Meditation Metaphor: At the Gym

Since I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes on September 1, 2012, I've been very diligent about making a trip to the local gym four times a week: Wednesday & Thursday, Saturday & Sunday.  Mondays there's no time, since I leave work and have an hour to get everything thrown together to hit the road with my wife for the weekly trip to the prison.  Tuesdays are no good, because after getting in late the night before (after prison) I'm physically exhausted by the time I get off work.  Fridays my body needs a break between the two pair of workout days.

The first thing I do upon arriving at the gym is to step onto the scale and dutifully record my weight on the My Fitness Pal app (which I highly recommend).

I learned early on not to react too strongly to the daily weight measurement.  My weight can swing within a 5-7 pound range from one day to the next, depending on what I've eaten, how long it's been since my last workout, the alignment of the stars, and which socks I'm wearing.  (And don't forget to put down the iPhone when you step on the scale - it adds a good pound or two, more if you have a lot of Skillet songs downloaded)

The history graph on My Fitness Pal gives a better picture of how I'm doing. The graph leaps up and down like a cardiac monitor during a stretch on the stair climber, but by looking at the bast month or the past 3 months I can see the general direction of its movement (or lack of  movement).

Losing weight is a slow process.  It's hard to be motivated to stick to the plan when someone in the next office over brings in a bag of fresh bagels in the morning. After getting past the initial fear that eating half a bagel would put into some sort of diabetic coma, my only real motivation is to look at that slowly dropping chart.

Even slower is the upward change in my muscle tone and strength.  Not only am I eating less and doing more cardio exercises, I'm also working out regularly with weights. I do this because I've read that muscle mass burns calories faster than other tissues.

Who am I kidding?  I pump the iron because, like most guys, it's the weight machines and barbells that get my adrenaline pumping and make me feel like a true gym rat.  And that self indulgence helps motivate me to go to the gym.

But there's no simple app for measuring my muscle mass.  I suppose I could chart the increase in the weight settings for each machine or the bench press.  But those numbers move even more gradually than my weight.

The only way to see the gradual changes in my physique is to take a monthly selfie of myself with my shirt off, doing the classic Charles Atlas pose.  And I'm afraid my wife and son would laugh at me if they were to catch me in the bathroom doing that.

Actually, I notice the effects of my gym time the most when I discover myself doing something I haven't been able to do for years.  The most recent example would be when I climbed the stairs at the library, a habit I've worked on as opposed to taking the elevator.

Just the other day I was halfway up the staircase when I realized I had been taking the stairs two at a time. In my teens and twenties I would scale stairways in such a fashion and just shake my heads at the slow old people I left in my wake.

Now, at the age of 57, I surprised myself by behaving like a teenager again.

I should note, for the sake of honesty, that I noticed I was skipping steps because after the third such double-step My knee reminded me that I am not in fact 17, and what did I think I was doing.

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.  This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.  That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.  I Timothy 4:8-10

Meditating on the Word according to a scheduled and consistent routine can sometimes be difficult to sustain. Many days the verses and chapters just don't jump off the page and produce rapturous visions of glory.

It's difficult to chart the changes that training (from the Greek gumnasia, from which we get our gymnastics) in godliness are working on our spiritual fitness.

Just as physical fitness presents itself most often in an occasional, "wow I look/feel better" moment, godly fitness tends to show its face when we're actually walking by faith, keeping in step with the Spirit, laboring and striving to do the things God has called us to do.

Don't expect to enjoy the fruit of your meditations unless you're also bearing the fruit of exertion.