Latest / Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten / What the Faithful 5K Proved: It’s Time for the Body of Christ to Get in Shape

Transcript

What the Faithful 5K Proved: It’s Time for the Body of Christ to Get in Shape · Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, faithful, welcome to the Faithful Fitness Podcast. In a moment,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: my dad, coach Alex van Houten, will help you honor
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: God by making the most out of the body God's
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: given you. Today you can expect truth from the Bible,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: tools from science, and guidance for everyday life. So listen closing,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: get ready, let's get one percent better today.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Hey, Faithful Fitness coach Alex here, grace and peace to you.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: I'm going to take a little break today from a menopause.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: In the light series, we'll come back to it. I
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: promise We've got one more part and I'm very excited
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: to finish. But I've had a couple of sleep since
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: the inaugural Faithful five K here in Greenbrio, Arkansas, and
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: I need to talk about what happened, because I don't
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: think we just put on a five K. We had
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty five people register. We had families
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: running together, we had kids, we had serious runners, we
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: had people walking, and we had local businesses showing up,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: church is serving side by side, and a nonprofit organization
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: bringing people who came ready to serve in whatever way
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: they were needed. And through the virtual race, we had
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: people participating from seven different states, and after sitting with
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: all that for a couple of days, I keep coming
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: back to one thought. I think the faithful five k
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: proved that God is doing something in his church right
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: now that has to do with the body. And I
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: mean that in both senses of the word, our physical
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: bodies and the body of Christ. Frankly, I think it's
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: time for the Bride of Christ to get in better shape.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: And I don't just mean we need to lose some weight.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I think there's something much bigger happening here. For years now,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: one of the things that's bothered me about the fitness
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: industry is how shallow we can make something that's so
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: incredibly important. We take this amazing physical body that God's
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: given us and reduce the entire conversation to how much
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: de weigh, how much you bench? Can I see your abs?
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: What pant size do you wear? How fast do you run?
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: How many calories did you burn today? Sets, reps, macros, miles,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: and listen. I've talked about those things here. I believe
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: they matter. I'm an exercise scientist. I make a living
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: talking about these things and helping people understand them. I
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: love training and I love seeing somebody get stronger. I
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: love watching somebody run faster than they thought they could.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: And I love watching someone change the way they eat
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: and suddenly having energy again. There's nothing wrong with wanting
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: your body to improve. But if that's as deep as
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: the conversation goes, I believe we've missed something because your
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: body isn't just something you look at in the mirror.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Your body is something you live your calling through. It's
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: how you hug your children, it's how you get in
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: the floor with your grandchildren. It's how you show up
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: to work. It's how you serve your church. It's how
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: you help your neighbor move. It's how you carry somebody
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: when they're hurting. It's how you get out of bed
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: and do the thing that God's put in front of
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: you today. And Scripture repeatedly refuses to separate our physical
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: lives from our spiritual lives in the way that our
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: culture often does. Glorify God in your body, said Paul,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: that matters, and I think people are hungrier for that
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: message than ever. I think people in the fitness community
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: are hungry for something deeper than sets and reps. And
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: I think that people in the faith community know intuitively
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: that their body is somehow part of their walk with God,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: even if they haven't always had the language for it.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: This has been true in my life, which is why
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: I wrote the Faithful Fitness devotional. But Saturday gave me
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: a chance to see how those two things collide in
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: real life for so many of other people. Before the
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: race started, we gathered everybody at the starting line and
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: I shared a short devotional. One thing I'll probably add
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: next year is a moment where I make everybody stop
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: and just look around, because I wish that I'd made
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: people fully take in what was happening. There were people
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: from different churches standing together, people from different businesses, different families,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: different ages, and different fitness levels. There were people who
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: were going to finish that race so fast you wouldn't
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: believe it, and there were people who were going to
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: be out there for a long time. But none of
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: that mattered. Nobody's church name was on the front of
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: the event. Nobody got to say, look what our church did,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: or look what our business did. We had sponsors, we
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: had churches, we had organizations, and they absolutely deserved to
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: be thanked, But the whole thing was ultimately being done
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: in the name of Jesus, and that's rarer than I
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: think it should be. It can be hard to get
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: churches to work together. Sometimes we're really good at being
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: the body of Christ as long as our particular part
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: of the body gets the logo on the shirt. But
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Saturday I watched three local churches lay that down and
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: pick up service instead. They handed out water, They encouraged people,
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: they prayed, they served, and business has stepped forward. Three eighteen.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: The non profit we partnered with also brought volunteers who
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: worked hard because they actually believed in what they were serving.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Nobody was trying to make themselves the hero. We were
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: all a part of something bigger, and I think everybody
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: could feel it. And that got me thinking about Paul's
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: language about the church. We are a body, different parts,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: different functions, different gifts, but one body. And what happens
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: when a physical body gets unhealthy. Sometimes one part starts
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: trying to compensate for another. Sometimes parts stopped communicating well.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Sometimes something gets weak in another area has to carry
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: the load that it wasn't designed to carry. Shin spoons anyone.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Sometimes the whole body loses capacity because individual parts aren't functioning.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: The way they were supposed to. Does that sound familiar?
