Workout

John 15:9-17

Recently Annie and I began running and walking in the mornings together. This is something we usually try to do once a year and end up quitting after a week. We are in the middle of week two, and appear to be more determined than we have been in the past—at least we haven’t quit yet.

One of the reasons that we have started running is because we put on a little extra weight over the last few months coinciding with the birth of our son. We spend more time with him and less time paying attention to ourselves. I thought about posting a picture of myself with no shirt on with this post to demonstrate just how out of shape we are, but figured it would be flagged by blogger.

But what does any of this have to do with our gospel text for this week. Even though we are friends of God and able to share fruit from God because of God, if we become spiritually out of shape it will show. When we become spiritually soft around the middle we are unable to share God’s love in the most effective way possible. Love is powerful and, as an action, it has the possibility to change the foundations of all that is broken in this world.

It is impossible for you to take a stand with love against every ounce of brokenness in the world. For one thing that job was completed by Jesus and for another if you tried you would probably fail and then get frustrated and then just quit caring all together. Well, maybe that wouldn’t happen to you, but it would most definitely happen to me; although, if were made to make a guess I would guess that it would happen to you too. So what about this; rather than standing up against all that is evil and unjust in the world, why don’t we covenant to stand up against those things we come in contact with in our own back yards. I don’t claim to know what that is for you, I am still trying to figure out what it is for me, but what I do know is that we need to start today. We need to take steps to be spiritually fit folks who bear good fruit and serve our neighbors to the fullest. If we work together in our own back yards with God working through us then we can hope for the kingdom of God on earth and the light of God may come to the dark places of this world.

I struggle to say that being spiritually fit requires that we stand up against the brokenness of the world, but if we are not standing up against the brokenness of the world then we will become weak, our muscles will atrophy, and it will be extremely difficult for us to bear the fruit of God. The nice thing about a spiritual workout versus a physical body workout is that we must rely on God completely to finish the former (it is possible that I would do better with my physical workouts if I relied on God for them).