Transformed Physically

Here’s a news flash from Captain Obvious:  Our culture is hung up on its physical appearance.  I realize this is earth-shattering news but I wanted to be the first to break it to you.  We’re worried about how we look.  The health and fitness industry is somewhere around a gazillion-dollar business with everything from pills to food to fitness programs proliferated across all methods of media.  We want to look good and we’re not afraid to pay, starve and sweat for it.  Thing is, according to the bible we’re making payments on real estate we don’t own.

We’ve been bought and paid for by our Father in heaven a couple of thousand years ago.  He paid dearly for us too; he gave his own Son for us.  We should respect the price and the act but unfortunately we miss it most of the time.

While we’re shooting for buns or abs or whatever-of-steel we need to know our efforts, while laudable, are fueled by our desires to look good for swimsuit season or sport six-pack abs; not so much for the glorification of the One who made us.  Paul called us mere jars of clay.  When he wrote to the church in Corinth he put it bluntly:  “My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are weak.” (2 Corinthians 12:9).  We are weak.  We break, we crack under pressure and we need strength we don’t possess whether we’re trying to finish that last set of reps, overcome depression or cope with one of our fellow humans.  The bottom line is, many times we just don’t get it.  We just don’t understand.

God hasn’t put out a video or an online course or meal plan but make no mistake; he has something in mind for us.  His plan is, unlike all the others, limitless in the strength, willpower and self-discipline departments; areas where we need the most help after all.  When we put our trust in his regimen we can have the confidence that he has our best interests in mind.  The best thing is he doesn’t ask us to make five easy payments, there’s just one installment.  His counsel and his advice depend on your lifetime (not LifeTime) membership.  He has a vested interest in the one he owns after all.  Who purchases a Ferrari and then parks it in a ramshackle garage?  Who buys a mansion and never paints, cleans or maintains it?  He clearly has a plan for us if we’ll only follow it.  The problem is our inclination is to trust in some late-night infomercial before we trust in our Lord.

It sounds silly, but it’s true.  We rely on our own willpower to complete a plan we devised.  What are we thinking?  I guess we’re really not.  Thank God there’s grace.  Thank God our Father loves us so much that he doesn’t quit.  He’s never thrown in the towel when the day’s been too long, the night’s been too short or he thinks he tweeked a hammie.  God doubles down on us.  He plows all his efforts back into us and persists.  He turns around and breathes new life back into our failing efforts, jar of clay that we are, and keeps us going IF we trust in him, IF we believe in his plan and IF we will draw on his strength.

Knowing God is present for us always in our struggle providing us strength is a great comfort in whatever we’re trying to accomplish.  With him behind us, there’s nothing we can’t do.

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