Training with Faith: The Natural and Unnatural

Make it Make Sense

Why do I like to run?

 It’s not a straightforward answer but I’ve narrowed it down to a simple phrase, “It makes sense”. Put in work, get results. You can lie to others about effort but never yourself. You can tell your friends you “went ham” today. You can fill people in on your routine when they ask, or share what you’ve learned about stretching, breathing, eating. Nothing tells the tale like success, or lack of it. Your body knows.

This probably seems a little obvious. Fitness grows through consistency.

 Lower heart rates, stronger legs and low BMI are all rewards of a solid routine. It’s why people run, have always run. Running is good for you. That’s maybe the worst kept secret in human physiology. But it makes sense when other things in life don’t.

Faith for instance, doesn’t make sense naturally. It doesn’t respond to the physical laws of stress and strength. It requires less of you, not more.

Active Faith

A life of faith is trying. “Without faith it’s impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). That’s a principle we learn to operate from. But learning how to believe in the unseen is uncomfortable. I hear people say it’s like a muscle that you have to work. But faith isn’t like a muscle because there is no immediate feedback. You know when you’ve worked your biceps. Your arms become heavy and unusable for a short time. The soreness you feel when lifting a cup of coffee (Yes, donuts too) is directly related to muscle fatigue. But that soreness pays you back with strength. Faith takes longer and stays hidden, but it does come with benefits eventually.

Active faith works like a currency. It’s God’s medium of exchange in spiritual matters. But its value isn’t known to everyone, precisely because it’s not a physical commodity. There is no feedback when you exercise, no timeline for success.

It’s an exercise many of us aren’t up to. It’s ethereal, concerned with trust and patience not sweat and effort. You can’t manipulate it like a running pace. You can’t speed it up when it looks like rain is on the way. You can’t push it off till a more amenable time. Faith changes you. You don’t change it. It’s a currency with a sharp distinction between rich and poor.

Measurable Faith

You shouldn't only focus on what makes sense in life. But some of us are built differently. We’d rather a quiet run than a raucous party, an early morning to a late night. I don’t think runners are automatically introverts but I wouldn’t be surprised either. Running makes sense because we can measure it. Whether you like to use a watch to track your miles or just a look at the clock, we understand what improvement looks like. Beliefs aren’t measurable in the same way. We despise things we can’t measure. We reject ill-gotten. You shouldn’t get what you didn’t earn.

Faith as well, lacks a certain satisfaction that comes from a charted improvement. Humans learn to chart and measure at an early age.

How many had a growth chart on the wall to measure height? You couldn’t ride the roller coasters at Six Flags without surpassing a specific mark. Elementary teachers have grade charts posted at the front of the room. Usually notated with stars or stickers for excellent work. Students know who the achievers are. Maybe this has changed. We live in an increasingly sensitive ‘nanny state’ reality. Success is punished or downgraded at the expense of feelings too often. But even held down, excellence won’t be ignored forever. It keeps score and reaches new heights.

Currency of Faith

A life rooted in faith demands thinking about life counterintuitively. You don’t get to keep score here. You can’t exchange your dollars (You wouldn’t get much anyway). Excellence is rewarded but you can’t take credit. That’s enough for a lot of people to check out. How after all can I track my progress? What does ‘success’ look like?

If it’s a currency how do I get wealthy?

Here’s how it works. Living by faith in God is to give your desires, achievements and successes back, let God build something in you. You must trade your efforts and achievements for a peace of mind, that He knows better than you. It’s giving back your talents in exchange for a better reality and trusting in that trade off. It’s the opposite of running. Running takes the ability God gave you and improves it; Faith takes your ability to God and lets Him build His vision in you. The trust that comes from that difficult tradeoff is faith. He shows you a little, then he shows you a lot.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Conclusion

 It takes time and patience. You don’t get to check off a box or step on a scale, but He’s building a lasting kingdom in you. The trade off is the currency. The more you let you go in faith, the richer you get. It will ultimately make sense.