Good Health

Trying to recruit friends into a workout is like trying to convince someone they should eat vegetables. It’s unusually difficult. Workouts and vegetables get a yes under the following conditions: there’s an acquired taste, someone has explained the benefits, they’ve been badgered into trying it and finally have given in, or they’ve observed someone who partakes of those things and they want what that person has. Even though working out and eating vegetables is good for everyone’s health, we’re often reluctant to make them a regular part of our life. It’s so much easier to choose the good tasting foods and not exercise, than to choose the more difficult things and be healthier.

Why?

If you look at marketing for the latest fitness equipment, you’ll see a few different answers why people don’t exercise: time, money, energy, difficulty, fear of not knowing what to do, pain from previous injuries, etc. Marketing for the latest cooking appliance is very similar: its saves you time, money, tastes great, will help you lose weight, increase your energy levels, and its simple and easy to use. The simplicity of the marketing campaigns isn’t a coincidence. We all want to be healthier without the hassle. Which tells me there’s something about the hassle that needs to be investigated.

In his last night with his disciples, Jesus makes a reference to a woman in childbirth. “A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy; a child has been born into the world.” Jesus points out that giving birth to a child is anguish. Thank you Jesus, for pointing out the obvious. But he adds that after a child is born there is joy. Having spoken with a few mothers I would say great joy. One of the most hideously painful experiences on earth also creates one of the deepest joys. There’s something about pain that makes joy that much sweeter.

As a trainer and coach, I don’t start with the most painful and difficult exercises. I start with the basics and work my way towards the pain. I don’t push people to the pain. In fact I encourage them to hold back until they’ve formed a stable foundational base, only then do I let go of the reigns and let them have at it. It’s a wonder to watch. People who I once could only have motivated by yelling and screaming, an external form of motivation, suddenly find a deep well of lasting internal power. They understand I am not going to externally motivate them in that way. Instead, I teach them internal motivation: to work hard through self-knowledge, determining intensity from knowing their own body and mind. This system works, although it’s slow. I’ve seen once timid basketball players dominate defensively on the court. I’ve seen ‘lazy’ players rise up and own the leadership of their team, asking everyone to give just a little bit more effort. I’ve seen men determinedly run with all their might, over distances and under a time we once thought a distant dream. The joy in these moments, of watching people bloom because they are ready and they want it, is indescribable. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it; it’s one of the most beautiful sights in the world.

This week, many around the globe will be celebrating ‘good’ Friday. It’s not good because it’s happy, it’s good because it’s painful. It’s the day of the week Jesus was willingly crucified. Jesus had an internal motivation to move towards the cross. No one pushed or drove him to it. He chose it. The graphic nature of what he experienced in a short period of time would make most of us turn away and say no. Without understanding that Jesus was moving to the cross, his disciples fled and abandoned him. Friday’s not good because it’s quick and easy without hassle, it’s good because it’s excruciating and full of anguish. It’s the penultimate step leading to joy.

What joy is that? That a man might die for someone else’s sins? Not completely. It’s the ultimate act of reconciliation, of the Father desiring to bring back all his children. Children he made and created, which makes the Father a very mother-figure, and Jesus reference to a woman in childbirth a pointed and accurate metaphor. Jesus died on Good Friday. But he rose again, showing that even death on a cross, one of the most graphic deaths ever imagined, couldn’t stop him. Death wasn’t an intense enough workout for Jesus. Jesus conquered death, and opened the door for us to enter in to his joy.

When we learn to live like Jesus died, we learn to embrace the hassle. To step into moments of pain because they bring moments of lasting joy. This is what makes Friday good, this is what brings lasting good health. Stepping into the pain, frustration, and hassle and coming out victorious.