For the first time in my life I have this dream setup of a gym in my garage. It’s about 30 footsteps to get there from my bed. It has bars that actually spin, bumper plates that are round, and the equipment is always precisely where I’ve left it. It’s a really great thing when you’ve spent time in a craptastic gym like I have. Sure, there are toys tools that I would like to add to it, but all in all, it’s a great setup.

You’d think I would have increased my strength numbers significantly in the last 8 months or so. But honestly, I haven’t. There are many factors that have kept me from getting jack’d including laziness, distraction, sickness, business travel, poor eating habits, and not having a consistent plan. These same factors can keep us from really engaging in the activity of resting as prescribed by our Heavenly Father.

God reiterates His commands about the Sabbath in Exodus 31:12-17. For six days people ought to work, then on the seventh, take a rest and be REFRESHED (after all that’s the effect a day of rest had on God after He created the heavens and the earth, that’s worth pausing and pondering). To not do so, is to be “cut off” and to die. Is this God being overly dramatic or is there a deeper truth to this?

Why is this, of all commandments, so hard for people to obey? Perhaps we should keep reading and find out what the people were doing as Moses was on the mountain getting instructions from the Lord. Lest we judge them too severely, they were doing what many of us do — they were making a God that they could see and touch. They were putting forth all kinds of effort and, ironically, working hard and being generous with their possessions, creating a deity that they could control. A calf made out of gold doesn’t come with rules … other than the ones we make to suit ourselves.

Psalm 127 describes the meaningless pursuit for personal comfort, protection, sustenance, or even leaving a legacy when the Lord is not involved:

Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Verses 3 through 5 reveal that even children are a blessing from the Lord, not simply a result of human effort. There is nothing inherently evil about pursuing those things, often in scripture these are given by the Lord as a blessing. The crux is pursuing these things without or instead of the Lord. To pursue these things beyond the boundaries that God has set in place is to not live by faith, it is, in effect, to deny God.

Just like the barriers I have to overcome to hit the gym, there are many strategies we can use to overcome the barriers that can keep us from entering the rest our souls so desperately need. Here’s some stuff that I think about when it comes to my own barriers:

