How do you become one of the world’s strongest people? You get judged and you prove it! Ask Lee Haney, Ernestine Shepherd, Franco Santoriello, or Rebecca Shingledecker. OR check Wikipedia’s references on Paul Anderson being the “strongest of the strong”.
The fitness culture isn’t just abundant with beautiful male and female physiques, it is one of the best communities to meet people who define being committed. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’ve moved beyond desire (I want to be fit and strong) to being fully committed to it. That takes a lot of hard work, discipline and persistence. It takes money, time, genetics, technique, pain … you get the idea. And though the best would likely admit to having some level of obsessive compulsive behavior we nonetheless recognize they ARE committed.
What specifically is necessary to be committed? One of the most decorated natural bodybuilders in the world, Ron Williams describes what it takes to be committed and how it feels to live physically and spiritually that way:
I committed myself to bodybuilding and it was my lifestyle. It was a religion to me. I gave myself to it. When I committed myself to Jesus Christ I found that everything I needed, all the things I was looking for, came from a relationship with Him.
-Ron Williams
This year Faith & Fitness Magazine and all of the other Lifestyle Media Group magazines are bringing curated content to help you and all of our community journey boldly with God on the road ahead. All 4 magazines explore the same theme for the same quarter each from their unique perspective.
They began in February ‘23 with DESIRE. The summer issues help you to COMMIT. The autumn issues journey into DWELL. Finally, the winter issues lead into how we can RADIATE God’s hope, love and truth to others. It is an adventurous journey that we believe will help all of us to grow in Christ.
The spring issues focused on discovering more deeply what it is we desire, why we desire it and gaining clarity that desire is given to us by God. He wants us to want. And, as we say #iwantgod we begin and continue a journey with God’s spirit. The further we go we start to realize we’ve grown beyond where we were. That was then. This is now.
What we want and hope for becomes familiar and routine enough that we can commit. To commit is an important next step. But to be committed takes giving ourselves over fully to God.
It’s at this point where the sleepers are left wanting and the faithful say #hereIam
Like Samuel in the Bible, God is calling you. It’s your time to commit, obey and say here I am use me fully.
What ever you do (whether it be pushups or prayer), work at it with all your heart.
-Colossians 3:23
AND NOW WHAT IT MEANS TO BE “COMMITTED!”
A Christ-centered lifestyle is every bit as demanding, sweaty and involved as a fit lifestyle. Those truly committed to fitness don’t cut corners. While they shouldn’t force fitness and a commitment to it onto others, like Michael Wittig, featured on our cover, they most certainly don’t shy away from being fit and showing it off.
There isn’t any ‘kinda-sorta’ with the person who is committed – they work hard at it. Moreover they know that fitness doesn’t just look good on them, it is good for them. It works! To be anything less is dishonest – a compromise that they just straight up won’t do.
Pay attention and get the gold here: to live a life fully committed to God requires that same level of frank and unabashed honesty – and more. God wants you to know the fullness of being “COMMITTED!” As in, “you ought to be committed!” Yeah, that kind – being consigned to a mental institution or custody in prison. Stick with me because this is where it starts to get really, really good.
Yes, everything the Bible has told you about this kind of committed lifestyle is true. People won’t understand you and will say you’re kind of crazy. Those people will hate you. They’ll speak evil of you. But you can rock #hereIam and overcome it all because He has overcome it all!
Physical fitness is for the here and now. Faith is too. But, faith transforms the here and now into living for the other side of eternity. Paul knew this back in New Testament Bible times and like many who have found life in Christ for generations since then he counted it all joy to be “COMMITTED!” They did as well and you can too.
Christian theologian Charles John Ellicott describes, in his renowned Bible commentary, Paul’s I the prisoner of the Lord words in Ephesians 4: 1-6. Ellicott says that Paul’s words, “have all the glowing freedom of spiritual enthusiasm and all the clear-cut precision of a creed.”
Wow – Yes! That’s the kind of faith I want to have, an enthusiasm (divine inspiration from God resulting in fervor and zeal) that gives me the freedom to “glow”. That takes the children’s church song, “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine” to a whole new level. And don’t stop there. Ellicott further describes Paul’s prisoner profession as being a creed (a formal statement of belief, a guiding principle of faith) with clear-cut precision.
Ready to become one of the world’s strongest people? Prove it! How?
Successful weightlifters know that precision – the mastery of technique, is the thing that defines them and sets them apart. This Bible passage is a God-gift to us. In it we see that Paul has mastered the “I believe”. He’s “COMMITTED!” Just like watching and learning from a champion weightlifter this nugget from the Bible equips us to be, “a prisoner in the Lord and live the kind of life which proves that God has called you.”
Train strong in Christ,
Brad Bloom, Publisher