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: The Body of Christ needs training too. We need practice
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: serving together. We need practice encouraging one another. We need
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: opportunities to put something on the calendar where we show
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: up and say this isn't about me. I'm here to serve,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: I'm here to participate. I'm here to encourage somebody else.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: I'm here because I belonged to something bigger than myself.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: And Saturday felt like that sort of practice to me,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: not just physical training, kingdom training. Now, if you weren't there,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: every racer who checked in received their bib, and attached
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: to that bib was a small strip of white cloth.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: We had handwritten their first name on it, every one
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: of them, And at check in we basically told them, hey,
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: keep this, you're gonna need it later. Then and at
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: the starting line, I explained why we'd built a wooden
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: cross and placed it near the start finish line, and
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: I told everybody that before they left, I wanted them
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: to take their cloth and write something on it that
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: they intended to carry forward in faith. Maybe it was
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: a prayer, maybe it was a name, maybe it was scripture,
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Maybe it was a commitment, or maybe it was simply,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: I'm going to remember that this body's a gift and
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: I'm going to take better care of it, and then
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: tie that cloth to the cross. One of the images
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: that keeps sticking with me is looking over and seeing
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: families gathered around it, parents, kids, people writing, people talking,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: and people tying their cloths to the cross. And by
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: the end of the morning, the whole thing was covered.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: We even wrote the names of our virtual erasers and
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: made sure that those were tied to the cross for them.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: But on that cross were names, prayers, commitments, all those
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: white pieces of cloth blowing in the breeze. And that
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: image means something to me, because that's what this is
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: supposed to be about. Not I'm running a five k
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: look at me? But God, what do I do with
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: what You've given me? What do I carry forward? Where
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: do I need to become more faithful? Hebrews twelve tells
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: us let us run with endurance the race that is
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: set before us. And we use that verse in fitness
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: all the time because well, it says run, that's convenient.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: But the verse is not primarily about a five k.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: It's about life. It's about perseverance and throwing off what
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: hinders us. It's about fixing our eyes on Jesus, and
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: it's about continuing when the race becomes difficult. Saturday, I
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: watched a picture of that happen right in front of me.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: His name is mister Roy. Roy's been a Klein of
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: mine for more than five years. When we first started
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: working together, he'd been through a lot physically, heart disease,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: multiple surgeries, pain. There was a point where mister Roy
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: could not walk down my fifty yard driveway. And I'm
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: not talking about some giant mountain driveway. It's just that
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: walking was hard. His body had been through things. And
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Roy signed up for the Faithful five K with his
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: whole family, and let me tell you what happened. Roy
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: was the last person on the course. People drove by
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: and offered him rides, even people who weren't part of
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: the five k. The police officers who were helping with
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: traffic took opportunities to say, hey, man, you've done enough,
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: we'll get you back, and Roy basically looked at him
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: and said, no, I'm okay, I'm finishing this thing. So
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: he kept walking along the way and afterwards people asked him,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: how could you do that? How can you do that,
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: and I love his answer. His answer was basically, you
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: need a good coach and you need to be walking
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: with God, and then you just have to be stubborn
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: enough not to stop. That's Roy. He kept going. Eventually
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: men went back onto the course and started walking with him.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: The police stayed with him, and he basically got his
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: own police escort through the neighborhood. And meanwhile, people at
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: the finish line realized what was happening, so they stayed.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: People who had already completed their race stayed there because
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: they wanted to see Roy finish. And eventually, there he came.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: The man who years ago struggled to walk down my
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: driveway finished his five k, and there were people waiting
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: for him, cheering, watching, celebrating. His family was there, his
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: community was there. He crossed the line last. But I'm
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: telling you right now he was one of the most
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: inspiring athletes at the event. Your body does not have
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: to be impressive to glorify God with it. That's an
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: important sentence. Your body does not have to be impressive
