*Originally posted March 2013
Training For Life
ALL of your life is about training. All of it. It’s not just a fitness thing.
The word training means – the action of teaching a person a particular skill or type of behavior. A skill is something you do with your hands. A behavior is something you do with your body that originates from your heart.
Hands and hearts.
Yup, sounds like some of the things Jesus is interested in training in us.
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:29
So, what is the best training plan? How should you train?
Stop Treadmill Training
If you search “The Best Training Plans/Programs Ever,” it won’t surprise you to find more than 575,000,000 posts on the internet that prescribe, sell, or reference the best way to train.
Go ahead. Take a minute to open a new tab and search.
Then, consider how many different fads and trends you’ve participated in. Can you count the number of programs you’ve started over the years?
There’s nothing wrong with the latest and greatest. I, too, like to shake my bon-bon (and get a good chuckle) in a Zumba class. I own a drawer full of Spinning shorts with butt pads and cycling cleats for a bike that goes nowhere.
But here’s the thing: they are all linear training programs. They are what I like to call treadmill training.
Treadmill training is training to achieve one goal or one outcome. For example, you get on your spin bike three times a week to train for the triathlon coming up in the spring. Or, you do a Zumba class twice a week, hoping that you’ll lose those “extra” 10 pounds. Or, you lift every day to prepare for the competition in two weeks.
Whatever your goal is, whatever your training plan is, you’re on a figurative treadmill in one direction. You may reach your desired goal and feel a moment of satisfaction before you’re onto another goal. Or, if you don’t reach your goal, you may feel like a failure and run in the other direction.
I’m not saying there’s something wrong with having a goal, but all training programs that stop short of leading you closer to your Creator run the risk of flitting across the surface. Without growing in the knowledge and love of God as the goal, they’re just a workout.
All training programs that stop short of leading you closer to your Creator run the risk of flitting across the surface.
Start Circular Training
So, I propose you begin circular training. Circular training is training with your whole life and whole person (mind, body, spirit) in mind. It is “set apart” training.
For Cindy, circular training includes training for her town’s 5k in the spring. She is faithful to her training plan: stretching, eating healthy foods, and safely increasing her mileage each week. She makes it to race day and ends up running slightly slower than she hoped. She has a moment of discouragement but quickly thanks God that her body can run so well at her age – after all, she is 70 years old!
This isn’t her first running race, but it is her first race at this age. The goal didn’t matter so much as the time she got to spend encouraging other friends to move and the ability to run her own race for God’s glory.
Like the threads on a screw, each cycle of training draws you nearer to the Father’s heart.
Circular training isn’t reserved for fitness or health. You can apply circular training to your walk of faith. Using the spiritual tools of prayer, fasting, reading the Word (alone and in community), and biblical meditation, you train and strengthen your faith with an eternal perspective.
This means you aren’t a failure when you come to the end of a week and realize you didn’t pray. Instead, it provides an opportunity to turn to the Lord in prayer and be in communion with Him right away. After all, the goal of prayer isn’t prayer but fellowship with God. That is something you can train day after day.
Ready to get off the hamster wheel and go deeper with God?
I am passionate about people not missing the awesome opportunity to train and become more whole! Not the wholeness that the world offers. But the wholeness that only Jesus can give.
Getting FIT is the perfect playground for growing in great faith.
Alisa Keeton is the founder and CEO of Revelation Wellness and the author of The Wellness Revelation and The Body Revelation. A 25+ year fitness professional, she believes that the Gospel is a wholistic message of heart, mind, soul, and strength, and each body holds a story that must be told. It is then that healing, health, and wholeness can truly begin.
Start Circular Training With Us
Through our Christ-centered discipleship and wellness training, coaching, and content, you will learn how to live whole in a messy world and lead others to do the same as a LiveWell Health Coach.
