Building a Castle

One perk to my old job was our "Healthy Initiative Program." We set personal goals and, at the end of each quarter, if we achieved our goals, we got a reward. We were only competing against ourselves ... but there was something about telling my co-workers, "I did it", that really motivated me. And the gift card reward was a perfect cherry on top.

I jumped in with both feet the first quarter and set my goals really high ... too high. I fell short. It was a rookie mistake. After going through health issues and not moving my body for about 20 years I needed to figure out what was gonna work best for me. I realized that watching young, energetic, fit people who showed off their perfectly toned bodies lead workouts made me feel bad about myself.

After a lot of trial and error I finally found a fun couple who led workouts fully clothed and had "regular" people like me working out alongside of them. They are a married couple from England. When he told me that I have to get my core strong so I don't tweak my back when I'm puttin' the kettle on, I was hooked. Somehow exercising with a British accent makes it less terrible.

Alex, the wife, is a spitfire ball of energy who doesn't talk much when she's leading the workout. She's all business. Daniel, on the other hand, doesn't like dead air. He makes the seconds go faster by philosophizing (and it's ok because of that British accent). When I lost my job I decided I needed Alex and Daniel back in my life.

The other day, when I was doing a workout, Daniel started spewing the benefits of exercise. He said (and I'm paraphrasing in my bad British accent) to "keep that tension on your body cause it's the change juice going through. Resistance is like that ... you have to keep laying that brick and then another brick and then another ... and before you know it, you have a wall and then a house (and because they live in Europe) and then a castle." Or a fit body.

James 1: 2-4 tells us that trials and hard things do the same for our spiritual bodies. The testing of our faith (the tension) produces perseverance ... which makes us mature and complete. If we let perseverance finish it's work we'll have a strong core.

God is building something.