People At The Gym Amaze Me

I know I refer to the gym a lot—but you must excuse me…it is my hobby…and I noticed something the other day that was a little funny and disturbing at the same time.

Why do people go to the gym? To exercise, right? (Well—there ARE some who go to socialize and then brag about the hour they spent in the gym—none of time was spent working out though—but that is another post for another time.) Sorry I digressed—back to my point.

So I am cruising around the parking lot the other morning and I noticed something I have never seen before in my life…a car waiting on a parking place that is about three or four spaces closer to the door than the one they could have had. This amazes me—people go to the gym to run, to sweat, to work out—and yet we want to park as close to the entrance as possible. WHY? So we won’t have to walk as far?

I will admit that I have done this in the past…I want to get in the gym…but I want to be close to the door…I want for it to be as easy as possible for me to get in there and then get out. God forbid I have to walk a lot—that would be a challenge. I am laughing right now—seriously, think about it this way…people will go into the gym, get on a treadmill, run at 7 mph for 45 minutes; however, they don’t want to walk an extra 20 feet when it comes to actually getting into and out of the gym.

This happens every day at gyms all across the nation…AND it happens in the lives of people who claim to follow Jesus everyday as well.

Ask any Christ Follower and you will probably get the same answer from most of them, “Yes I DO want to follow Christ. Yes, I do want God’s will for my life. Yes, I do want to serve Jesus.” As a pastor I have NEVER received any pushback when I speak on people getting involved in church or asking God to show them His plan for their lives. Seriously, I spoke on that this past Sunday and people were pumped UP!

The problem is this—many of us DO want God’s will—but we want an easy and convenient way in…and just in case we don’t like it…an easy and convenient way out. Somewhere along the way someone told the church a lie…and the church bought it. The lie is this, “Following Christ is ALWAYS easy…it will always feel good…it will always be anything and everything YOU want it to be. And if you are not completely happy then you are probably not following Christ.”

This, in my opinion, is one of the most destructive thoughts within the church today.

I have stated before on this BLOG that I am happy, that I feel as if I am in God’s will, that I would not trade places with anyone, anywhere, for any reason. But I do not want to mis-lead anyone by conveying that what I do is always easy and always makes me feel good. And I definitely do not always get my way when it comes to following Christ—I had to learn early on that HE does not exist to serve my needs…I exist to serve His. If you really do think it is God’s job to make you happy—friend, you have problems.

Following Christ is awesome…but it does mean at times we have to do things we might not enjoy doing. (That is another destructive thought…if you don’t completely enjoy it then it must not be God’s will.) I have had to release staff members before—I did not enjoy that. I have had to tell staff members “no” when they wanted to do certain things or make certain purchases—I did not enjoy that. I have had to speak at funerals of dear friends who have passed away…and that has NEVER been fun! But in no way am I thinking that by not enjoying certain elements of my job OR by having to do things that are difficult that I need to get out of this profession…or give up my pursuit of knowing Christ.

Take Jesus for example—in the Garden He asked God to “take the cup” from Him. He knew the cross would be painful—it was not going to be fun—but it was a part of following His Father & so He did it…AND He did it with the proper attitude. (Philippians 2:5)

Keep in mind that following Christ is the best decision anyone could ever make. However, we must get past this notion that it will always lead to us doing whatever is most convenient and happens to give us butterflies in our tummies. Sometimes it is rough…sometimes it will take extra effort…sometimes we may be inconvenienced…but if we stay the course then the Kingdom advances, we mature, and everyone wins!