In the gym I’m a creature of habit. I have the squat racks I
like, and the mobile bench I like to use. This pretty much covers all my major
lifts, bench, squat, deadlift. For my bench press work I roll a mobile bench
into a squat rack to allow for safety bar use since I normally train alone. So
because of this I’m used to this bench. I’m used to the height so I know how to
get a good arch and where my feet need to be placed.
Now, when I train I normally like to go real early or late
because any other time it’s packed and I have to wait for what I want. I can
exercise patience in the gym…but I don’t like to. So, one day I went at a busy
time and all the racks were taken and I did not want to wait. I try to make my
training efficient so I’m not away from my family for a crazy amount of time.
So, I went and get a stationary bench out in the sea of benches. I was so out
of my element. I picked a weight I could normally hit for 8-10 but I think I
hit it for 4-5 reps. I was pretty pissed. I know sometimes you just have bad
days but there was no reason I could see for this. It came to me that I was
just on a different foundation.
This really got me thinking about my life, especially my
faith life where the foundation is so important. Jesus teaches about this very thing
in Matthew 7: 24-27:
"Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined."
In lifting, where and how you start is key to how the lift
will go. You’re usually told to start your set up from the top down or in
reverse, whichever works for you. The cues you use help you start off in the
strongest position. Are you gripping the ground with your feet creating
torsion? Are you pushing through the floor/pushing the floor away from you? Are
you pushing through your heals? Are both of your feet on the floor (pretty much
only pertains to bench). The same goes for our faith journey’s.
Are we rooted to the foundation that is rock…THE Rock? Are we rooted in Jesus Christ? Are we rooted
in the Church that was built on the cornerstone? Where do we turn for strength,
courage, and knowledge? I think in our society today, especially with so much
media at our fingertips 24/7, people look to the secular media and news to form
their opinions and to figure out moral dilemmas instead of what Jesus taught.
Revelation talks about the harlot of Bablylon. Many scripture
experts say that this whore is actually secular society. In the times the
scripture was written the closest thing would have been Rome. Rome was the center
of society and influenced all. And, it fell. Today, it would be Western society
that influences. We look nice and shiny on the outside, yet the porn industry is one of the most
lucrative and fastest growing industries. We keep modern slavery alive with
human trafficking. I live in one of the largest hubs for human/sex trafficking
and strip clubs. Prime time media is being filled more and more with softcore
porn. We are finding out more and more about the abortion industry’s hidden secrets. And at the same time, just
like all over the rest of the world though not to the same extant yet,
Christianity is being pushed further and further out of the public square.
So if society is any indicator of what is going on in our
local communities, our homes, in our private lives, what kind of foundation can
we say we set our feet on? Do we plant our feet on the sand and when new ideas,
the latest trends and fads, movies, tv shows, and progressive political trends
(whether left or right) spring up, we collapse? Or do we plant our feet on the
rock where the rain, flood, and winds buffet us yet we stand?
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