Worship With Workouts
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Will Durant
I love basketball, go Mavericks! I've loved it since I was little and one of my favorite memories is when Michael Jordan and the Bulls were coming to Dallas in 1998 during Michael's "farewell tour" of games My dad, knowing what a momentous occasion this was to get to see the GOAT in person, took us to Reunion Arena as early as he could get off work. I remember walking all over the area around and in front of the arena talking to people selling their tickets and trying to find some. We spent hours looking. As the game went on and we were missing out, I was convinced we'd never get tickets and it would end before I ever got to see MJ. Somehow, some way, my dad got us tickets and we made it inside. From up high in the stands, absolutely packed in with all the other fans, I got to see Jordan play.
I wanted to be like Mike, who doesn't? I wanted to run, jump, dribble, shoot, and dunk like he did. When I got into middle school, I got into a public league and managed to find a coach who would become as close as family to me. I told him I wanted to be like Michael Jordan, that was my dream. He told me he would put the time into training me if I would put in the effort to learn. One day, during an especially intense practice, I started to get so tired and frustrated I wanted to quit. Coach Andre came up to me and reminded me of the goal I had set with him, to be like Mike. He said the most prophetic words then and there, "Everyone wants to be like Michael Jordan until it's time to train like Michael Jordan."
When I say that we can worship with our workouts, I do of course mean physical workouts. As believers, our bodies are considered Temples for the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19-20) and because of that we have a great charge to care for them with the food we take in, the work we put out, and the level of respect we show it in all matters. However, I'm also referring to the spiritual workouts that we can struggle with just as often and tediously as we struggle with the physical workouts.
The average person needs 20 minutes of elevated heart rate to maintain body composition, and anything at and above 30 minutes can trigger fat burning. That doesn't sound like much, at all! I don't want to act like everyone's schedule is wide open all the time and no one has anything on their plates. But within 24 hours, I bet most of us could find 30 minutes. Why, then, is it that exercise and weight are such a struggle in our country?
Habit.
Plain and simple, the answer is that forming the habit of exercise and diet is difficult for the human brain. In an article in Psychology Today, a team of experts studied what it took for the average American to form any habit and the research showed that it takes at least 18 days of repeated behavior. At or around this threshold, the brain starts to form a "reward" for itself for completing the task, and it will send all kinds of prompting signals in order to get it. Once the threshold is crossed, our brains will literally beg us to perform the new habit all day until we do it. It begins to need the habit completed in order to feel right. As you can imagine, this can be very good or very bad, depending on the habit in question.
When it comes time to start the long walk with the dogs or hop on the treadmill after a long workout hiatus, I'm always so disheartened to see and feel how little my body is able to do. I want to do a 45-minute sprint and look like one of the Pelaton models I see on billboards! But, when I reach for the strength and endurance to make it 45 minutes, it's simply not there. I want to run like a sprinter, but not when it comes time to train like a sprinter. How could I expect any different? The results will always echo the preparation.
Our spiritual lives are the same. During the week, when things are mundane and monotonous, I can easily slip into complacency and start shirking my prayer time, my devotionals, my prayer journal, my time with God in scripture, all of it. Then, when life hits and it's time to face a storm, I want so badly to stand against it like David before Goliath or Daniel before the lions. I want to brave the hurricane and stand firm, unmoved, and unwavering, as though I deserve that kind of strength without putting in any of the effort. Naturally, that doesn't happen. When I ignore my spiritual workouts, I'm confused easily, misled easily, anxious easily, and most definitely afraid easily. How could my results be any different when my preparation is minimal at best?
When we sit with God for a devotional, when we set aside time before work to pray fervently, when we read scripture with intention and focus, when we attend church, when we go to Bible study, all of it is a form of workout and all of it is worship. We can no longer allow ourselves to think we can have the results of a strong and unflappable faith without putting in the daily effort of building a strong faith.
This morning I encourage you, wherever you are on the path of exercise, to get back on track. Whatever that looks like for you. Whether it's minor tweaks to an already formed habit to keep it fresh and strong, or starting the habit at day altogether, YOU are worth the effort! Let's use 2025 to set the habit of worship in this way.
