Faith Works 1-20-23

Faith Works 1-20-23
Jeff Gill

Faithful fitness deep in wintertime
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How's that resolution going?

Yep, rhetorical question. I know, it's not going well, because they rarely do. You haven't read me recommending resolutions for a new year, because I just don't see them as a good tool for self-change. Great for gym memberships, terrible for transformation.

Speaking pastorally, I've got to start out by saying, and as a Christian I'm going to Jesus this up a bit: you really need to do some spiritual surrender to see your life change, and not try harder. Seriously. (Or srsly, if I were texting you this.)

It all starts with God, and about God. It's a God thing, I'm saying. So much personal improvement runs onto the rocks of "me"; not so much in terms of selfishness, but in framing the issue as something you can and should and must do. I must put myself on the path to change, I must do the work, I must be able to . . .

Look, I have a gospel message for you. God loves you. Exactly as you are. Period.

Yeah, I hear the chorus: but God hates sin, God doesn't love brokenness, we are called and chosen to . . . fine, all true, but let's start where Jesus started. Not where most personal trainers start. You are a beloved child of the Most High right where you are, whatever your weight or resting heart rate is. God loves you, and has a plan and a purpose for you. Rest in THAT, please, and get rooted in that. Now. To start with. As you are.

Got it? God loves you, and yes, loves you so much that you might just find God working to move you somewhere different than where you are right now. Where? I may not be the best person to answer that. You and God can, though. You don't talk to God much? Well, that's my one personal trainer, physical fitness mandate to offer. You should spend more time getting in tune with, in listening to God, until you have some faint sweet sense that you are hearing where God wants you to go.

I strongly doubt that will mean running for most of you. But I have a friend who finds God out there on the running track or plodding along the slushy streets even in winter, putting in miles, and communing with the Lord. That's not a commandment for us all, that is his communion.

Again, the point is not that you put more effort or work or will power into trying to do what God wants out of you: God loves you. Know that. And in accepting that knowledge, and living into it, I firmly believe you will find a path opening for you.

That path might go to and through a gym, a program, a coach, a friend or accountability partner; God might guide you around the block, to the park, or just around your living room in high-stepping during the commercials as you watch TV. You may adjust your diet, but I have to admit I don't even like that word. Too much baggage, I say, and I'm a preacher who likes to try to renew words with baggage, like repentance and salvation. But the word diet may just be beyond redemption.

Just eat, eat what you like, and more importantly, eat what blesses you. And I do believe that if you come to an awareness of how God is at work in you already, you'll figure out what to eat to live, and be blessed, and in communion with God's purposes.

Maybe even with some bread and wine.


Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's working on both surrender and acceptance, and praying for health as a consequence, not a reward. Tell him how you stay fit for God's glory at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.