Grunting, Praying and Worshiping

When I’m at the gym, there are definitely times that get me grunting, sometimes quite loudly.  I always thought it was funny when I would see someone go through his or her whole workout and never make a peep.  Now I’m not judging on this, but it got me thinking today about working out in the physical and faith sense.

When working out, it’s important to push yourself.  Whether you’re a male or female, don’t be ashamed to make some noise due to your effort.  It’s not like you should be trying to announce it to everyone else, but it sure is a sign that you are pushing yourself; and that’s a good thing.  When we try to get stronger, lose weight, pack on muscle, etc, it requires a lot of effort.  Just being in the gym or watching work out videos doesn’t do it for your.  I’m sure a lot of us have heard that before, but let’s take it a step further; just going through the motions doesn’t always get you to your goals.  For sure, lifting some weights or doing some cardio is good (even at a minimum level), but it doesn’t really get you to your goals.  It’s better than doing nothing, but you have to ask yourself, what are you even there for? 

Before we dive into the faith side of this, I’ll briefly use the example of the “kiai” from martial arts that we are probably all familiar with.  There are several traditional reasons you may find for its function, but I’ll focus on two primary points.  The first has to do with energy.  There’s a lot from the eastern beliefs that this dips in to, but lets focus on the raw energy in this sense.  I’ve gone through several martial arts before, and I can attest from experience, when you shout (or perform some “kiai”) during a punch, kick, etc, that move is guaranteed to have more force and power behind it, more energy.  This applies to the grunt/yell at the gym (but let’s not get obnoxious with it).   Just watch good old Arnie from his training days.  The other reason for the “kiai” is declaration of your fighting spirit.  Why do you think man has always had war cries going in to battle?  It intimidates the opponent and reassures, rallies and otherwise bolsters the shouter.

So where does our faith come in to grunting and shouting?  Well, probably the most overt example of this comes from the fall of Jericho.  Joshua 6:20 (NIV) – “When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a shout, the wall collapse; so everyone charged in, and they took the city.”  That was a shout that had the power of God behind it and the goal (Jericho) was attained.  Now we aren’t told to go around shouting at things; you’d honestly look real odd, real fast.  But there is a sound we make as Christian’s.  It’s our cry out to God in prayer and our praises that we sing in worship.  Prayer is an essential part of being Christian.  It’s an opportunity in which we can choose to speak into our faith, to go before our Father and thank Him for all that He has done and to ask Him for what we need, for His comfort, for wisdom, guidance, etc.  We can go through the motions of just attending Sunday service, but just like the gym, how much does that really accomplish.  Make a sound, speak to God, have the relationship with Him that He is openly offering to you. 

Worship, sing praises to our Father and Creator of everything.  The story of when David was chastised by Michal for his singing and dancing is one of my favorites.  David’s response to her in 2 Samuel 6:21 speaks volumes (no pun intended) to the shout of praise we should be giving our Lord: David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when He appointed me ruler of the Lord’s people Israel – I will celebrate before the Lord.”  We are chosen by God, no one else chose us, He did, it’s time to celebrate before Him and give thanks for all that He has done.  It’s time to make a noise.

Jesus explained prayer in Matthew chapter six, it entails the outline of the Lord’s Prayer that we are all familiar with.  There is a small point there that I wanted to bring out.  In verse 5 He says “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corner to be seen by men.”  Nothing we do sure ever be done for show or to look good or appear a certain way; prayer and worship more than anything.  The same goes for the gym, don’t make noise to make it or to appear to be working, let it come naturally as you press in to your exercise.  Prayer and worship come naturally when you press in to your faith.  When you do, the desire to sing praises and speak to your Father will overwhelm you, don’t be afraid to just let it out.