The Power of Cheering On One Another

My sixty-something friend dragged my sixty-something self into CrossFit.

Of all the things our tiny town doesn't have (movie theater, EarthFare, Target--you get the picture), it, of course, has this most grueling workout community.

My proudest moments came when, in the beginning, I mentioned to my daughter and daughter-in-law what I was doing. They sounded astonished. So I thought I must be onto something.

What I was onto--now into--was an entry into pain I have never known. Only a nominal high school athlete and medium workout adult, I had stayed on the edge of fitness land, never pushing myself to any extreme.

Did I mention CrossFit is extreme?

Now several months in, it is my turn to be astonished:

Our bodies have a strength potential we rarely tap into, true at any age.

Initial, extreme soreness galvanizes into body parts coming to life.

My biggest spiritual lesson, however, is how much I depend on the encouragement and cheering of our leaders, Jama and Amy, and each other. It truly helps me push myself harder.

Is that what Hebrews 12:1-3 means?

[Discipline in a Long-Distance Race] Do you see what this means--all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running--and never quit. No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed--that exhilarating finish in and with God--he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

It is stunning to imagine those who have gone before us are, at this moment, cheering us on. It is possible that:

Our spiritual selves have a strength potential we rarely tap into, true at any age?

Initial, extreme resistance to this spiritual race galvanizes into soul parts coming to life?

Jesus was made fit for the cross by his endurance and wholesale surrender to God.

We are made fit for the accomplishment of the cross by our endurance and wholesale surrender to Jesus.

Thanks, pioneers, for cheering us on.

Thanks, Jama and Amy, for cheering me on.

Thanks, my sixty-something friend, for dragging me into learning how to be fit for the spiritual--and physical--long-distance race of life.