It was modern day theater of the absurd. She wanted to do the most eccentric television stunt. It was designed for maximum shock and awe – boarder line (ok not even boarder line) ludicrous. This is how you make that thing you love become “the thing’.
It was the 2004 season premiere of the Oprah Winfrey Show and the go big entertainer gave a new car to all 276 audience members – everyone, creating one of the most iconic moments in television history.
Now, imagine if your gym gave a membership to everyone. Yeah, like literally to everyone. That would be really cool, right? Yet it wouldn’t take long before “Wow!” would turn to “whoa wait a minute.” Even Oprah’s prize winners had tax implications even though the car manufacturer paid the sales tax. Imagine going to your favorite exercise facility and burning 30 minutes just to find a place to park then stand in line to enter and then ultimately find the equipment all being used. Not good. So maybe your gym can dial it back – only everyone in your city gets a membership. That’d still be too broad. Maybe your gym could do the YMCA model of a needs based scholarship.
Before your brain gets lost in exactly what could work best, shift gears to think about how this wouldn’t just be a publicity stunt. Looking at just the U.S. population of over 334 million take a look at these stats:
- US gym revenue is around $35 billion
- There are over 41,000 gym facilities
- 64.2 million memberships
(2020 IHRSA data)
That’s a lot of everyone. If you have a gym membership or do your own physical fitness you can bask in the positivity of these statistics. However most people, about 4 out of every 5 people see it differently. They don’t have a gym membership. If you were to look at that 80% of the population you’d see many can’t afford it and most of them really need it to improve their health and overall wellness. Fitness is for the fortunate or at least those who choose it.
AND THE POINT IS?
In a culture obsessed right now with concepts like equity, inclusion, diversity, rights, systemic change and other well intended talk (some of which has resulted in actionable positive efforts), human nature is pretty selfish. As ‘good’ as we’d all like to think we are, a biblical truth remains: All have sinned and come short of God’s glory. Or as Isiah in the Bible puts it, we’ve all become unclean and our righteousness is like filthy rags. Your sports bra or jock strap start out Downy Fresh but eventually they stink. It’s time to upgrade your fitness membership to include laundry service. That means you become clean and fit so that you stay fresh and strong – not just for yourself but especially for others.
WHO IS WHOEVER?
There is one passage in the Bible that is perhaps familiar to everyone. It is John 3:16 – God loved the world so much that he gave his only son (Jesus). Whoever believes in him won’t parish but instead have eternal life. Everyone is a lot of people and ‘whoever’ is too.
What seems so absurd to so many people is that God loves us on such an extravagant level. Is God eccentric? Not at all. God’s perfect love and grace is the original pattern – the true norm. Humanity has deviated and departed from what is intended to be central to how we live and who we are. God’s love is deep. God wants our love to be just as deep.
But you’re not Oprah and you’re certainly not God, so is that really even possible?
Start to think about living Christlike compassion by praying this way, “God for whom could I get a guest pass to my gym so they could have some fun and benefit from doing a workout with me and maybe eventually become a member?” It could be anyone. Who is your whoever? AND – better than a gym membership, think about the audacious hope, the unfathomable potential for the person who gains membership into God’s eternal presence.
NO FEAR
No fear is more than a popular brand and bold statement. God wants you to have no fear not just with your fitness aspirations but with your faith. When it comes to having a vision for the everyone in your life God wants you to be uninhibited and not put any restraints on how deep you will go with him and for him.
Use the list below to pray about who God could be saying ‘everyone’ is for you:
- family member
- neighbor
- co-worker
- friend
- enemy
- everyone who is out of shape, ugly, uninteresting, disabled, old, dying, or in some way or another not necessarily your first choice for a workout partner.
Afraid? You shouldn’t be.
Sometimes through very secular elements of our world we can find God calling us into a deeper walk with him. So it is with the Calvin Harris & Disciples song, How Deep Is Your Love.
Some of the song’s lyrics are like God is speaking to us: I want you to breath me. Let me be your air. Let me roam your body freely [your entire spiritual being], No inhibition – No fear. How deep is your love? Is it like the ocean? What devotion are you? … How deep is your love? Can it go deeper?
By God your love can go deeper than self-care, self-improvement, self-accomplishments and self-fulfillment. The thing that you love, more than fitness and more than life itself, can be ‘the thing’ that makes all the difference today. Everyone needs you to have that come to Jesus moment, that spiritual maturity and that ultra-fit level of devotion to God. Who is everyone? It is the ‘whoever’ God gives you.
It’s a fresh day. Go get dressed and do your toughest workout of the day – taste the sweetness of your best sweat ever!
REACH OUT TO YOUR ‘EVERYONE’
Use this graphic to share this Publisher’s Letter on your social media and more with your friends. Be sure to include the hashtages #everyonefit or #everyonegetsamembership
Then, pray, consider who God would have you reach and send an email, text, call or the next time you see her or him at the gym be sure to follow through. Post a comment below and share your story.
