Gym

It’s entirely my fault. I don’t often say that, but this time it really is. I’m sitting in my chair as I type this blog, not really wanting get out of it, even though the office is uncomfortably hot. I went to the gym this morning. I don’t often go to the gym in the morning for one very good reason: my body doesn’t wake up until later in the day. But today, I went in the morning. I don’t often go to the gym on a Tuesday either. Or rather I don’t often go up to the gym when I get to the gym - I go to the pool. I play football on a Monday evening, as I have since the club started way back in 2004 or thereabouts. I don’t go into the gym on Tuesday because I play football on a Monday evening and my aging limbs need another day to recover before I punish them with the treadmill and the weights. But today I went to the gym. I went because I had been invited. By a trainer. A trainer who, a few weeks ago asked me if was going to use the gym or the pool as I arrived for my swim. I made the mistake, if that’s what it was, of saying I don’t go in the gym often anymore. By the end of the conversation I had signed up for some training sessions, with a trainer. So today I went to the gym, in the morning, before my body is really awake, to meet the trainer. And now I’m sitting in my chair not wanting to move! And it’s my own fault. But here’s the thing: if I want to get back in the gym and make use of it, if I want to stay well and healthy, if I want to look after my mental health, then I need to go to the gym. I’d got out of the habit. I have my reasons, all pretty good ones even if I do say so myself! But something needed to change. And that conversation with the trainer…Now, I’m learning new ways of “working out”, new approaches to using the equipment. I know about using the gym - I trained as a PE Teacher. But I needed some help to motivate me to change, to do new things, to think about things differently, to rise to a new challenge, to stop me becoming lazy. It would be easy to have left the gym behind and just do swimming and football, biking and walking and playing golf. All of which are good for me and help me physically and mentally. But the gym has different things to offer me. In truth, I’ve found the last couple of years of my journey of faith really challenging. Lots has happened. Lots has happened personally and in the family and lots has happened in the church. I’m wrestling with how life is now, both personally and in the church. I’ve left behind some of the good things I used to do. I’ve left behind some ways of thinking about life and faith and church that once helped me. And I’m beginning to realise that I would do well to re-engage with them. There are some disciplines that are hard work, but vital. I need to read more. I need to find space for reflection again. I need to engage with thinking, creative thinking. But it’s hard. I’ve got out of the habit. I won’t get the benefit of the gym if I don’t put in the work, if I’m not prepared to have moments like I did today in the gym - of feeling exhausted because I’d exercised my body well. And as I sit here in my chair, contemplating whether I want to get up and move, or rather whether I can, in fact, get up and move, I’m wondering if the same might be true of you: that there are some things you would do well to find again on your journey of faith.