The FAITH portion of our workout was written by Jadi Rodriguez, FAITH RXD Interim Executive Director and member of the Board of Directors. The FITNESS portion was programmed by Anthony Davis, Games Athlete and FAITH RXD Coach.
FITNESS WORKOUT
The Mindset
Your mindset today should be on both the rep scheme and movements- how they reflect our scripture of reading. Your power cleans are a manifestation, a reflection of the power of the Trinity at work! That work is one of the ultimate acts of love. The challenging burpee strict chest-to-bar pull-up or muscle-up should bring our focus to the ascension of God through His begotten, not created, Son. And lastly, the farmer’s carry represents Jesus carrying the weight of your sins to the cross. Meditate on this before, during, and after your workout.
The Workout
7 RFT
3 Power Cleans (185/125) Rx+ (225/155)
1 Burpee Strict C2B (Rx) or Burpee Muscle-up (Rx+)
60 ft. Farmers Carry (53/35) (70/53)
FAITH WORKOUT
Reading
John 3:16 ESV
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Message
“Is this love? Is this love? Is this love that I’m feeling?” So famously go the lyrics of Bob Marley.
I’m not blaming Bob, but society and culture have grossly butchered their understanding of what love is.
“Love is not a feeling,” is one of the most controversial things I first said to my wife when we were dating. I still say it and smirk. Thankfully things have shifted and I praise God my wife has been consumed by the fire of learning God’s Word and its unquestionable truth and she sees where I was coming from. She still struggles with the fact that love is more than a feeling, sure, because she feels love, but she would not cheapen one of God’s perfect attributes to being a mere feeling.
God is love. It is one of His many perfect attributes. But if we are to expose what that attribute is, we MUST start with an exposition of scriptures that give us insight. And it is without question, unequivocally clear to me that scripture defines love as a verb. An action. Something demonstrated first from God to mankind, then man to God, and finally person to person.
Thus we must first begin with how God demonstrates love to us.
Romans 5:8
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
I am not sure what more I can add to this. Recently I have become convicted of my long-windedness. Anyone who knows me, and talks to me for any amount of time, knows that if conciseness was a requirement for salvation, I would surely face condemnation.
Simply put, I am incapable of being short about anything that I am passionate about. There is nothing I am more passionate about, than God and theology. However, I should not be using passion to say more than what scripture says.
There is a doctrine for letting scripture speak for itself you know. It’s called the sufficiency of scripture. Meaning that the Word of God is all we need. There is no special revelation through dreams, signs, or wonders that can or should be upheld to the same level of reverence as holy scripture. Thus, my elaboration on how God loves you and me requires nothing more than John 3:16 and Romans 5:8. And yet, I will add gravity to the thought.
In our most despicable, in our most rebellious state, while yet still enemies of the Kingdom of God, the blameless and holy lamb that is Jesus chose the cross for you and I. My goodness, the thought alone brings me to my knees!
Have you ever been rude to a coach? Have you ever neglected advice or instruction from your coach? Whether it be at the whiteboard or before a movement or lift? Have you ever then experienced that same coach comforting you, encouraging you? Maybe that same coach has continued to foster your fitness even when you are your own worst enemy?
Yea, it’s kind of like that, but it’s not. Because there really is no example, not even a mother who dies for their child, or a man who dies for his enemy, that compares to the love of God for His rebellious creation.
These other examples are all just poor reflections of the love of God, displayed through Christ, for you and me. Comparing the two would be like working out next to a Games athlete. We may do the same movements at the same weight, but it’s just not going to look remotely the same way.
1 John 4:19 ESV
“We love because he first loved us.”
Love itself is not something we even have access to comprehend, much less perform without God. That’s how totally depraved we are before salvation. Thanks to the regeneration of the Holy Spirit in us, we come to recognize the love of Jesus. Even then, we sure do a poor job of loving appropriately.
We often love things more passionately than we love God. We make idols out of silly things such as fitness, sports, and celebrities. Other times we venture out into deeper waters and make idols out of money, careers, spouses, our children, maybe even ourselves.
There is a certain sense of sad irony in seeing Christians make idols out of things, especially those gifts meant to be stewarded, like spouses and children. You wouldn’t even be able to love them if it was not for God. Yet due to inappropriately trying to love them more, you love them less.
It would be like the athlete who joins CrossFit, falls in love, obtains new levels of fitness, and in their pursuit of glory, takes performance-enhancing drugs.
Do not take your eye off the ball! Do not miss the mark. Love would not even be available to you if not for the Father begetting the Son and the Holy Spirit regenerating you! Why then would you take this precious gift and now go run more passionately for other things?!
And trust me my fellow saints, the Kingdom of God is upside down. By loving God first and foremost, you will be able to love everything in your life appropriately.
Even your body! By loving God first you will begin to be enlightened to the importance of stewardship of His temple. By loving God first you will begin to be more accepting of your own body. For it is designed uniquely for you to carry out His good work! By loving God first, you too can begin to learn how to worship in moving the way God designed, not to make an ornament of yourself, but a proper instrument of the Most High King!
QUESTIONS FOR GROUP DISCUSSION OR PERSONAL JOURNALING:
- How was the workout for you? Did it reveal something unexpected to you, either mentally, physically, or spiritually?
- What things made you unlovable in the sight of a holy God? Do you still struggle with feeling unlovable despite how God has demonstrated His love for you?
- Are you loving God above all else? Are there idols in your life that you need to get rid of?
- How are you treating your body? Do you treat it like the temple and tabernacle were treated in the Old Testament? Are you a good steward of your body? Do you treat it like an ornament or an instrument?
