Josiah Road

“Bring The Pain (but be gentle…)!”

posted by Mike Blackaby 20Jan

I am not what you would call “physically fit.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m not fat either, I’m just sort of-ordinary. I was never an athlete in school.

While other kids were trying out for the basketball team, I was practicing my Star Wars trivia. Never quite motivated enough to sculpt myself into a Greek god, I had resigned myself to my fate-then I saw him.

His name was Tony Horton, and his muscles barely fit into the TV screen. Tony was the spokesperson for a new extreme workout program known as P90X, and his infomercial reeled me in like a hungry fish.

I placed my order and waited. The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into a month, and still no P90X. This was problematic since I had completely let myself go in anticipation. Tell a man he only has a week left to gorge on fast food before training begins, and you will likely see the inner animal take over!

When the program finally arrived, everything was in place to begin. I had the weights, the protein powder, and the pull-up bar. My recently softened body was the perfect clay for Tony to mold into a superhuman warrior! I only lacked one thing-motivation.

The first day is expected to be the hardest. But it is nothing compared to the following morning. When my alarm woke me, I was dragged into a world of pain I did not know existed! Groaning in agony, I rolled my devastated body from bed and crawled to the shower. “I hate you Tony,” I muttered as the water ignited my knotted back, “But I’ll see you again this morning!”

I have realized that a person can spend his whole life piling up “what ifs” or “if onlys.” Or, they can push forward and commit to follow God whatever it takes. It’s easy to look at great heroes of our faith and shake our heads in amazement, thinking “I could never be like that.” But Billy Graham wasn’t born a superstar evangelist and Tony Horton wasn’t benching 200 lbs in his preschool (or maybe he was…)! The fact is every last one of us is ordinary. We all have our gifts, we all have our weaknesses, and we all have our vices. The question is does God have you?

God is in the business of using ordinary people to do extraordinary things. We can sit back in envy as others live abundantly, or we can trust God to do great things through us. But we must be willing to press on. All great men and women of faith share this in common: when things get tough, their faith grows stronger. As you relentlessly pursue God through the ups and downs of life, your faith will be strengthened, and you might find that God still uses ordinary people just like you.

“So because of Christ, I am pleased in weaknesses, in insults, in catastrophes, in persecutions, and in pressures. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:10