As a rule I am fairly quiet at the gym. So the unabashed scream that escaped my mouth last week caused a bit of a stir.
People in every room knew that either: A) someone had dropped a very heavy weight on his foot, or B) someone had finally "broken through a sticking point."
Happily for me it was the latter, not the former.
I lift weights and I love it. Please do not bother to send me pious hate mail explaining that I should not be wasting time on such trivial pursuits when the need to spread the gospel is so pressing, it will do you no good. I do, on average, 60 to 70 hours of ministry work a week, and preach nearly 500 times a year. So I do not mind at all taking an hour a day to enjoy one of my very few leisure pursuits.
For several months now a goal has eluded me, one that I knew was within my grasp. To bench press 315 pounds is fairly rare air, especially for someone in the 198-pound weight category. To reach 315 pounds, you must put three 45-pound plates on each side of the bar, which weighs more than 45 pounds. It is one of the coolest-looking things ever and is very hard to do. I had tried on multiple occasions, only to fall short each and every time.
Finally, two expert lifters watched my attempt, and said, "You won't get it that way, your mechanics are all wrong."
In short, I was not keeping my legs on the ground underneath me, and I was lifting from too high up on my chest. But this is the way I was used to lifting, and years of habits are hard to break.
Nonetheless, I knew that they knew more than I did. So on the next attempt I tucked my legs tightly underneath me, and lifted from about three inches lower on my chest. The bar felt 30 pounds lighter than before. I shot it up, racked it, stood up and screamed in triumph, and immediately began to plan for more.
A simple matter of mechanics changed everything. In order to lift the heaviest weights, you have to come from lower down, and your legs have to stay tucked. And that, friend, is a perfect metaphor for the heavy burdens of life. When we lift from too high, with our legs too straight, we will find heavy burdens too much for us. But when we bend our knees and get very low...
In Mark 1:35 we find that Jesus, the Son of God and God the Son, got up a long time before day and went to a solitary place to pray. The creator of the universe dared not face the day without first bowing his knees and speaking with God the Father.
How is it then that we who claim to know him so often attempt to "lift in our own strength"? The prayer life of a Christian is the vital link to the only power source sufficient for everything we will ever face. The great preacher Charles H. Spurgeon said, "Prayer is the slender nerve that moveth the muscles of omnipotence."
Whatever you face, whenever you face it, you will find that there is a heavenly power source, a divine dynamite, available to you in prayer. So to simplify the system, when you are faced with a weight too great to carry pray, pray and then pray some more. Lift from very low, all the way down on your knees.
Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, N.C., and the author of several books which are available at wordofhismouth.com. Contact him at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.