Exercise

 I hit the exercise hard yesterday and today. Since January I’ve been watching the calories and doing a lot of activity/exercise. Lots of traveling for a month, so now that I’m back I want to pick up where I left off. I was reflecting on what I was feeling when I swam today: Very tired arms (little sore from weights and yesterday’s swim).

 I’ve been thinking about spiritual “muscles”. This has come up several times lately in the lives of friends around me (and actually I’m in the midst of it as well). 7 years ago I experienced a huge disruption in my life which caused me to grieve very seriously. Now others looking on might not categorize this event as something that serious, however, due to my situation, the circumstances of my life leading up to it as well as where I was during, it became a large ordeal. This caused me to dive into prayer. This could be a good thing, but the prayer was so dry and empty that it was discouraging to continue. Several friends of mine have recently “broken up” with a serious relationship, or experienced some other sort of serious heart breaking situation, and it seems that most of them are going through a similar experience.

 In a nutshell, when we lift weights, we are actually tearing down muscle tissue. Then, in the resting time following, the muscle rebuilds itself and heals and becomes stronger. We have to experience the discomfort of the “tearing down” in order to “build up”.

 When we pray, and it’s an experience of feeling full, peaceful, and joy, praise God. That keeps us going--- like endorphins. God knows when we need that. Sometimes we need to just walk slowly on the treadmill. Sometimes we have to have a rest day. If all we did was have rest days, well, we all know what happens then—we get lazy. We get complacent. We take things for granted. Then we get sick easier, more tired, etc

 But when God plays hide and seek with us—when He seemingly disappears (He hasn’t, He is still with you, but you just can’t sense Him), we have to work harder. We have to exercise the spiritual muscles in order to grow. We “Tear down” (read: grow in humility) so He can build us back up. God is acting as our personal trainer hollering: RUN! Or just 5 more—you can do it!

 I’ve never been a complete couch potato. I’ve gone in cycles with my exercising (I could swim a mile). Since I’ve started this past January though, my intervals are longer and faster. My heart muscle and lungs have gotten stronger, which gives them a bigger capacity. So when building the spiritual muscles, I have a bigger capacity for love, and to receive more of God’s love that I wasn’t capable of holding before.

Artist

God is the divine artist. Think of your most intense moment working on whatever art you are gifted with. Time doesn't exist. You are complete and utterly present and focused on the object- the small nuanced brush strokes, the space between the notes, the one augmented chord to give hope, the subtle timing in humor, the perfect articulation of poetry, true real beauty. This intense passion you had for a flash moment is merely a drop of water in an ocean of mercy that is love. The intense timeless crazy head over heels love and care that God has in his masterful work of art that is you. Stop fighting him, He's painting. God is the divine artist.