When Not to Wait – Just Do It!
Arriving at the gym today I circled the parking lot several times before finally finding an inconvenient place but grabbed it anyway before it was gone like the rest. Why the gym frenzy? Well, it’s early February. There’ll be plenty of spaces in three or four months when the resolutions made in the past four or five weeks become fading resolves. Very predictable. It happens every year. This curious phenomenon caused me once — sometime back at another gym — to do a little research. The gym manager graciously gave me all the figures. She was curious too as to why people paid good money for membership, faithfully kept up the payments, but seldom (or never) came to the gym to exercise — beyond, of course, the first few weeks after joining. I had a hunch. My hunch was right. Here’s what I found.
The Gym and the Church Share a Common Malady — and Share It Equally!
Yes, it seems good people with great enthusiasm, and with good intentions to do a good thing while providing good money, all eventually come to a place in time where the actual execution of the good thing becomes optional, the enthusiasm wanes, and many — though still hopeful — fail to execute. I compared the stats of the church I was serving with the gym I had joined. Identical! The percentages were exactly the same — i.e. the percentage of our church members who did not attend church equaled the percentage of gym members who did not come to the gym while in both instances their financial commitment never wavered. What’s more, the timing of those not attending — relative to time joined — was the same for both.
Equating Gym and Church — How So and Why?
Both hold promise for better health (though in different realms) if clientele access the services offered.
Participation in both is voluntary.
Both assume monetary commitment to be a part of membership.
Both involve regular attendance but don’t require it to maintain membership status.
Though each seeks to be attractive neither church nor gym promise to entertain its clientele. (However, churches would not be remiss to seriously consider what a friend of mine recently said upon being ill and having to find a church on line: I actually [unbelievably] have even found some enjoyable [services]!
Warning! This paragraph could change your life. Continue reading at your own risk!
Lumping gym and church takes this whole subject out of the moral realm into its proper realm — that of mental/physical. Bestselling author Philip Yancey exercises regularly. In his book Prayer — after telling his story of how he came to understand the importance of exercise and the fact that prayer won’t make it happen — he says these momentous words: I learned early on never to ask myself, “Do you feel like running today?” I just do it. In his next sentence Yancey refers to an author friend: The writer Nancy Mairs says she attends church in the same spirit in which a writer goes to her desk every morning, so that if an idea comes along she’ll be there to receive it — consistency, the simple act of showing up.
Mimi and I have a dear friend, Sue, who, like Nancy, knows about showing up. We spoke with Sue last Friday. She’s regular at the gym and at church. She’ll be 100 next month! (Note: That word above — never — is key. Asking yourself intentionally just once “Do you feel like running today?” may end it for good.)
Making Marriage Happen — Just Do it!
I’m going out on a limb, but my pent-up thoughts on this are begging for expression — i.e. with the solemn, weighty, far-reaching, (every synonym in the dictionary) aspects of marriage fully noted, I think many should be popping the question who don’t because of being too #!@*&% cautious. Just do it! God guides us when we ask him, but he guides us each uniquely. For whatever it’s worth here’s a smidgen of my story. It was a God-thing that Mimi and I met (long story) and a God-thing that I found myself on the phone with her — me, the leader of a guy’s group, and she being directed to call by her girl’s group in organizing a benefit party for the Young Life leader and his wife. (Note: I had become deeply interested in knowing Mimi better and was waiting prayerfully for an opportunity. But our difference in age, etc., made action on my part feel awkward.) Here’s what happened before Mimi hung up: “Oh yeah, one more thing,” she said. “All us girls are getting dates for the party. Tell your guys to do the same.” God spoke to my heart something like, “I’ve done my part. Your turn now. Just do it!” “Do you have a date?” I asked. Our 64th anniversary is coming up in June.
With Apologies to Reinhold Niebuhr
My last blog was about the virtues of waiting. This blog is about the virtues of doing. A suggested prayer: God, grant me the ability to wait when I’m called upon to wait, and the power to perform when called upon to act, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen.