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Muscling
In on the Competition
By Jerri Phillips
Lately, I’ve been doing some
exercises to tone my muscles. To work on
my legs, I do some squats and some leg
lifts. For my arms, I bench press my
children one at a time or do child-curls
interspersed with nibbling their ribs. Of
course, I’d argue just carrying my
twenty-five pound son around should have
its own exercise name. In order to
“help”, my little ones take
turns sitting on my stomach while I do
crunches.
As you can tell, I have great workout
partners. I don’t know how efficient
my muscle toning is, but the relationship
building is a lot of fun. Granted,
I’ll never compete for Ms.
Supermuscle this way, but that
doesn’t really bother me. I
don’t have to have ten-inch biceps
to pick up my children, nor do I need
tree-trunk thighs in order to pull my
precious ones in a wagon or play tag. My
muscles may not be the biggest, but they
are still perfectly functional for my
purposes, and I’m happy with them.
In fact, most people I know are pretty
happy with their muscles, and amazingly,
I don’t know many people who ever
get near weights. The majority of the
people I know don’t pick up anything
heavier than their children or
grandchildren, and if you discount the
little people in their lives, the
heaviest thing they pick up is the trash
to carry it to the curb. These
aren’t people you’ll see in
Muscle Weekly or Big Bicep Digest. These
are just your normal people who never
give the size of their muscles a second
thought, and yet, they are quite happy
and function normally.
I don’t know anyone who refuses to
move a chair because he can’t bench
press five hundred pounds. When God
provided Anna’s bed, the woman who
helped me get it home couldn’t dead
lift 200 pounds, but she still helped me
put the bed in her van so she could
deliver it to our house. Despite the fact
that no one I know can squat several
hundred pounds, no one lets that prevent
them from walking.
I know you are reading this thinking
I’ve developed quite a bizarre
muscle fetish, but it’s just that
I’m curious about something. If we
don’t let the size of our physical
muscles cause us to shrink from physical
activity, why do so many Christians allow
their seemingly under-average spiritual
physique prevent them from ministering
and serving?
It never occurs to me that if my arms
aren’t the size of Arnold Schwarz
nagger that I can’t clean house or
fix dinner. Probably never occurred to
you either. In fact, we can laugh at the
absurdity of such ideas. Yet, we often
compare ourselves to spiritual
“musclemen,” and when we
don’t measure up, we become
paralyzed by our seeming inadequacies.
So what’s the deal? Personally, I
think there are a few potential causes of
these problems.
Sadly, I think pride and insecurity
create a destructive atmosphere of
competition. We, and I confess that I
battle these issues as well, desire
recognition and accolades which means our
performance has to be perfect, or near
perfect. If we are incapable of achieving
a particular level of perfection,
specifically one demonstrating our
superiority to someone else’s
abilities, we choose to do nothing at
all. Other times we truly have a sincere
heart, but fear of embarrassment or
failure debilitates us.
In both cases, there is only one
solution, prayer for change. I have found
that pride and insecurity are often
rooted in a fear of rejection. In such a
case, the only solution is healing
through the Spirit.
Let me say that I have personally dealt
with pride and insecurity, and I feared
the Lord dealing with those issues,
especially the pride. I was afraid God
would pound me into a state of humility.
I was afraid it would be a painful and
wrenching process, but to be honest, I
don’t remember it being so. I
don’t recall ever feeling crushed or
battered. The Lord showed me gaping holes
in my personal view of myself and even
bigger holes in my perception of Him, and
as I confessed my need for those holes to
be filled with His truth, He gently
reconstructed my understanding of Him and
who I am in Him. The process itself
isn’t always easy, but the
Father’s touch is always merciful.
Even now, I still deal with pride and
insecurity at times, but now I seek the
Lord’s transforming work without
fear.
I think another reason people choose not
to flex their spiritual muscles is the
false idea that they must be perfect like
Jesus before they can serve Him.
Ultimately, our goal is to become
increasingly like Jesus, but if we all
wait until we have attained perfection,
we may as well hang it up now and rot
away in our beds. My friend, our only
perfection comes from the shed blood of
Jesus. If we wait for our actions to be
perfect, we’ll be defeated for the
rest of our existence on this earth. The
Apostle Paul struggled with his renegade
flesh battling his spirit (Romans 7). He
did not purport to have obtained
perfection, but that did not stop him
from striving for it (Philippians 3:12).
