Muscle Up

Every day, as I face the challenge of my body failing to meet my expectations, I am reminded of all the advice I have given to patients over the years in my physical therapy career. If you don’t use it, you lose it. I have reminded people that aging can be challenged but not defeated. After all, Ponce De Leon failed to find the fountain of youth. Two effective weapons against aging are mobility and strength. This can be further defined by effort. Choose the movement, choose the might. I laugh remembering a patient who told me you either rust or you wear out. More truthful than any of us would care to admit. So when I came to this portion of the scripture about loving God with all my strength, I knew it would present a challenge that would convict my sometimes spiritual couch-potato existence. It spoke to my struggle with apathy, where ideas about direction and intention never materialized. The kind of mindset where you are inspired on Sunday by the sermon and the idea of growing with God looks good on the notes in your bible. But by Monday morning, your get-up and go has gone in another direction. No wonder my joy and a sense of purpose are often weak and downright anemic. Sometimes it’s because I haven’t put the muscle God gave me to use, and the strength He has equipped me with into my relationship with Him.

Strength is all about effort. There are no gains in human strength without first tiring out the muscles you have. So I had to ask myself what spiritual muscles are and how they differ from heart and soul? To love God with all my heart comes from that deepest place of desire within me. To love God with my soul is for me to surrender all of myself, personality, will, talents and emotions to Him and the relationship I have with Him. Now, to love God with all my strength is where all these attributes are used with all of my intention and effort. This means it’s where I really follow through. Utilizing the energy He has empowered me with and engaging all the capacity to achieve what He has designed for me. It is more than desire, more than intention; It is where I muscle up. The force of life I have been granted is meant to be used daily as a catalyst to further my relationship with the Him and my relationship to the world around me. Though we are not justified in our standing with God by any work we do according to scripture, it is certainly realistic to be conscious that faith without works is dead once we come to Christ. (James 2:14-26).

This means effort and strength are the evidence that our faith isn’t “rusting it. It is wearing out” symbolically for the kingdom. This is why God tells us in His word that those who wait on Him will have renewed strength and will run, not grow weary, walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31). When I use my strength for Him, I never run out, for He is my strength, my energy source. But I have to show up for work. The human muscle will not develop without fatigue. When I exhaust my physical muscles with an effort by lifting and through workouts, it is during the rest and recovery phase where the muscle actually hypertrophies (grows bigger and stronger).

If you have ever made a spiritual effort toward growing in your relationship with Christ, if you have ever moved toward a deeper faith, you know what I am talking about. It is right at the point of exhaustion where you cry out and say, ‘Lord, I cannot move one more muscle in this trial, in this deed, in this effort for you.’ When I rest in Him, I suddenly discover that my spiritual muscles have developed, and now not only has God given me strength, but He has now blessed me with endurance. I admit I always saw myself as a spiritual sprinter. You know, bursts of energy that I could expel for short distances, fast and glamorous with a bit of glory and perspiring glow at what I thought was the finish line. But then I learned walking with Christ and a life of faith was a marathon, and my spiritual muscles would be required to cover long distances. I learned the finish line was far further than I anticipated; the course was steep at times, and forget glow; I was going to get dirty and sweaty in this race called life where all who cross the finish line are awarded first place. Loving God with all my strength risks injury demands commitment and discipline and develops a healthy cycle of work and rest. It is all about muscling up, being all in with every scrap of energy I have for Him first and foremost.

I can be very intense in my efforts and energy, whatever I am doing. I believe this is what God calls us to (Colossians 3:23-24). However, if I put all my effort and strength into priorities of my choosing things that will not be of eternal significance and fail to give God my best, then I may look spiritually healthy but inwardly be weak and fragile. I will fail to grow and reach my potential for God and myself. To be my best for Him transforms me into the best I can be, no matter what standard is set before me.

I accepted a long time ago that I would never be a star athlete. Oh, I am somewhat in shape and try to stay that way to be a good steward of my health. Outwardly if I live long enough, I will continue to face the effects of aging. But inwardly, I can be a champion, a real powerlifter, even an olympian if I bring all of my strength to You who gave it to me, to begin with.

Lord though I am weak, you are strong. Though I am fatigued, you energize me. Though I can be lazy, you can inspire and discipline me into shape. You alone are worthy of all my strength and efforts.