Biggest Loser: Jesus Edition

I think someone literally poured a vat of molten lava over San Antonio. I cut my jog short today due to a slight case of dehydration. Symptoms as follows: salty face, red skin, light-headedness and then the dreaded chill bumps...and dry heaving into the bushes whilst tourist stopped and gawked. No, sweet family of four enjoying the Riverwalk, this is not a product of my Friday night antics, which consisted of my couch and a pint (or two) of ice cream.  I was simply not ready for the heat. 

Spring time had me fooled. I thought I was hott stuff, choosing mile number 6 simply because the day was unfolding into a beautiful evening and I wasn’t ready to turn back and let the day go. Spending an hour on the treadmill, jamming to some tunes in the cool serenity of my gym, lulled me into a false sense of fitness. Now, after gagging several times in public, reality has punched me in the face. I haven’t been training in the heat.  

It’s easy for me to think that my endurance in the temperate 73 degree evenings translates into the same mileage when it’s a meager 101 blazing degrees outside. Maybe I’ve gotten too comfortable in my climate-controlled life, forgetting what it’s like to push until you puke, to run past your comfort zone and then a little bit further. Maybe the consistency of the treadmill beneath my feet, never taking me anywhere, but pushing me just hard enough to maintain my outward appearance, has deadened my soul’s need to turn a unknown corner to search of something more.

The Gospel is wrecking my life right now. 

It tells us to be ready to give an answer to our faith ‘in season and out’, but until I found myself on my knees in public, heaving out bile because my workout got too big for my color coordinated britches, I had no idea what that phrase meant. (not to say that I do now..but I guess I'm closer...kinda)

It’s incredible how much time I spend working out to tone, strengthen and gain endurance. Spiritually though, I’m overweight and sedentary. Eating meal after meal, I expended nothing. I sat on it, growing only cellulite and my spiritual pant size. Yikes. I’ve got some exercise to do. I’m talking straight Biggest Loser: Jesus Edition.

I’ve got to stop simply ‘saying’ the gospel, and ‘be’ the gospel instead. The Creator of the Universe has imparted His spirit on me and yet no one can tell a difference. Am I truly reading the Word if it doesn’t break my heart and turn my world on its head? 

Love is a tangible action of selfless origin. 

So, I’m going to run. I’m going to run with reckless abandon toward the One who gave His life. I’m going to strap on my shoes, tighten up those laces and hit the trail to see what He has in store for me. There will inevitably be times when I get lost, and fear creeps in causing my stomach to sink into my knees. There will be times when I happen across a meadow and drink in the sunshine. I will scrape my knees, roll my ankle and probably puke a few more times as I regurgitate everything I know and transform the fat into muscle. I will cross streets, climb mountains, jump potholes (or more likely, fall into them), but I will continue. 

It's not like I'm doing this alone. Starting with Christ, our little running club will grow. Inviting others into this open-armed gang, we will run. We will cross streets, climb mountains, fall into potholes and help dig each other out. We will bandage blisters, tape ankles, and offer whatever unwounded limbs we have when our comrades fall off the curb. 

What does it mean to be ready in season and out? I don’t have all of the answers, but what I do know is that I am going to try to be the church I want to see, and allow Christ to love through me, in spite of me, and to me. 

Jesus loved with an incomprehensible depth. It was constant, sound and pure. My love is volatile, selfish and about as reliable as the 1996 Mazda I drove when I turned 16. But with the love of Christ residing in my soul, I should be able to love with a magnitude uncommon in our world. Should, being the keyword. 

It’s easy to get caught in the guise of saying that Jesus was just speaking in extremes, ‘go sell everything’ ‘feed the hungry’ ‘carry your cross’ because to read the Gospel, to truly digest what Jesus is saying, is the most terrifying thing I have ever done. 

The Gospel is wrecking my life, what’s it doing to yours?