After the end of my years of enthusiastic, excessive consumption of alcohol and miscellaneous substances, I found hidden within myself a wealth of motivation that had been stifled and untapped for an unnecessary length of time. One of the things I have endeavored to do with that motivation is build up my body to the healthy and acceptable physique that I had always desired but had heretofore been unable or ill-equipped to obtain and sustain. This relatively new hobby of mine coupled with my spiritual-oriented mind has led me to draw several parallels between spiritual and physical growth.
First of all, it does not happen overnight. A person cannot peruse a chapter or two of the Bible and expect some enlightening epiphany that will change their lives from that day forward. To build your virtues and enhance your peace you need to make a lifestyle of spiritual strengthening just as to really gain physical results that you are able to see in the mirror, you cannot expect to go for a jog once in a while and one day wake up forty pounds lighter. It is imperative that you make a lifestyle of exercise if you wish to transform your body. It must become your daily routine, a part of who you are.
Secondly, if it is muscle you are attempting to put on, you are going to need to suffer a little. The point of strength training is to push yourself through as many repetitions as physically possible – until it hurts. After a good bicep exercise, you ought to be barely able to lift your arms to wash your hair. No pain, no gain, we all know that. I can’t imagine that we could become better people by simply passively hoping that one day we will be different without really going out of our way and making a conscious, pain-staking effort to change.
Results are slow. You can aggressively lift weights for months and see nothing. There can be a temptation to give up, it’s not working after all. But one day you look in the mirror and notice some bulk where there had previously been none, or a vein that has emerged that had previously been buried under a thin layer of fat. You will never be able to consciously follow your progress. It’s like trying to see the hour hand move on a clock. You don’t actually see it move, you just eventually notice that it is father along now than it was then. Spiritual growth may be even slower than physical growth in this respect.
It is uncomfortable at first. I felt very awkward moving my limbs on an elliptical in an act of mobility that had previously been entirely foreign to me. To make matters worse, there was a giant mirror in front of me so I could do nothing but look at this goofy-feeling motion I had to go through to accomplish my goals. But now, after jumping on the elliptical on a regular basis for well over a year, it feels and looks (to me) as natural as brushing my teeth. We only feel uncomfortable doing unfamiliar things so long as we are seeing ourselves as outsiders acting as insiders. As soon as we become familiar with the exercises and the heretofore unworn fitness attire and we begin seeing ourselves as one of the “fitness people” the uncomfortability goes away. You no longer feel like a poser.
You will not always feel like working out, but you do it anyway because that’s just what you do now. Once you begin doing it, as tired as you may be on that particular day, you will find a new rush of energy to see you through it and you realize there was nothing to complain about to begin with. So, if you really don’t feel like going to church, do it anyway. Once you’re there, it’s easy and you may even enjoy it. I really ought to start following my own advice.
It makes you more attractive. A spiritually mature and emotionally stable person is attractive just as a leaner, healthier body is generally more attractive. I don’t want to sound shallow, but some things are the way they are whether we like them or not. That’s just the way it is.
You will hit plateaus. When strength training, you will not see any immediate results, but within a couple months, most people notice some changes. After a while, your body becomes very noticeably different and you think that if you keep this up, you will be the strongest man alive. Then comes a time when you realize you have made no noticeable progress within the last several months. You have reached your peak and it seems you cannot become any stronger. When making emotional and spiritual progress (building a relationship with God Himself), we will inevitably encounter dry spells where no amount of effort we put forth is enough to bring us to a higher level of strength, but if we keep plugging away, we find that one day, out of the blue, we are once again gaining strength.
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