Momentum is powerful. As a coach, I look for opportunities to both create and sustain momentum in our athletes. Each of those requires a unique approach. It is one thing to create momentum and quite another to sustain it. When it comes to fitness, motion is key, because it’s the catalyst to getting fitness started. No motion, no fitness. This is based on Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion – An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion. Your kettlebell isn’t going to swing itself. Although that would be kind of cool if it did. It requires a force to act in opposition to it sitting there on the ground and guess who provides that? You. You create momentum!
To understand where momentum can take us in our physical lives, we need a bigger picture view of fitness. Fitness does not exist by itself. In other words, I don’t just wake up one day having arrived at fitness, as if it’s my only option in life. Fitness is at one end of a pendulum known as health. When we consistently abandon our healthy behaviors, we will no longer remain fit. Instead, that pendulum will swing to wellness, and eventually to sickness. Sickness, wellness, and fitness form the framework of the health continuum. Fitter people have a better chance of living longer, more productive lives. They have the lowest chance of developing diseases such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes. Momentum is what carries someone away from sickness and on to fitness. It’s also what must be sustained in order to remain fit.
Spiritual Fitness functions on the same continuum, but with different underlying conditions. Pride, selfishness, external self-worth, and self-reliance are all classic presentations of a person who is spiritually sick. Like any disease, people learn to live their lives around their conditions. Some will simply blame their life on their circumstances or the people around them. For them, the glass is not even half full, it’s empty. But it doesn’t have to remain this way. All it takes is a little spiritual momentum to get things going. That’s as simple as reading a Bible verse, praying to God, or stopping to observe nature realizing it's all from a Higher Power. As you gather momentum, you’ll no longer live a spiritually sick life. You’ll begin to see the world differently. You’ll put other’s needs before your own. You’ll set a positive example for your family and friends. You will abandon old habits or mindsets realizing they won’t take you where you want to go.
To be spiritually fit is to live a life ordered in and around the rhythm of God. You’ll find more peace and more freedom than you ever knew possible. And your way of living will have a long-term positive impact on everyone around you, even though you may never see it. Don’t copy the customs and behaviors of this world. Rather, allow God to transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will come to know God’s will for you – His good and perfect and pleasing will. That, my friends, is powerful momentum.
Questions for Reflection: Post your answers to the comments below
How has spiritual momentum impacted your life? Can you recall a moment where you made a decision that began positive momentum?
In today’s reading, how does the spiritual momentum of the woman at the well affect those around her?
If you could “get the ball rolling” with God in one area of your life, what would it be?