Feel the Burn

If you have a gym membership and you actually use it, you hate this time of year. ‘Cause all the gym rat wannabes with their shiny new untested “gonna get in shape” resolutions and their brand new sweats and spandex converge on your favorite grunt ‘n sweat spot, bumping you out of your routine and filling up all your favorite machines. You know that soon many of them will be gone as the novelty of their resolutions wears off and they settle back into complacency, accepting their old limitations without further challenge. But for now they fill the gym, pushing against resistances that you scoff at as you turn and trudge grumbling back to your car. Feel the burn.

You drive down the road, passing a homeless person looking for handouts. You assume he just wants to feed his alcohol habit, and so you fire off a condemning scowl and zoom by. Or maybe you’re afraid of how the interaction might go or what he might want if you do stop and talk to him for a moment. So you look the other way, making sure you avoid eye contact with him as you pass him by. Feel the burn.

Then your cell phone rings, and it’s your ex wanting to change the time when she picks up the kids tomorrow. You don’t know whether to believe her reason or not, or maybe you don’t care what her reason is. You just know it means having to change some of your own plans. Or maybe you had no plans but react harshly anyway, since you could’ve had other plans even if you don’t. Feel the burn.

Back at the gym, many of the new wannabes push against the weights and soon decide to give up, choosing to avoid any more resistance and settling back into their old routines. But some feel the burn and know it means they’re getting stronger as they face resistance. And they grow to become stronger than the weight that defines their limit, until it no longer challenges them. Encouraged by their progress, they continue to face the resistances that once limited them and embrace the process of pressing their limits, grateful for the resistance that's making them stronger.

Maybe you’ve mastered the gym. Maybe physical weights present no tough challenge for you anymore. But in the coming year, you will find yourself daily in situations where you will be called to expand your ability to love and to face your many remaining fears. Some of these will be as new to you as weights are to a workout wannabe on the day after New Year’s. Some may be old limits where your love or your courage has plateaued out, where a renewed commitment and a fresh push will be needed to move to the next level. All will present resistance to you.

So how will you respond this year? Will you get your money’s worth out of your membership in the fitness club called Life? Or will you continue to settle for the same love body and the same fear body that you now have, avoiding any of the resistances that challenge you to grow and become more healthy and more whole?

Lucky you, the Life club has enough machines for everyone. No waiting.

So go ahead – feel the burn. As you push your love limits and your fear limits, feel the burn of the flame of your spirit growing ever stronger. It’s a good kind of pain.