My wife has become Mrs. Workout Queen. She's never been in bad shape since we've been married but yet she's never tried to work out either. Sometime months ago she got bit with the fitness bug. When Kristy goes after something she goes after it full-force. She's very black and white and by the book. So my home has been filled with changes. The food in our house in changing, my wife is changing her routines and her figure has changed some.
Anyway so I've been feeling a little behind the 8 ball to get back on track physically. I've never been confused with Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime but I've always been relatively athletic. I did well in the early part of 07 but got out of it in the summer when my schedule got out of hand.
So I've been hitting the gym again... HARD. So hard in fact that Sunday I got to working out. Unfortunately for me I neglected to stretch. In my non-stretching form I decided to grab some dumbbells (appropriate for my story) and went to town. Lifting my right arm and then the left. Back and forth I am sure my workout looked like a locomotive from far away. Well this train barely left the station when something when wrong. I felt a pop in my back. It hurt and I dropped the weights and tried to stretch it out. I figured it'd work its way out. So like an idiot I continued lifting for another 45 minutes convincing myself that the pain would go away.
It didn't.
On Monday I couldn't move. Getting out of bed nearly caused me to cry. Sitting for more than 20 minutes caused me to want to cry. Moving beyond an upright position caused me to grimace in pain. Yep. I did something bad to my back and my body wasn't going to take it any more. Consequently I missed a very important meeting I wanted to attend.
With the help of some over-the-counter drugs I got through Monday hoping to sleep it off. Boy was I wrong. Tuesday was like Monday on steroids. Ultimately I couldn't take it any more. I called a therapy massage place and set up an appointment to relieve the pressure.
This was my first massage ever and let me say it will not be my last. Without getting into all of the wonderful feelings I will say that I thought about theology when my muscles were being rubbed out. During the massage there is strong presssure. At times that pressure feels a little painful. My massuse checked to see that I was okay with it. I was fine. But during that pressure I realized that this is what it means to be joyful in trials not because the trials feel good but because there is something greater to come. In the case of my massage the relaxation that was to come is why I endured the pressure of the massage (and I'm glad I did). In the case of life we have something far more than temporary relaxation to look forward to.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." - James 1:2-4
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