The past few weeks I’ve seen several posts from people joking about the state of their goals for 2020. Workout and Bible reading plans are in shambles. It could be they set goals the wrong way, but for most this crisis has disrupted everyone’s plans.
I was in a workout group with several guys and we had all been following the same plan for the last 8 months. We’d text each other every day when we finished our workout. When the gyms closed we adjusted and added some at home, bodyweight workouts. We stayed strong for the first week or so. Then the texts started slowing down.
Now I haven’t worked out in 2 weeks!
It would be easy for me to chalk that up to boredom (home workouts aren’t that fun) or lack of self-discipline (just do it already), but it’s obvious there is a major factor in play.
“Isolation kills motivation.”
Yes, I had lost the physical connection with people, but I also lost meaningful communication and it hurt my consistency and commitment to my plan.
I want us to avoid losing spiritual motivation the same way I lost motivation to workout physically.
God tells us to maintain a certain kind of connection with others.
Hebrews 10:24-25
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Fellowship Spurs On
The goal of good fellowship is to motivate us towards godliness.
I can’t say I know exactly what it feels like for a horse to be spurred in the side to ride faster, but I can imagine it’s not pleasant. To spur on means to provoke. This is someone who irritates you and gets under skin – for your good.
Sometimes you need someone to come alongside you, put their arm around you, and tell you everything is going to be okay. This isn’t that.
This is a kick in the pants towards godliness.
Tom Landry, the legendary coach of the Dallas Cowboys, said his job was to get his players to do what they don’t want to do so that they can achieve what they want to achieve. That’s a great picture of Hebrews 10:24. You need someone that will motivate you, irritate you, and frustrate you to do things that are good for you even when you don’t want to do them.
Hebrews 10:24-25 starts out with “consider.” It means we have to be perceptive to discover ways to do this well. This may be true now more than ever. Fellowship isn’t going to happen automatically.
You can’t let the crisis be an excuse to isolate from the people in your life that will spur you on towards spiritual growth. You have to be intentional to set up a regular pattern of communication.
Put it into Practice:
You need consistent communication and motivation to make this Hebrews 10:24 a reality in your life.
Who is someone in your life who can serve as a spiritual coach or personal trainer for you? This needs to be someone who will get on to you if you start to slip. You need to ask them to be hard on you for your good!
What if you tried it for one week?
Set a habit that helps you love God and/or love people. It could be reading the Bible, prayer, calling a friend, taking a meal to a neighbor, etc.
Come up with your plan to do that and tell someone to hold you accountable. Tell them you will text them every day you do it and if they don’t get a text from you they should call and ask you about it.
So what are you going to do? Who is going to be your spiritual personal trainer?
There is no sense in waiting for the world to get back to normal or your normal routine to come back. Let’s be intentional now to spur one another on!
Which reminds me…I need to text my workout group!
