I was in Hilton Head this past Thursday through Sunday for a ladies retreat. While I was there I had to do two workouts to stay on the schedule my trainer set. I walked to the Fitness Center and determined quickly there wasn’t enough space to do the workout she had given me. Instead of calling this place a Fitness Center, they should have called it a Fitness Closet. I would injure myself and anyone else who dared enter with the exercises I was supposed to do, so I grabbed the weights I needed and carried them down the hall to my room for my workout.
Thursday’s workout wasn’t difficult and I managed to knock it out fairly quickly, shower and get out the door for dinner in no time. Friday morning was a different story. Friday’s workout was one of the hardest workouts we do. It works the muscle groups until absolute failure and it burns. You find yourself wanting to just give up and go out for dessert instead.
This workout is difficult for me to do anytime; however, I learned it is really difficult to do alone. You don’t have someone there to encourage you through it. You don’t have someone to push you to go the extra mile, to work through the difficulty, or to remind you it won’t last forever.
As I shared this story with my trainer, the reality of my words hit me. God never intended for us to go through life alone. Even when Adam had a flawless relationship with God and there was no sin in the world, God said “It is not good for the man to be alone…” [Genesis 2:18]. We serve a relational God. He created us for relationship with Himself and others.
Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” And we are told by Paul we are full of knowledge and we are to share it and instruct one another [Romans 15:14]. Let’s face it, we need each other to do this thing called life.
There are times we are going to be in the midst of a storm and may be so overwhelmed with what we are facing, we cannot even cry out to the Lord. It is during these times others minister the love of Christ and take us to Him in prayer…they become Jesus with skin on [Mark 2:4].
I got through the workout and I managed to get the weights back into the fitness center without getting locked up for robbery. Most importantly, I learned the power of another believer in my life and how we all need friends to get us through the hard stuff. Who can you reach out to and bless today?