Day 52
Scripture focus: Remember those early days after you first saw the light? Those were the hard times! Kicked around in public, targets of every kind of abuse - some days it was you, other days your friends. If some friends went to prison, you stuck by them. If some enemies broke in and seized your goods, you let them go with a smile, knowing they couldn't touch your real treasure. Nothing they did bothered you, nothing set you back. Hebrews 10:32-34 The Message
In the translations we've looked at thus far for our scripture focus passage, they haven't quite captured an important word in the text. In the King James Version, it says: But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions.
This Greek word is "athleis" - and it means committed athlete.
My husband is part of a small but hardy group of transformers who continue to work out together - even though some of them are aging up and their knees are breaking down. My husband is an athlete. I love this about him. I love his commitment to physical fitness not just because of his rock solid abs - but because the discipline of the commitment to exercise spills over into other areas of his life. Pete is sturdy; he doesn't cave under pressure. He doesn't have bursts of enthusiasm followed by weeks of recuperation on a sofa with a remote clutched in his hand. When the hard times come, he doesn't run for cover. I want to tell you how comforting it is, and how secure I feel knowing that I'm married to a person who prepares daily for the fight. When we develop maturity and discipline in one area of our life, there's a spillover affect into all sorts of other dimensions of our life.
Today's verse is a sober reminder that we must prepare ourselves for a fight. This is a fight brought on not by petty grievances or bad behaving - this fight is the result of illumination. It's not a skirmish - it's a mega fight. It's huge.
How does one prepare for a fight of such epic proportions?
Here's what you need in your toolkit: you need to sleep eight hours a night, you need to eat regularly and healthily, you need to exercise daily and you need to strengthen your spiritual muscles - daily. You need to find a community to live amongst whose values match your own - or, whose values are those you long to accept as your own. You need to serve within your community. You need to pursue relationships that encourage your training. If you do this, day in and day out, when it's convenient and when it's not - in a few days, weeks, months, or years from now - you may find yourself living in the middle of a thriving, vibrant community of fellow athletes - being transformed, renewed, restored - and growing strong hearts in the process.
Recommended reading: Leviticus 11 and 12 in the morning; Psalm 38 in the evening
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