I had something brought to my attention earlier this week and it definitely was one of those "Aha" moments. I was listening to a sermon by Pastor Chip Ingram, and in the sermon, Ingram made a reference about lifting weights and building muscles. The obvious point was that anyone who lifts weights wants to develop their overall strength, or improve a certain body region, arms, legs, chest, back, so on and so on. You may lift weights just to maintain your muscles, but the majority of people who lift do so to build their muscles. So, with that being said, the desired muscle growth will not happen if you don't progressively add more weight to the bar. After the body gets "conditioned" to a certain amount of weight on the bar the muscles plateau. To continue to build more muscle mass you have to add additional weight and/or change the exercises to alert the muscles to get busy and grow. Basically, what happens is the increased resistance produces more muscle tissue as the weight lifter trains and pushes his or her body to the point of exhaustion, the whole "no pain, no gain" idea.
Unfortunately, if we aren't growing our muscles just the opposite happens. If you don't use a muscle for a period of time the muscle will become weaker. Go outside today and do about fifty squats and see how your legs feel the next day. Squatting that much just isn't something that we do on a daily basis so it only stands to reason that we will probably experience some pain in our thighs after a round of squats. We don't want our muscles to atrophy so we exercise, we run, we stay active to avoid the negative impact on our muscles and overall physique.
Well guess what? This analogy fits perfectly with how we grow through our adversities and even our afflictions. We don't want to experience bad or negative events in our lives, but for us to grow and "exercise" our faith muscles this is exactly where it happens. Think about it, if life was easy we would definitely or should definitely be content. No sickness, no conflict, no work issues, kid issues, financial woes, and your marriage is bliss. Wouldn't that be nice? Well it would be nice for a day or maybe a week, but if we really stop and think about it, when we go through something in life is when we actually go to work on finding a solution, remedy, or fix. That search is where the growth opportunity lives.
I'm not suggesting that we jump up and down the next time that a life event happens, but instead to change our attitude and perspective about what is happening and how we approach the situation. Instead of taking the stance that we are the victim in every situation, how about we look at it as an exercise for growth. Maybe your faith muscles are at a place where they have atrophied. Could it be that through the cataclysmic journey you are traversing currently, you are headed exactly to the place that will be your next area of impact? I don't know and I can't give you guarantees, but I can assure you if you don't grow through it you will get stuck in it and that is where our muscle memory starts to fail us and atrophy most certainly does exist.
The good news is we are not going to lift that weight by ourselves. Just as any weightlifter has a spotter coaching them as they lift that heavier weight, we are not alone as we "lift" life's challenges and circumstances. We have a promise that should reassure us in those times when life is feeling too heavy to lift found in Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” When you feel all alone, remember you are not. As you lift that heavy weight hold tight to Paul's proclamation "I can do all things through Christ which gives me strength." Philippians 4:13.
You got this!
Coach Carter
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