Friday, 18 June 2021
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run [their very best to win], but only one receives the prize? Run [your race] in such a way that you may seize the prize and make it yours!” – 1 Corinthians 9:24 AMP
One of thee most disciplined sports is bodybuilding. It’s amazing how everything they do is intentional and has a purpose. For example, a man who weighs seventy kilograms requires about 1600 calories a day from food. So depending on what they are trying to achieve (weight gain or weight loss) they calculate how much food to prepare every day. The goal is also to eat every three to four hours, even if they are not hungry they force themselves to eat because the muscles they are trying to build require nutrients from the food. They even say that they don’t eat for survival but for the nutrients. Their training is also structured depending on their targets. For instance, they train at least five times a week (each day dedicated to a specific muscle group eg. Monday is chest day) and each training session is predetermined (twelve sets and each set 10-15 reps). They like to say that they don’t stop because they are tired, but they stop because they are done training. They know that each session contributes to the end goal, which is to participate in the Olympia (Bodybuilding Olympics) stage. They train for almost twenty years to only compete on the stage for about five years, meaning they prepare their whole life to only compete for a fraction of those years. Every meal and every workout session is in preparation for the Olympia stage, everything is intentional. They understand the seasons that they are in, there is a season for preparation (whole life) and one for competing (about five years).
In Christianity, we need to also be intentional in everything that we do. Every prayer session or meditation and reading of the Word is in preparation for another season in the future. When it’s time to pray I must pray even if I don’t feel like it, the same way the bodybuilder eats five times a day even though he is full. I must do it because every single thing I do has a purpose and its own season. The outcome of every season is dependent on what I did in the previous season.
Apostle Paul was very aware of this principle of preparation. He intentionally “abused” his body because he understood the season he was in. He prepares his body for his ultimate objective, which is to win the prize. He knows that ultimately he will be judged on what he accomplished with the time he was given. These accomplishments will be as a result of the preparation and the discipline he put into each season he was in. We all admire other people in this walk who are doing wonders with the gifts GOD has given them, yet we forget that what we are seeing is the results/fruits of the gifts and not the preparations that went into perfecting these gifts. We are seeing the well-defined hypertrophied muscles on the Olympia stage but not the thousands of meals (Word) and the training sessions (prayers and fasting) they endured to prepare for this season.
This reminds me of the parable of the ten virgins and how our preparations equip us for the task ahead ( Matthew 25:1-13). There are those who paid attention and prepared themselves, and those who want to also partake but missed their season of preparation. Let us be cognizant of the times and seasons we are in and of the work that is required from us for that particular season.
Let us be cognizant of the times and seasons we are in and of the work that is required from us for that particular season.
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