In the mean time, he worked diligently to
disciple and lead others to Christ.
Indeed, we are to seek Christ’s
perfection, but it will take an eternity
to accomplish it. In the meantime, there
are souls to be sought and people who
need us to minister to them.
Before you tell me that you aren’t
as mature as your pastor or Bible study
leader or whomever is the source of
comparison for you, keep in mind that God
never asked you to be like any other
person. He asked you to be like Jesus,
and since He knows you and I will never
be perfect, perhaps there is another way
He desires for us to be like Jesus. Maybe
He desires us to be like Jesus in our
hearts for service.
Jesus did what He could to help people.
Sometimes that meant He did great things
such as raising a widow’s son from
the dead (Luke 7). Sometimes it meant
that He ascribed worth to a woman whose
only gift to offer was to was His feet
with her tears and dry them with her hair
(Luke 7). Sometimes He was very limited
such as when He was asked to leave the
Gerasenes (Luke 8:37) or when people in
His home town doubted who He said He was,
thus making it impossible for Him to do
many miracles (Matthew 10:32). No matter
how great or small the need, Jesus was
always willing to minister, and you can
minister, too.
“Jerri, I’m not on the level of
those big name ministers.” No
problem. Do you know what Paul says in
Romans? Romans 12:8 says, “For by
the grace given me I say to every one of
you: Do not think of yourself more highly
than you ought, but rather think of
yourself with sober judgment, in
accordance with the measure of faith God
has given you.” Paul then lists the
different gifts, and he says to use them
in accordance with our level of faith.
Simply stated, work on the level where
God has you right now. Don’t think
about where you are not. Focus on what
you can do where you are.
Not many people can lead revival meetings
like Billy Graham, but everyone I know
can tell people that God has blessed
them. Maybe you can’t head up a trip
of mercy to an area devastated by
tornadoes in order to pass out clothes to
the victims, but you can buy a coat for
the boy down the street whose dad is hurt
and unable to work. Jesus said, “If
you’ve done it to the least of
these, you’ve done it unto me
(Matthew 25:40).” He goes so far as
to say, “If anyone gives a cup of
cold water to one of these little ones
because he is my disciple, he will
certainly not lose his reward (Matthew
10:42).” Do you see? Christ
isn’t demanding great things. He is
just asking for great love.
Do you know what Paul lists as gifts of
the Spirit in Romans 12? He lists
prophesy, service, teaching,
encouragement, contributing to the needs
of others, leadership, and mercy. Can you
do any of those things? According to the
Bible you can. Unless Romans 12 is wrong,
and I have no reason to think it is, you
have one of those gifts. If you notice,
most of those gifts will never land you
on television behind a pulpit. Most of
them will never afford applause or
accolades of any sort, and yet, Paul says
the body cannot function without them.
The gifts listed are not comparable, but
they are all invaluable.
Maybe you don’t know the Bible as
well as your pastor does. Big deal. You
don’t have to have a Ph. D. to
encourage someone. Maybe your gift is
teaching, but everyone else in your
church seems to be better at it than you
are. Try teaching a Bible study for your
neighbors or for people in a retirement
home who aren’t “over your
head”. Never allow someone
else’s spiritual physique to cause
you to be paralyzed in your spiritual
service. Just as we all function within
our physical abilities, we must learn to
function at the level of our spiritual
abilities as well. It is absurd to refuse
to carry a sack of groceries because we
can’t pick up a car. It is just as
absurd to refuse to minister on an
“everyday level” because we
cannot command an audience of thousands
of people.
Sometimes I hear people argue that the
topic of Christianity holds such huge
consequences that it should be left to
more prepared and better trained people.
It is the seriousness of eternity that
makes it imperative that we all do as
much as we can to display Christ, and the
reality is people will not be moved by
our vocabulary that is void of curse
words. They will not be swayed by our
refusal to allow pornography into our
homes. They will be drawn to Christ by
only one thing, our being like Jesus, and
we can all do that. Maybe you don’t
have the faith to move mountains yet. If
you have enough faith to minister to
someone who is hurting or confused, you
have the power to impact a life and move
the heart of God, and that, my friend, is
powerful stuff.
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