God Strengthens

Most of my friends know that I'm a runner. I enjoy running, and I will push myself to great lengths to do it every chance that I get. 

But being a runner isn't just about running. That is, if all you ever do is run, you won't be very good at it, you won't get faster, you won't be able to go further, and you'll probably get injured. A lot. You might make progress in some of these areas, but your progress will be slow and small and, at times, incredibly discouraging. And, if you're running for fitness, then running alone is unlikely to dramatically change your body composition. At least, not in the ways that you want it to. 

If you want to be a good runner, you have to be a cross-trainer. You have to invest yourself in strength and resistance workouts just as much. You have to give your body some definition across all muscle groups if you want to use most efficiently those muscle groups that power your running. And doing so gives your body the kind of definition that you're looking for, too. 

Strength and resistance training are kind of tough. It's not just about lifting weight; it's about lifting weight over and over again. It's about doing it once, then doing it twice. It's about doing it more tomorrow than you did it yesterday. It's about getting in reps, and then doing those reps in more sets.

That's not numerical; it's not a statistic. It's about tearing your muscles a little bit at a time so that they can fill back in with muscle. It's about tearing them again so they can put a little more muscle there a second time. It's about moving them in a bunch of different ways so that you're opening up all kinds of spaces for new muscle to grow. It's about doing something, letting your body feel it, then doing it again to remind your body what it feels like. 

The repetition is key. Our bodies depend on it. 

So does our faith. 

As Hosea was working his way through an unfaithful marriage and through chasing his wayward wife down again and again, proving his love, redeeming her, chasing her, demonstrating God's faithfulness, he reflected that God trains and strengthens us (7:15). And the way God does this is the same way that we do with our bodies. 

He does it through repetition. Through stressing and straining and creating spaces for bigger faith muscles to fill in, then stressing and straining all over again. Through giving us opportunities to do it all over again, to keep believing, to keep hoping, to keep loving, to keep praising. Through letting us feel it, then letting us feel it again.

Because only when you start to feel it again do you start to understand how strong you really are, how strong you're getting. 

If all you ever do is the same thing you've always done, you won't be very good at it. You won't get faster nor go further, and you'll probably get hurt. A lot. Whatever progress you do make will feel so small and so slow as to be discouraging, and you won't see the kinds of changes in your life that you want. 

That's why you have to cross-train your faith. Not just persevere in the same practices you've always had, but invest in new things. Engage in strength and resistance. Let your faith stretch you, tear you a little bit. Let it create spaces in your life to get stronger. That's how you get the kind of life of faith that you want. 

And God is good to do it. He's always right there cheering you on, pushing you, inviting you to pick it up and do it one more time, one more time, one more time. 

Believe. Trust. Hope. Love. Live. 

That's how we get stronger.