Aches and Pains

This Saturday, Mike and I played in a fundraising volleyball tournament at Strathroy Christian grade school with some friends from London.

We both hadn't played volleyball in ages, or seriously worked out for quite some time....but picked it up again quite quickly. We played six games and ended up 3rd overall in the tournament. We left feeling great about the games and being active for an entire day.

On the way home, we all felt our muscles tightening and complaining about the sudden and prolonged activity that we put them through. On Sunday, we both could barely walk...suddenly and acutely aware of all the muscles that we haven't used in ages.

Which made me think about how easy it is to let your once strong and active muscles deteriorate...how you stop thinking about building them up, or that they exist at all when you stop using them daily. About how it takes a day of intense use to remember how out of shape you are, and how you really want to ge back in shape...

I find I struggle the same way spiritually - when I'm not spending time in Gods word and in prayer, and not connected to a community of believers, I find it so easy to forget to work out those muscles, and then they slowly deteriorate without notice.

Yet, when I get together with people who are passionate, committed and truly living their life modelled after Christ, I am suddenly aware of my weaknesses, and that ache motivates me to return to Gods word, and God himself.

Aches and pains....painful as they are, they're always there for a reason...