Trying to Stay in Shape is Hard.

Trying to stay in shape in post-grad is pretty hard. Every time I watch basketball highlights or go the gym to watch and play, I get a temporary inspiration to "get back to being where I was." So when that inspiration hits this climax, I muster the strength and courage to go to the gym and tell myself "you're going to work for this." But it's not but the first time on the treadmill or the attempt to touch the weights that I'm reminded how hard all this stuff is. I go the basketball court to watch and imagine what I used to do but I lack the discipline to carry it out. My body reminds each time I try to do an explosive move that I'm not capable of being where I used to be. It's like I feel this weight that pulls me back from doing it. And as much as I push myself to carry through with the move, I can only hit these rare moments of being 60% as explosive as that guy. And I use excuses of being older and things not coming as easy as it used to be, but in the end, like in life, if you want it, you work hard for it. You beat your body to attain the goal. I have the desire but not the discipline.

And yet, it's in this that I find that it's very similar to how it is pursuing one's faith once you start to get older. Often times, retreats, conferences, the experience of college fellowships were great gifts from God to either enter us into the kingdom for the first time, pull us back when we stray, or outright shatter our preconceived notions of all that we thought we knew about Jesus. But when you strip it all away, and "life doesn't come as easy as it used to," the unsexy value of discipline is often what keeps you straining forward in the right direction. Most of us want to grow our spiritual lives and grow deeper with Jesus. We hear a great sermon, go to a great retreat or conference, and get this climax of inspiration to try again. But after the music stops, and the preacher goes home, what are we left with?

I think that at this point in my life, I realize the value of all those great things that the church and campus ministries put on. I'm super grateful for them all and hope to partner even more with them in the future. Heck, our church does them too. But if all we're chasing is an experience, or a "'new" take on Christianity, I'm afraid we're chasing a felt need more so than God Himself. Working out our salvation with fear and trembling is going to be a fight. Warding through all the counterfeit gospels, and lies of even "Christian culture" takes wisdom that only comes from God's word and the help of the Spirit to help us understand it. But may we stop making excuses or finger pointing for why we've grown stagnant or gone astray. May we instead come with a posture of lowliness and ask God to help us for it is Him who works in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Sometimes the hard part of graduating college is that God removes the blinders and for the first time allows you to see idols you didn't even know were there. He does so in love. He does so for our refinement. He does so for our joy. He does so for future ministry to the nations. He does so for His glory.