• laziness – I believe we do those things that are truly important to us, and sometimes being a couch potato seems more important than a gym rat (or garage rat in my case). What I’ve found is that positive momentum generally leads to more positive choices. It’s overcoming the initial inertia of inactivity or bad habits that is the hardest part. This is one of the few instances where I think a good kick in the butt helps. The laws of physics seem to apply to the soul: An object at rest will remain at rest until another object acts upon it. Hence, the boot to the butt. For me, I also tend to act out that which I believe the most about myself. Am I the type of person who works out? Am I the type of person that watches TV all the time? When there is enough dissonance between what I’m doing and who I want to be, then often the realization acts like a sling shot out of the apathy.
• distraction – Otherwise known as the “bright shinny object” syndrome. Sometimes other things crowd out what is truly important. With today’s noise levels (TV, ads, billboards, radio, traffic, texting, calling, skyping …) I think it’s even harder to find silence and rest. We use these things to salve our souls, when in reality this noise adds to the clutter (and sometime even beats up our souls).
• sickness – Sometimes there is nothing you can do. You just get sick or injured. But sometimes sickness is an excuse to just throw in the towel. Often I’ve found doing a little bit of something even when I’m sick will make my body and mind feel better. Truthfully, I believe the Lord has allowed me to get sick from time to time just to slow me down and reorient me toward what is truly important. [Thankfully I’m talking about very minor illnesses in my case, and I would hate for someone to read this and think the Lord is punishing them for a particular illness they are facing. That is certainly not always the case!!!  Sometimes bad stuff just happens to good people.]
• business travel (work, “busy”) – In our society being “busy” is an important status symbol. If we are not “busy” we are viewed with suspicion and might get some derogatory labels slapped on us. There are certainly seasons where stuff just needs to get done. Farmers experience being at the mercy of the weather a lot. In almost any profession we are at the mercy of circumstances beyond our ability to completely control. And yet, there are myriads of choices we can make along the way. I could have chosen to do bodyweight exercises or go to some other gyms on my travels. The choices we make reveal what is truly important to us … and there are almost always work arounds … we can find them if we are willing.
• poor eating habits – There’s a saying in the fitness world that you can’t outwork a bad diet. I wish you could just run off a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, but our bodies are complex systems and anyone who doesn’t acknowledge that is trying to sell you something. I think the same thing goes for our souls. For myself, I confess that when I eat sugar … I want more sugar. And if I foolishly have more sugar, then my body crashes and I want a nap. I don’t magically want to push the sled down the driveway. In fact, exercising is the last thing I want to do after indulging in sweets. Just how it is. Personally, I’m convinced we need a good diet for our souls as much as our bodies.
• and not having a consistent plan – This is probably the part that is easiest to manage. One coach is infamous for saying that often we suffer from a “paralysis by analysis”.  We have so many options and rabbit trails we can pursue, that we never actually start anything (it’s the proverbial deer in the headlights reaction).  When it comes to working out I’ve found I need a solid plan to at least get me going. Once I’m in the garage I tend to go for it.  A basic plan is needed though. Right now I’m back to a classic 5/3/1 plan and I do the same full body warm up for each day. My “deal” with myself is that all I have to do is my warmup and the main lifts. That’s four things. That’s it. But I also have a plan for what to do after the main lifts. They are specific workouts that I’ve come up with that address my weaknesses in a fun and challenging way. I can quit after my main lifts are done … but I generally don’t. In fact, the only times I haven’t done the “extra” work is when I’ve decided to substitute another activity for those workouts.

So where to start?

Set aside a daily Selah (break). 74 verses in the ESV end with “Selah”, most of them in the Psalms. The exact meaning of the word isn’t clear as it could be a technical term related to the style of music or poem. Most people believe it’s an instruction to add a deliberate pause. It’s usually preceded by some really significant thought.

Make the Selah a span of X amount of time or material. Perhaps it’s just 5 minutes with your coffee cup, cell phone off, and you watching the sunrise while praying. Perhaps it’s reading one Proverb a day before starting your day. Perhaps it’s a walk during work – 15 minutes without the people and technology around you. Perhaps it’s doing the day’s devotional like in Utmost for His Highest before bed. You can even find online resources that email you daily scripture readings. Whatever it is, just start with setting aside a small portion of the day, it doesn’t have to be much, just be consistent.

Then set a pattern to find a longer span of time at some point during the week to focus on the Lord. Maybe start by consistently attending a place of worship each week.  Though I don’t think this alone scratches the itch the soul has for a Sabbath rest!  You may want to set aside quality time to:

• marvel at the wonderful things the Lord has done (Ps 98:1)
• sing about His marvelous works (Ps 105:2)
• consider what the Lord has done for you (1 Sam 12:24)
• trust in God’s steadfast love (Ps 138:8)
• study the order and beauty in the world and see if you can hear how the heavens declare the glory of God (Ps 19:1)
• to be still (Ps 46:10)

As someone who loves to watch other people CrossFit, and has done a tiny fraction of what the “pros” do … I can tell you that during grueling workouts pacing becomes very important. Start too fast and by the middle of the workout you can find yourself so worn out that you can’t even do one repetition of what you can normally do many of.  Go too slow, and you won’t get challenged in a way that is beneficial for your fitness goals.  Either way you might DNF (did not finish) either due to wearing yourself out to quickly or not working hard enough to finish in the allotted time.  Managing cycles of work and rest becomes uber important in these types of workout … and I think it’s a very beneficial life skill … and in this brief time we have between now and eternity, it’s important for your soul.

So … add a little Selah to your life and let me know how it goes.