On the Ball

For the past six weeks or so, I have spent one lunch hour a week participating in an exercise class. It's called "On The Ball" and is taught by my friend, Jody, who, to say the least, is a high achiever and may derive just bit of pleasure out of pushing us to the limit. Of course, the class involves doing all sorts of torturous exercises using the BIG exercise balls.

Let me just put this out here. I am not athletic. Never have been, never will be. So when I decided to take this class, I knew that I was probably going to look and feel a bit awkward. I mean, come on, a 57-year-old woman trying to perch on her hands and knees on a giant wobbly ball is never going to be graceful. Never. But I'm proud to say, I'm hanging in there.

For an hour every Wednesday, I hang over this ball in all sorts of positions while systematically torturing varying sets of muscles. By the time we're done, I'm dripping with sweat and ready to collapse. Then I dash off to the restroom to change back into my work clothes and try to summon enough energy to get through the rest of the day.

Seeing as how I'm am one of the oldest women in the class, I set a goal for myself to simply try my hardest and not compare myself to my younger, more athletic classmates. It's a noble goal. But not always easy to do.

I must say, that between the hour-long weekly classes and my own "homework" sessions, I am actually seeing an improvement. My muscles no longer scream at me the day after a session...it's just during the sessions. And I am making progress on increasing the number of reps for each exercise.

The bottom line is, I'm not as good as I hope to be, but I'm better than I was when I started. And that's a good enough reason for me to keep at it. I'm pretty sure that I don't have to look too far to see that there is a spiritual application here as well.

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3: 12-14