Posted on Thursday 2 July 2009
Wednesday morning I got up with Cyndi at 5:00 AM, once again, to go to the gym and lift weights for one hour in Body Pump class. I can’t believe I got up so early – this is not who I am or who I hope to be or even my ideal of a perfect guy. I am, in my DNA, a night owl, and I would rather stay up all night reading than get up so early in the morning. The story I told myself when the alarm went off at 5:00 AM was that I wouldn’t be any happier getting up at 6:00 AM, or even 7:00 AM. And it’s impossible to make an impact on the adult world the way I want to if I sleep in to the double figures every day.
One reason I got up so early on Wednesday was because that’s the day Cyndi teaches and I wanted to go to her class, to support her and learn from her and watch her do something she’s very good at. But as supportive as that sounds, I’m not really so noble. Cyndi has been teaching early morning classes of one type or another for most of our marriage and I have almost never gone to any of them. Way back in the old days I stayed home because one of us had to get the kids up and ready for school. Then in later years, I didn’t go simply because I wanted to sleep instead.
But this past spring, and now summer, I’ve been trying to get fitter and build more muscle and lose a significant amount of weight, and I cannot fit in enough workouts using only the middle parts of the day. To reach my goal I’ve had to inconvenience myself.
As Erwin McManus wrote (in Wide Awake), “You can’t just sit back and hope that the life you long for will simply come to you.” Anything worthwhile is hard work and inconvenient.
This morning as we went through the warm-up sequence with light weights, all of me (back, shoulders, legs, arms, knees, neck, hair) was stiff and gripey for being called into action so early. I had the same thoughts I’ve had during the first few moments of many road races, and many heavy backpacking trips, and every marathon: Why am I doing this? Who thought this was a good idea? Why can’t I live a normal life that isn’t so hard?
But after working through squats and clean-and-presses and triceps and biceps, well, I eventually tossed aside my doubts - probably because those thoughts were displaced by other thoughts of proper technique and pain management. But also because, at some point, I started to feel strong and mighty and lean and hard, in my own way, and then I was proud of myself for working so hard when most of my friends were still asleep.
And then, after an hour, we were done. We’d finished with abs and even with our cool-down stretches. I was ready to go home for a hot shower (or maybe to crawl back into bed for 30 minutes).
The Apostle Paul wrote: “But I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” (I Cor. 9:27, NAS)
To be honest, I don’t know exactly what that means. I doubt Paul went to weight lifting classes. I think he probably was a runner at some point in his life because he referenced it so often in his writing.
But even more mysterious than Paul’s workout discipline is - what did he means that he would be disqualified? Disqualified from what? Preaching? Writing? Traveling? Mentoring? Who knows? We’ve all been influenced by teachers or preachers who weren’t the least bit concerned with physical discipline, who were decidedly unfit and didn’t care. They didn’t seem to have been disqualified, so what did Paul mean? I don’t know.
But I do know that working out and running and gives me a life with more choices. I can take a group of guys from my Bible study up Guadalupe Peak. I can join my band of brothers, the Iron Men, in an outdoor boot camp workout and share lives with them. I can walk 70 miles in one week with Cyndi and John in Karimoja, Uganda.
The most surprising thing is that I’m not good at any of this. I have no natural athletic skills; I run too slow, weigh too much, limp too often, and quit too soon.
Yet, I never take it for granted. I’m grateful to God for the opportunity. As John said while we were cooling down after a run at Aberdare, Kenya, “Working out is a luxury.”
I don’t know how long I will keep this 5:00 AM thing going, but I hope to always be doing whatever I can do, whatever it takes, to keep from being disqualified to teach and preach and influence. That would be too much to lose.
“I run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free.” Psalm 119:32




