For any fan of Arnold or the 80's we all know where this image is from. Two friends with arms bigger than most of our legs, lock arms in a friendly handshake/air arm wrestling match. Its a competitive show of strength that at some point or another we all find ourselves taking part in some fashion. Sometimes competition gets a bad light, but it can applied in situations to push us forward, an opportunity for us to motivate each other. So today I'm starting what will probably end up being a series, focused on unity and encouragement as Christians: in life and in the gym.
Proverbs 27:17 - "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another."
It's a beautiful scripture that speaks quite clearly for itself. Paul stresses encouragement and edification in his letters to the early church. In our walk with God, the enemy is going to bring all kinds of weapons and tactics to bear on us and Christ is there to shield us from Satan's arrows. He will encourage us through His word and though His presence in our lives. One aspect in which He is present is in His body, of which we are all part of. We have been brought in to the body of Christ and as such we are unified in Him and given the opportunity and privilege to encourage, support, edify and build one another up.
We can not accomplish anything on our own, it is a fact that we need to accept in order to receive Christ in the first place. Our relationship with Him is what makes anything doable and possible in our lives. In Matthew 19:26 Christ said "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Possibility begins, when we enter in to a relationship with Christ. It is why He desires His people to be unified, it is when strength and possibility overflow.
So lets go back to Proverbs and the other words of wisdom that God gave to Solomon. We briefly described the place of unity and encouragement within the church. Something unique about the books of wisdom, are their applications to our both our faith but also our lives in general. Taking this in to the context of a gym or fitness situations, when unified we do "sharpen" one another. You will hear often, people stating that having a workout buddy is beneficial. You can read through all of the Psychiatry Today articles and countless books that will go into all manner of scientific exposition on the subject, or you can simply rest on the wisdom and word of God written thousands of years ago, "so one person sharpens another." It's truth. My wife and I go to the gym together, sometimes we are working out on our own, sometimes together; but we are there with one another working to similar goals and supporting each other both in and out of the gym. Those few times that I've had to go on my own, I never push myself to the same level that I do when she is there. We encourage one another and help to sharpen each other.
Solomon says this in Ecclesiastes 4:10, "If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!" Have someone there. Don't isolate yourself in self effort or trap yourself in feeling alone. If you can't have someone physically with you, thanks be to God we have the technological means in which to find people who can support us in the things we are doing. Whether it's life or the gym, there is always someone there to help you up. Christ loves you too much to allow otherwise.