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: to glorify God with it. Maybe your body's been through
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: some things, maybe you've had surgery, maybe you're overweight, maybe
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: your joints hurt. Maybe you're exhausted, or your hormones are changing.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Maybe you're recovering from illness or just getting a little older.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Maybe you look around at the fitness industry and think
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: those people aren't me. Fine, you don't have to be them.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: You have to steward you. You have to make the
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: most out of the body God gave you. Roy's body
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: wasn't the fastest body on the course, but Roy's body
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: preached a sermon Saturday morning because everyone who watched him
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: finish learned something. Your body may be limited, it might
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: be hurting, it might have some scars, it might not
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: perform like everybody else's, but you can still glorify God
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: with it. You can still take the next step and
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: another one and another one. And sometimes faithfulness looks a
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: lot like being too stubborn not to stop. And side note,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: if anybody's worried, I got to see mister Roy this
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: morning and he's doing great. So while he definitely pushed
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: his limits, he didn't end up doing anything dangerous for him,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: just very difficult. And look what happened around him. Here's
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: the other part. Roy did the walking. Nobody could move
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: his legs for him. Nobody could complete his three point
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: one miles, but he did not finish alone. People walk
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: back to meet him, people stayed at the finish line,
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: people cheered, the police stayed with him, and his family watched.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: That's what Hebrews twelve looks like in community. Therefore, since
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: let us run with endurance. Not let me run my
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: race and hope everybody else figures it out. Let us.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: That's the thing I want you to hear today. Please
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: stop trying to do this fitness thing alone. It's a
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: strange thing we've done in health and fitness. We've made
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: it incredibly individual. Your diet, your weight, your workout, your macros,
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: your steps, watch your progress photos, your goals, your discipline. Yeah,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: there's some personal responsibility there. And even for my part
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: as a coach, I've worked hard to help people understand
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: their individual body since it has unique needs, especially when
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: you compare it to others. Nobody can do your push
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: ups for you, and nobody can choose your breakfast for you,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: and nobody can go to sleep on time for you.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: But here's the thing. Human beings weren't designed to flourish alone,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: and Christians certainly weren't designed to follow Jesus alone, So
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: why would we assume that the stewardship of the body
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: should be this isolated little project that we secretly work
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: on all by ourselves. Find some people. Maybe it's a
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: group like the Faithful Fitness Crew in Lubbock who joined
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: our virtual five k all the Way in Texas. They
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: meet and run together. Great. Maybe it's your church. Maybe
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: it's two friends who start walking every Tuesday morning. Maybe
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: it's a small group, it's a training partner. Maybe it's
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: our local Faithful Fitness Study right here in Greenbrier, or
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: maybe it's the Faithful Fitness Core online. But I need
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: you to get around people who understand we're not worshiping
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: our bodies. We're stewarding them. We're not trying to become
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: more attractive so that we're more valuable. Our value is
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: settled at the Cross. We're becoming stronger, healthier, more resilient
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: men and women because we want to be ready to
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: do what God asked us to do. And when one
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: person struggling, somebody else says, hey keep going. When somebody
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: gets discouraged, we say, hey, I'm with you, and when
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: somebody succeeds, we celebrate them. That's what I watched happen
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: on Saturday, and I can't tell you how much I
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: want more of that. While we're on the subject of
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: what I want, I also need to tell you what
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: this race did to me personally, because there are times
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: when doing faithful fitness online is strange. You record a
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: podcast like the one I'm recording now in my clothes
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: closet because somebody's weed eating outside. Or you write something,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: or you make a video, or you coach somebody through
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: a screen, you build an app, you publish a book,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: you send the thing into the Internet, and you trust
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: that maybe what it's doing is exactly what you believe
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: God's called you to do. Sometimes you get messages, sometimes
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: you see the numbers. Sometimes somebody tells you something help them.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: But a lot of the time I just have to
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: operate on faith. I have to say, hey, I think
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: this is the right thing to do. Saturday's five K
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: made it so much more tangible to me. I looked
