Hey Fam!

This week I finished entering the grades for the classes I taught this year ? Bible and weight training. I?ve also, this week, been thinking about all the saints in our fellowship who apparently don?t honestly believe they have much to offer. These, invariably, are the same ones who will not involve themselves heavily in others, and they are also the ones who seem to be stuck, apparently unable to grow past wherever it is they find themselves.

When you train with weights you?re trying to get stronger. Some people try to get leaner or prettier, but athletes are training for strength. Strength training involves two basic variables: nutrition and load. You have to eat and you have to place demands on your body, demands just outside your current capability.

The way this works is simple. You eat enough. You train, placing a load on certain muscles, sometimes on your whole body, that?s just beyond your capability. You shoot for lifting it ten times and totally fatigue at nine. Last week you lifted 225 lb., so this week you go for 230. Whatever, you aim just past your perceived capability or you don?t grow. Then you eat more. Probably you eat lots. If you?re smart you eat well, choosing the right foods at the right times to repair the damage you received when you pushed your body past its breaking point. As you eat, you recover, which recovery produces a stronger you, able to handle more next time.

Your spirit works the same way. When people don?t grow, when the life of Christ inside them manifests a failure-to-thrive disorder, the problem lies in one or both of two areas: nutrition and load. We get stuck when we stop eating or when we fail to take the load God intends for us, the light and easy yoke of Jesus ? responsibility for the saints.

In John 6:63 Jesus tells us His words “are spirit and they are life.” The life of God in you is cultivated by the words of God spoken to you. Man, in fact, doesn?t live by bread alone, but by every single word that comes out of God?s mouth. An undisciplined, erratic life with the Scriptures is a serious nutrition problem. There?s no guarantee that if you read your Bible and pray every day you?ll “grow, grow, grow.” But I?ll guarantee you now if you don?t develop a disciplined life with the words of Life you won?t grow at all.

But input alone won?t do it for you. Input alone will probably cultivate knowledge, which apart from a love-driven expression can only puff you up. Along with your nutrition you need an adequate load. You can?t afford to flirt with the yoke of Jesus. Get under it, all the way, and never look back. Don?t dabble in the church life; sweat for it. Some of you have occasional load, but won?t step up and take responsibility. So, you don?t grow.

Many are plagued by deficiencies in nutrition (the Word) and load (ministry). If that?s you, start with cultivating a regular enjoyment of the Word. Very soon after that, settle into a cell and begin sharing what you?re getting from your study. It may be awkward at first, but grownups can handle awkwardness. Listen to the people around you; get your need-spotting radar up and running. Begin praying and act as the Spirit leads.

A few are absolutely soaked in load (covered up sometimes) but are overlooking adequate nutrition. Rearrange your schedule as you can. Plan little trysts with the Scriptures, and the God whose Voice is carried by them. Use your minutes, even if you haven?t got hours.

And some are serious students of the Word, but are proving as life-giving as standing water. First, stop learning the Word and start eating it. Then, get out of your study, get up from your desk, and go live a real life with real people. Put down your pen and pick up the yoke of Jesus. You?ll find you?re growing again in no time.

Life is about nourishment and purpose. Every organism needs both, including you. You must make choices that nurture both, and once you do you must stick with it. Growth is a matter of nutrition and load ? and they must be simultaneous inclusions in your life. They must become your life. The Scriptures are your nourishment. The cultivation of the church life and of each saint is your load.

Take up the yoke and walk.

I adore you,

Virgil