all who are thirsty on wednesdays

Last night, I did an intense workout at the RSF with Diane and her co-worker for the first time in a few months…. All I can say is, wow. I was beat. After almost 2 hours of straight pushing my body in ways it hasn’t been pushed in a while, I was about ready to collapse. The entire time, I couldn’t help but be reminded of my weaknesses, both physical and spiritual and how much I lacked discipline in my life, both physical and spiritual. I think the first part of Hebrews 12 perfectly sums up how I felt/what I learned from last night.

First, I warmed up on the elliptical, then ran on the treadmill, then did some stair runs, then lunges, then weight exercises, and then finished with some push ups. It was pretty painful. The way it made me feel opened my eyes to how weak my body had become since I’ve stopped pushing myself to exercise consistently. I’ve been slacking off a lot about taking care of my body this year. And I’m starting to feel the results in my lack of energy, weight gain, and how much weaker I’ve gotten towards sickness. (I got sick twice in two weeks this semester!) It also reminded me of my spiritual health, and how I am still so vulnerable to sin because I allowed it to take such deep roots into my life. I thought of all the times I would get frustrated at myself for succumbing to struggles that lingered from my past and questioning whether I had really changed into a “new creation” or not. But like my human body, I realized that my spiritual health is dependent on how much I push and discipline myself. I can’t expect a magical spiritual transformation overnight, just like you cant expect yourself to lose weight and be tones overnight without any exercise. Like PJ said in his sermon this Sunday, we need to go out to get our omer of manna everyday. We need to exercise daily spiritual disciplines, no matter how we feel that day. Because without it, we would die. I felt like I was putting up some sort of resistance towards sin, yet gave in so easily, blaming it on my weakness. But no, in Hebrews 12:4, Paul says In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  As I ran on the treadmill and pushed my body harder than I had in a while, I felt like this is exactly how hard my struggle against sin should be, if not more! In a sick yet Biblical way, I enjoyed making my body feel this way, defeated and desperate for water =)

Up to now, I think I’ve been taking the sissy route to facing sin. Read a few verses, pray, listen to some Christian music, and if that fails, just give in. And if I didn’t feel like doing anything at all, that meant that I had no Spirit in me. No, when the Bible says to struggle against sin, it means to beat my body and make it my slave… (1 Cor 9:27) Living the Christian life means going into strict training. (1 Cor 9:25) This means that even though I don’t feel like working out my spiritual body by reading His word or praying, I need to discipline myself to do it. Its called discipline for a reason after all.   Although I felt so much pain in the moment, I was glad for it because it revealed to me what a mess my body had become due to slacking off. Without the exercise, I would have continued living in oblivion until some serious health problem showed up. It also meant I had begun my much needed training to whip myself back into shape and become healthy again. So starts the intense training of both my physical and spiritual body, to rebuild the temple of the Holy Spirit. 

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. - Hebrews 12: 11-12

~ Manuela <3