The Strong 6

Forget everything you think you know about me for a minute. Really.

For the first few years after I moved to SC I was a weight freak and lived to work out in The Dungeon, a primitve weight room located under the pool on the Clemson campus ... but a 6'3" 240-pound guy curling 150 lbs for reps on the preacher's bench (wow; go figure) and doing 30 pull-ups with a 50-lb weight strapped around his waist or doing seated rows with 300 pounds for 15 minutes is headed for BIG long-term HEALTH PROBLEMS, for nothing but vanity.

It also comes down to the fact that people who weigh less, whether it's muscle or fat, tend to live longer. It's true.

The point here is this: on the bench 315 pounds is 315 pounds ... no matter if you're Mr Universe or Arnold or Woody Allen.

Any weight you're lifting is still heavy.

Weight weighs the same no matter how big your triceps are. Are we tracking?

And when you're staring at stacks of 45-pound plates on the bar nobody can lift heavy weight without having faith that overcomes the weight.

When P handles 45 minutes of heavy weight for 3 reps every Sunday (soon to be 4 reps... and possibly 6x) maybe it seems effortless and easy, but it can't be. There's no way. I say this because I was in tears tonight after hearing Payne Stewart's daughter without even knowing it'd happened.

Heavy weight is always heavy weight when it's bearing down on your chest.

Sometimes life hands us situations that seem unfair and beyond coping or bearing. So when we feel powerless and overwhelmed the tendency is to look for excuses like "It's not fair!' or "But I'm a good person" or "Why do I deserve this?"

Because the weight is always heavy ... every time it's on the bar.

If you live long enough you'll know or have seen people who've faced disappointments, crises or failure ... people who've "lost it" and gone over the cliff after feeling their lives have been ruined by situations beyond their control.

Maybe you've wondered why God allows bad things to happen in the first place. Isn't God love, after all?

Or maybe you've stood at the edge of the cliff and thought, "If God won't keep me safe then what's the point in trying to pick up the pieces?"

But tonight I realized things in life may show us the cliff ... but God is never the voice inside screaming Jump!

Faith is what holds us and makes lifting the weight possible ... and God is always there to keep us from going over the edge - no matter how difficult any unfairness in this life might seem.