Feel the Burn

We started our summer office workout series today, woohoo! I am loving our bi-hourly crunches and arm toning...it makes the day go by faster to think of it in half-hour increments. There's something about group exercising that motivates me more than solo workouts; I don't know if it's the competition or the comraderie, but it's nice to know that someone else is feeling the burn right there with you. Some are breathing through the pain, others are whining through it, as our boss gently yet firmly leads us through five minutes of killing calories.

But what is it about "the burn" that's so motivating? To me, a burn means that I'll end up with results, with progress; with so much effort going into it, I know that it's going to be worth it on the other side. And how God that this is parallel to my life! I don't believe you have to go through pain for everyyything in life, but I know that there are times when God places trials in my life to increase my faith and trust in Him...and if I didn't suck it up and go through those times, I certainly wouldn't be where He has me now. I can breathe through it, or whine through it, yet He'll be gently coaching me along the way - if I am willing to listen to His calming voice. There's that verse where a hundred years is but a second to God, and a second is a hundred years..those five minutes seem to go on for a while, and each thirty minutes seems to pass by quicker than the previous. But the sooner we go through it, it's like, "okay God, we persevered through that - what do You have for us next?" I love equating my physical strength with my spiritual, because they are surprisingly equal; my progress in one area motivates me to tone the other one.

By the end of the day, the whining had ceased considerably, either from exhaustion or the hope of soon being done altogether. But it definitely opened my eyes to how I'll complain my way through trials, instead of praise my way through...I may reach the same destination as the person next to me, but my ride will be a whole lot smoother if I take the focus off of my own issues. God always always always has something bigger at hand than I realize...