The Point of Working Out (Hint: It's Not Looking Sexy)

So, I have gotten better at working out lately, thanks to a knee injury in January that made me organize my life around physical therapy and workouts. The habit stuck even as I got back to a more normal life.

Here's why it's actually working for me to exercise:

I am exercising because I know I'm valued, and so I value myself.

This is a new thing for me. I tried in the past to be consistent in working out so that I could look like the fashionable girls in the magazines or someone I saw in the grocery store who looked stunning. But this approach generally failed, leaving me feeling fat, homely, blobby, frumpy, unseen, dumb, _________ (insert an adjective if you know what I'm talking about).


THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED. (Shout out to my Purpose peeps.) Late last year, I started seeing a counselor, which had been a very scary prospect up to and including that point. But once I started counseling, it got, well, terrifying. But here I am, after going through some excruciating soul-bearing, and I am realizing that I value myself a whole lot more. There was something about being really listened to, and then about being shown God's grace glowing into my own specific life, that changed me.

Now, when I work out, I see it as an act of discipline with double benefits:

a. I am maturing my will by doing something that takes discipline.
b. I am experiencing God's love by taking care of my body.



I want to mention two Bible verses that apply well to working out:

"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ [Jesus]."
-Galations 1:10

"The Lord [God] does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
-1 Samuel 16:7b



The way I see it, there are two paths to exercise:

PATH A

I look at a magazine, admiring a celebrity's figure (outward appearance). The celebrity is described in the magazine as "sexy", one of modern America's ultimate compliments. I think, "Hey, this person does look sexy! I bet all the guys want her! I need to look like her." I start working out to look like her.

If I fail at Path A: I feel "unsexy" and rejected by other people, guys in particular, and decide that this means I am worth less than the sexy model in the magazine.

If I succeed at Path A: I feel "sexy" and start relating to people as if I am sexy, meaning I encourage other people to want to have sex with me. I feel wanted, get arrogant about it, look down on "unsexy" people, and like the lust I am encouraging in others (the point of being sexy). I look for other ways to get people's approval...until I get older or fail to work out or get pregnant and then fail at Path A's system (see "If I fail at Path A").

What success means in Path A: Looking better than my friends and in fact everyone I see and causing others to want to have sex with me, whether I am married to them or not. Being loved in the way a sexy person is, which means I am confusing lust and acceptance with true love.



PATH B

I know God's love and grace for me enough that I know I'm valuable already. Why? Because Jesus took away everything that devalued me. I read in the Bible that God wants me to honor him with my body, and that I am not my own, but that I was bought at a price (see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). I am my daddy's girl, and, like in the old song, I can see God saying, "Take good care of yourself; you belong to me."

I decide that part of this taking care of myself includes putting good, and not bad things into my body, and also pushing my body through exercise in order that it might be stronger and that I might be better able to know the joy of serving him physically. I allow myself to take baby steps as I work out, celebrating every little victory, the way a loving daddy does with his daughter.

If I fail at Path B: Jesus still loves me, forgives me, and gives me unlimited second chances to follow him in this pursuit. I am just as valuable to him as I was when I started, and as valuable as I would be had I "succeeded". Even better, he sees the fact that I am trying as a success already!

If I succeed at Path B: I reap the benefits of being and feeling healthy, and God has the chance to teach me new truths (try it--you'll see!). I am also improved on the outside as my body starts looking more like he created it to look (he didn't design my body to be unhealthy).

What success means in Path B: Following Jesus, denying what I feel like in the moment to win a better prize. Taking good care of what God has let me borrow. Knowing the only TRUE love--God's love. I mean, who doesn't want true love? Experiencing the process of his love making me more and more beautiful inside and out as I look more and more like my daddy.



I am learning to look in the mirror and see someone he decided to form out of nothing instead of looking to see whether I am sexy or not.

I highly recommend Path B--be loved and learn to take care of yourself from the beautiful one who loved you so much that He let His body break...


...that your body might become His very temple.