Part of my job involves teaching young athletes to lift weights. this is something in my past that I really enjoyed. For me it was about getting better each time, breaking records, watching my max go higher and higher. It always made my day; to go in and to squat more than I ever had, or increase my bench press. I loved it when I felt my body getting stronger and didn't feel happy unless I left a workout feeling exhausted. That sore feeling that I felt throughout the day after a particularly hard workout felt comforting; like you did something. I know weight lifting isn't for everyone. It involves sweat, grunting, groaning, clanging of weights and a lot of waking up early early in the morning to get in your lift; none of which by themselves is a whole lot of fun. Truth is it's difficult; if it were easy there would be a whole lot of people walking around muscled up.
These past two years I've been able to be around something rather unique; Perry Wrestling. No other wrestling squad in the nations has won more state titles. Just last month Perry won it's 38th State Title.
Being around those kids in the weight room is something I enjoy. Year in and year out, they win. They win a lot of times with less talent than the other teams; this year not being an exception. Why do they win; most of it is how hard they work.
I had a great conversation with Perry's Head Wrestling Coach Chenowith. Coach was talking about how tough it is for a wrestler to come out and expect to win after skipping his 7th and 8th grade years.
This reminded me of several kids I've coached. Two of them being some of the better athletes I ever coached, both foreign exchange students; neither proved very good at football. Why not? They didn't have the proper technique or experience of the kids who started that year.
Weight lifting, wrestling and a whole bunch of other sports have something in common. No one starts out being great, no one starts out at the top of their game. I've scene too many kids at the 7th grade level walk into the weight room and struggle lifting the bar and give up on weights because they didn't compare to the kids who had been lifting a couple years.
It is very simple. You've got to bench press 45 pounds before you can bench press 250 pounds. You don't go from squatting 200 pounds to squatting 530 pounds (My personal best :) ) You do it in small increments, you go from 200 to 205 to maybe 215 and then after a period of years and a whole bunch of sweat, tears, grunts, groans, clanging of weights and way to many early mornings; you might just squat 530 or bench 250. If you take your lumps your freshman and sophomore year; maybe when your a senior you'll have enough experience and know how to start.
My greatest moment in sports came not when I was 18; but when I was close to 40. In one of my last Rugby matches I ever played in. I squared off against a young 20ish, muscled up college kid. When he saw me I saw in his eyes he had me pegged for an easy mark; eyes that stared at me as if I were a fat old man and shouldn't have been out on the field. After about our third scrum I heard him cussing, about scrum 5 he was panting and that look that had been in his eyes had been replaced with something akin to awe. At half, he looked at me as if he would rather not have to go up against me. After half my shoulder popped out (something I was used to) and I swear he almost looked happy. After the game he complimented me I told him something about old dogs and knowing a lot of tricks.
What he had was strength, what he didn't have was technique and experience. What he had is this little jewel of a verse....
Habakkuk 2
4 Look, his ego is inflated;he is without integrity. But the righteous one will live by his faith.
I'm not trash talking this young man; I'm saying he is exactly like most new Christians. Most are very strong in their desire for loving the Lord; but what they are not is experienced. It's easy to listen to a sermon on Faith and promise yourself in your heart that you have faith; but what happens when life pounds away at you? What happens when you pray and things just get tougher? Read Habakkuk, it tells us exactly this. When Habakkuk calls out, in Habakkuk 1...
Habakkuk 1:2
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you "Violence!"and you will not save?
I love God's response, In Habakkuk 1:God tells him hold on; you think you've scene trouble, that's nothing compared to what I'm about to unleash on you.
Habakkuk 1:5-6
5 "Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.
I truly feel many churches are not treating new Christians properly. In many ways we are expecting new Christians to have just as much faith as people who have grown in their faith for many years. As a new Christian I was Habakkuk 2:5; standing with my ego inflated believing in my heart that I had the faith to overcome any obstacle. Fact was I didn't. I got knocked down time and time again and over a period of time I felt myself grow in my faith. But faith is a lot like lifting weights. You can't just stop trying to grow. You can't just say I've got "x" amount of faith and it will always stay that way. Our God doesn't roll like that. Instead every now and then he calls down the Chaldeans after we cry out for help.
He doesn't do this because he hates us or because he is sadistic. He does this because he is our God and he loves us deeper and more than we can ever imagine. Roman soldiers ripped the flesh from his back. Every sin we ever did or will do bore down on his shoulders while he was hanging from nails on a cross. God doesn't want us to bench 200 pounds and stop or to have only "x" amount in faith and then stop. He wants us to grow in our faith, he wants more for us. Life is going to get tougher. Last week I had to put down my dog, I loved that dog; but I know one day it is going to be close family members that will pass; what then?
I'm humbled that we have a God who loves us enough that he pushes us to grow. Hard times are tough, struggles cause pain. What we've got to understand is that our struggles, our pains are how we grow in our faith. It's something about our belief that is very difficult for many to understand, but it is at the very essence of who we are. It's something I feel deep down that we have to be teaching our new brothers and sisters in Christ. This verse sums it up best....
Ephesians 2:1
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
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