I really hate to admit to this, especially in writing. It’s bound to be used against me at my inevitable sanity hearing. But recently I burned more calories on my exercise bike in one day than I had in the half-dozen or so years since I bought it. We were having company and I burned all those calories—here’s the crazy part—by wrestling the monstrous machine out of sight and into storage. When I say I “burned” those calories, I mostly mean that for days afterwards it felt like I’d been dropped into an active volcano.
Doesn’t it seem simply owning the machine should be enough to get me into shape? After all, I invested a big hunk of money in it. I was just sure I’d see the muscles bulking and the fat melting even as I handed the salesperson my debit card.
Do you ever encounter people with the same kind of warped thinking regarding God’s Word, thinking that by finding the biggest, fattest, most expensive Bible, there’s automatically more spirituality? Or maybe some who think that writing that tithe check suddenly gives special understanding of the will of God?
When we’re told in Ephesians 6 to put on the armor of God, we’re instructed in verse 17 to “take” the Word of God. Not just buy it. Not simply write our family history in it. Not to merely set it on a shelf for some kind of spiritual protection. We’re not to just glance at a few pages now and then. No, we’re to “take” the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We’re to wield it. How irrational would we consider a soldier who strapped on the sharpest, shiniest sword, then went into battle trying to bop people in the head with its sheath? He would be sooner destined for a sanity hearing than even I am.
In Ps. 119:45 and 48, the psalmist says, “I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. I reach out for your commands, which I love, that I may meditate on your decrees.” And in verse 32 he says, “I run in the path of your commands, for you have broadened my understanding.” Wow, walking, reaching, running—I think I’m in better shape already!
It inspires me all the more to stretch myself. To use God’s Word—really use it—and let it continually be at the center of everything I do and everything I am. It’s at those times when we’re walking in, reaching for and running toward Him and toward His Word that we find we better understand His will and we’re equipped to do what we were designed to do. We’re fired up in every good way.
I suppose I should also get a bit more fired up about using the exercise bike to do what it was designed to do. People say we should work toward having a strong core.
Then again, I’ve always thought I should be careful about messing with my core. Because what if I find out my core is actually made of molten lava?