

“Excuse me sir, may I have a minute of your time?” I could hear the words echo under the covered awning next to the hardware store I was walking out of. As my grip tightened on my bag of home improvement goods, my breathing rate accelerated under my mask. I had to make a decision. Was I going to give this person time in my life or not? I had no idea what he wanted. Who knows? Maybe I was going to be the next Publisher’s Clearing House millionaire. Maybe he had a kid on a select sports team, and they were trying to raise money to attend a tournament. Regardless of the cause, I had about half a second to answer this question – Does he get access to me? “No thank you,” I replied. “Have a nice day.” I could hear him mutter something under his mask as I stepped off the curb and headed to my car. While he may have been offended, I felt great. My daughter turned and said to me as we got in the car, “Dad, why did you ignore him?” “I didn’t ignore him honey. I answered his question. Not everyone has the same access to your dad that you do.”

Accessibility is a major opportunity for a more purposeful and meaningful life. Most people are too accessible. Let me illustrate what I’m talking about. Let’s say a couple is out to dinner. They’ve gotten away from the kids and settled into a quiet restaurant for some good food and great conversation. Just as the sharing begins, a screen lights up on a phone sitting on the table. Instinctively, the husband reaches down, picks up his phone, and starts trying to briefly scan a work email while listening to his wife describe her day. While his oversized thumbs craft a reply, his wife stops talking. With a lag time of about ten seconds, the husband, realizing his wife has stopped talking, looks up from his phone and says, “Sorry honey, this will only take a minute.” News flash – you’re too accessible to your job. I don’t want to hear about how busy work is and how they count on you in the clutch and how you have to respond or else. The truth is you’ve given your career unlimited access to you and priority over your spouse.

What about the hyper-driven mom/wife who likes to be part of everything going on. For her, one scroll down Instagram lane is a social calendar waiting to be filled. She’s got the family booked for dinner on Friday night, kids are playing three sports, so Saturday is jam packed. Saturday night is a friend’s birthday and Sunday is gospel brunch with more friends as well as an afternoon playdate for the kids. What’s the priority? For mom, it could be not missing out. It could also be not wanting to hurt people’s feelings by saying no. Her relationships have little hierarchy, so most are given similar weight. She’s simply too accessible to everyone, leaving almost no time for herself.

So, how do we address accessibility in a way that brings the most peace and harmony to our lives? We prioritize relationships and learn to say no. All people should not have the same access to you. There are acquaintances, bosses, co-workers, extended family members, and distant friends that shouldn’t have the same access to you as your spouse, family, and closest friends. That doesn’t mean no access, it means different access. And learning to say no establishes that boundary. Saying no could just mean not replying to a message until the next day. When you re-establish boundaries, prepare for confusion and possible conflict. Stand your ground. Be loving but firm. It’s not about being unavailable, it’s about becoming more available for the things that matter most in your life. Your margin for ‘yes’ is determined by your capacity for ‘no.’ You’ll have more time to enjoy the relationships that have the highest priority in your life by putting in boundaries for those that don’t. A Spiritually Fit life is one of sacrifice and focus. Accessibility may just be the key to your next big breakthrough.

Questions for reflection:

Do you find yourself saying yes to more than you should? What about the opposite?

Does saying no to someone mean a loss of connection for you?

Does anyone or anything have too much access to you?