Get Uncomfortable

For the past year, I have struggled to find balance between work and home and exercise. Exercise always seems to be the first thing to go when the schedule gets hectic? And when the exercise goes, other things began to hurt as well. Anyone else? I need help and encouragement from other women getting things done and experiencing success.

Meet my friend, Laura. This chick is strong and smart and so so so fun! Read a piece of her story. I hope it will bring you the encouragement you need today.

So here’s the thing...I don’t like working out. Shocking, right?!? Yet here I am, going to the gym twice per week and loving it. Not the actual sweating part because I find that to be laborious and downright stank, but for the results I see and community I have found.

After my second child was born three years ago, we knew our family was complete. One day, I decided it was time to give my body some attention. No more excuses about my lack of weight loss on hormones or telling myself “who cares, I’m going to get pregnant again anyway.” I needed to think about my body from my own perspective and find a comfortable resting place.

For a while I tried some things on my own to stay active and they were all failures. Let’s be real, I need an appointment to show up to and someone to be accountable to if I don’t. Sending a text message saying I don’t feel like working out or lying to get out of a session is harder than just showing up. I trained with a wonderful woman who encouraged me in my physical activities and and my spiritual journey. We would talk about life, faith and goals to distract my mind from the foolishness my body was doing. She moved and my comfortable place ended.

I found a new trainer who encouraged me to join her boot camp sessions. I enlisted some friends to join me and I promised them we wouldn’t be outside flipping tires, running laps or any of those crazy things. So I did it, I showed up. Just as God asks us to do. I was weak and had absolutely no endurance since I had taken a hiatus. But guess what? My trainer was simply excited about my presence and that was all that mattered. I was there. Our gracious Savior is excited for the same reasons. He already has the WOD (workout of the day) planned for us and our presence is everything.

I continued to show up and saw results. And sure enough, I was soon flipping tires and running laps with the best of them. And my results were good. But after a few months the scale stopped moving and the measuring tape read the same numbers. And I was totally fine with that. I figured my body had found its happy place. I needed to focus on maintaining it, also knowing that with continued effort I still may see some improvements. For a year I continued along and celebrated the small successes. A pound lost here and a half inch lost there. All was good, I was doing my thing and I had my routine. Then one day I felt the urge for more. I continued working out regularly and focusing on making good decisions with food. But there were no results. The same actions were seeing the same stale outcomes even though on the surface I was doing all of the right things.

Frustrated, I met with my trainer. She looked at my scenario and was like “Yeah, you need to eat more.” Say what??? She explained that eating 3 healthy(ish) meals a day is not enough to keep the energy alive in my body. I needed a snack between breakfast and lunch and another in the afternoon. She explained that keeping constant fuel in my system keeps it going strong instead of filling it up, running it down, then filling it back up...and so the cycle goes. So I started eating more and using heavier weights in my activities. And boy did I see results! In 3 months I lost 11 pounds and 7 total inches. It was crazy! How could tiny changes like that equal such big results? Especially after a year of no progress. Turns out that when I stepped out of my normal routine, even in the smallest ways, I saw big results.

What if we stay in constant prayer with God and feast on him throughout the day, instead of just when we wake up or lay down? What if we add a little weight to our relationship with him? What if we stretch outside of our current routine with church programs? What if each day we wake up and show up for God?

Discipline is hard. So is spiritual discipline. But once we commit and follow through the results are incredibly rewarding. It goes far beyond my success of gaining self confidence. We are talking about the rewards of heaven! I have full faith that the rewards God has planned for us in heaven will far exceed anything that has brought us joy here on Earth. His word tells us this. So let’s aim for those eternal rewards and not become complacent or comfortable.

It’s super easy to give ourselves a pat on the back and feel good about where we are at. Feeling closer to God is always an amazing feeling, right? But how long do we give ourselves credit? Too long? I’ve done it. I’ve gotten it right and made strides in my relationship with God, only to let it unknowingly become stagnant. And it’s totally unintentional. As with exercise, spiritual discipline takes focus and refinement. We have to do the big stuff. But it’s the little, seemingly insignificant, tweaks to our routine that God delights in. It shows a continuous pursuit of him.

Let’s wake up, show up and boost up our spiritual routines. God notices and he rewards accordingly.

Laura