DEVOTIONALS

Spiritual Essential: Suffering Reading: 1 Peter 1:3-9 “These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold… may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:6-7) You ever had a heavy barbell slip out of your hand? I have. Sometimes, it’s on us. Like when you loosen your grip to avoid the pressure on the callouses. Or when you neglect to wrap your thumbs. But then there are times when it’s not on us. It’

Spiritual Essential: Endurance Reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7) In April of 2005, I took on the challenge of an Ironman triathlon. Almost 2,000 athletes bobbed up and down in the frigid waters of Tempe Town Lake waiting for the gun to fire. Less than five minutes into my 2.4 mile swim I caught a vicious left hook from a fellow swimmer knocking my goggles off. I sat up, recomposed myse

Spiritual Essential: Obedience Reading: John 14:15-24 “If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15) Everybody loves the idea of fitness. But not everybody loves the process. It’s easy to sign up for a gym membership, buy new shoes, or tell your friends you’re going to get in shape. It’s much harder to show up on a cold morning when your alarm goes off at 5:00 a.m. It’s one thing to say you want to train. It’s another thing entirely to actually train. In fitness, we

Spiritual Essential: Grace Reading: Ephesians 2:1-9 Anyone who’s ever started a fitness journey usually says they want to become a better version of themselves. So, we build the plan. We train, prep meals, wake up early, push through workouts we don’t feel like doing, all chasing that future version. But if you sit down with enough people as I have, you start to notice a pattern. Before the plan, before the structure, their life was already heading somewhere. Not by cha

Spiritual Essential: Transformation Reading: James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Walk into any gym and you’ll see it — pain. Not the kind that sends you to the ER, but the kind that signals effort, struggle, growth. Burning lungs, sore muscles,

Spiritual Skill: Patience (wk. 13/13) Reading: Romans 12:9-16 In fitness, most people think progress comes only from pushing to the...