I began working out again recently. Before Micah was born, actually while I was unknowingly pregnant with him, I ran a marathon. Well, "run" might be a stretch as our time didn't set the running world on fire, but I jogged a lot of it and I completed it. I think it's fair to say that going 26.2 miles qualifies me as being in good shape.
But when I was pregnant with first Micah and then Liam, I stopped exercising pretty much altogether. Not a great idea. So now I'm working hard to get myself back into shape. I want to
feel good about myself, but I also want to do all that is within my power to try to be around for you guys as you get older.One of my new challenges is a spinning class. I've been taking them for a few weeks now, and they are a good, sweaty workout. I was doing okay with endurance drills and RPMs, but I got hung up every time on being able to stand and ride on the bike. It seemed impossible to me and I would look around the room and try to figure out how all of these people were doing it.
So yesterday, I went up to the instructor after class and asked her about it, really wondering how long it would take me to be in good enough shape to do what the rest of the class was doing. She kindly and politely explained to me that I was probably doing it wrong. We sat on bikes next to each other and she talked to me about the resistance levels on the bike.
Turns out, I was doing it wrong. I was assuming that because I was inexperience on the bike, I should keep the resistance level to a minimum until I worked my way up to the higher lever. In actuality, what you're supposed to do, especially while trying to stand and pedal, is keep the resistance at a higher level. When the resistance is low, the bike is harder to control and the rider ends up doing all the work and trying to lift her entire body weight on her own with each rotation of the pedals. When the resistance is high, the bike actually takes on a lot of the work and supports the rider better, making it easier, despite the tension in the wheels, to control the bike and maintain a standing position.
As I drove away from the gym that morning, I found myself thinking what a great parallel that concept is to our life of faith. When we are trying to do life on our own, going out of our way to avoid resistance and anything that we perceive will make our effort harder, we end up refusing help, doing almost everything on our own, and ultimately making our daily living much harder.
When we allow for some resistance and welcome the challenges, however, we must choose to give up control. We admit that we can't do it on our own, and we accept help and support that ends up making our journey easier rather than harder. The resistance is critical to building up our energy and strengthening us, thus enabling us to face bigger challenges as they come.
But we can't do it alone. We're not just giving up control, we're specifically giving up control to God. It's a hard lesson to learn for me, your dad, and anyone who has a strong streak of independence in them, as I suspect the two of you will too, as the early signs of it are already there. But we can't live a full life of faith without allowing God to take over and carry us through. And life really isn't experience to the fullest unless we do.
Love,
Mommy
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