New Man Strong

I used to watch boxing in my younger days, and I always enjoyed predicting who would win.  Both fighters talked a big pre-match game, but one of them would end up being the loser--sometimes in mere seconds.  What I observed is the fighter who appeared more heavily muscled often tired more quickly than the other.  This led me to conclude there can be a fighter who works out in the gym to look cut and fit, while others grow lean and strong by training and boxing.  More often than not, the fighter with better endurance was able to focus their strength with sound technique after the more ripped fighter was winded with fatigue.

Today as I chipped away at an old stump, it dawned on me that working is the best exercise because it produces multiple benefits.  There are many people who "work out" today for personal health, yet there is not necessarily any "work" accomplished.  People sweat by running on a treadmill or climbing a stair-stepper but do not go anywhere; they lift weights yet do not move anything from here to there.  The weights are set back on the rack, and the benefit of this kind of workout is a temporary strain of the body that builds muscle or burns fat--but the benefits are limited to a body that is perishing.  It is fine to exercise our bodies to improve and maintain physical health, yet how much better to remove a stump, dig a trench or build a wall at the same time!

When I worked in a trade, there were older fellows I called "old man strong."  While young men spent hours a week in the gym working towards shredded abs or bigger biceps, men in the trade worked on the tools for their living and survival.  These old men could wrangle wooden 12-foot ladders like a stepstool because they learned to control the weight and had mastery of balance and leverage by long experience.  Many a strapping young man was humbled by an inability to work with the endurance, speed, dexterity and strength of old timers who were strong by building physical strength through doing real work--not with the aid of a pool, treadmill, bike or a gym membership.  I believe there is are spiritual parallels in these observations.

Even as some people work out to improve their physique for themselves or others can see, spiritual disciplines like reading the Bible or going to church can be for show.  Paul said he did not run the race God set before him aimlessly, nor was he as like a boxer who only punched the air.  He compared his discipline in labouring to do God's will as a runner sprints towards the finish line and a boxer who spent hours on the speed bag, heavy bag, and absorbed blows to strengthen his body to win (1 Cor. 9:24-27).  If we will be fruitful for Christ's sake, we must abide in the Vine Jesus and seek to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.  Better than being spiritual body-builders who flex to impress judges or fellow contestants, we ought to plough up the fallow ground of our hearts, remove the stumps of unbelief and clear the ground of sin that springs up like thornbushes with repentance.

Having been born again by Jesus, we are to become "new man strong" by working out our own salvation as new creations by reliance on our LORD as Paul wrote in Philippians 2:12-16:  "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³ for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. ¹⁴ Do all things without complaining and disputing, ¹⁵ that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, ¹⁶ holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain."  Knowing we are God's workmanship, we are to do all things without complaining and disputing and hold fast the word of life.  As we discipline ourselves to practice such things as we follow Christ's example, our labour in doing God's will shall not be in vain.