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: around and I saw one hundred and sixty five people registered.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: I saw churches serving together. I saw sponsors put their
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: resources right behind this thing. I saw volunteers working. I
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: saw children with their parents having a blast. I saw
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: cloths tied to a cross. I saw people praying. I
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: saw people high fiving strangers on the road, and I
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: watched mister Roy cross the finish line, and I thought,
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: this thing that's been on my heart for so many years.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Helping people remove the vanity and confusion from fitness and
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: understand that their body plays a role in their spiritual walk,
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: their family, their relationships, their community, and the calling on
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: their life. It's real, and it turns out people are
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: hungry for it, and I'm so grateful. So what's this
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: have to do with you? Well, if you're listening to this,
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: maybe you weren't in Greenbrier, Maybe you didn't run with us.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: Maybe this is the first time you've ever heard about
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: the Faithful five K. That's all right. You don't need
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: to have been there to respond to what happened. Here's
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: my question, who's helping you run with endurance right now?
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Who knows what you're working on, Who knows what you're
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: struggling with, Who knows what you want your body to
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: be capable of. Who in your life knows where your
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: nutrition's a mess? Who knows where you've been inconsistent, who
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: knows what God's been putting on your heart, and who
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: has permission to encourage you when you want to quit.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: If the answer those questions is nobody, I think that's
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: your next step. Not another diet, not another thirty day challenge,
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: not another supplement. People. I need you to get connected.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: And if you're in a place where you'd say, hey, Alex,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: I don't know where to begin, I've built something specifically
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: to help you with that. I want you to take
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: the Faithful Fitness Assessment. It's going to help you look
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: honestly at where you are across four areas we talk
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: about all the time in faithful fitness, Integrity, grit, growth
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: and awe. This assessment is not so you can get
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: a score and then go feel good or bad about yourself.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: The point is clarity. You're asking where am I what's
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: strong right now? And where am I neglecting something? And finally,
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: what's my next faithful step need to be? And when
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: you complete the assessment, And if you complete the assessment today,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: you'll reserve your place for our next live Faithful Fitness seminar.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: What's going on on September second, it's an opportunity to
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: connect with me and with other people who are trying
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: to do exactly what we're talking about today. We're going
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: to stop separating faith from fitness. We're going to stop
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: doing this alone, and we're going to become more faithful
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: with what God's entrusted to us. The assessment link is
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: in the show notes. You can also find it at
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: faithfulfitness dot co slash assessment. Take it and then share
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: where you are with someone who cares about you. If
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: you have no one in your corner, there's a link
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: in the assessment results to join the Faithful Fitness Corps.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: We got your back, whatever you do. It's time to
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: get connected. Because the lesson of the Faithful five K
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: wasn't everybody should go out and run three point one miles.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: The lesson was this, we need each other if we're
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: going to run with endurance the race that God's put
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: in front of us. I keep thinking about that finish line.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: The fastest runners had been done for a long time
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: and most of the race was over, but people stayed
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: because one of their brothers was still running his race,
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: And when Roy came around the final stretch, they didn't
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: say well he's slow. They cheered, they walked toward him,
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: they waited for him, and they celebrated him. That's church,
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: that's community, that's faithful fitness. And maybe you're the person
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: crushing it right now. Awesome, turn around and encourage someone
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: behind you. Maybe you're roy, maybe you're tired, you're hurting,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: and the finish line feels a long way away right now?
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Then I want you to hear me. Keep going, walk
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: with God, get good people around you, and be stubborn
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: enough not to stop. May we run with endurance the
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: race that's set before us, looking to Jesus, the author
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: and finisher of our faith. This race isn't over. It's
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: time to make the most out of the body God's
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: given you. This has been Koch Alex van Houten on
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: the Faithful Fitness podcast. I'll talk at you next week.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Until then, train hard, but pray harder.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: What's up, Faithful? This episode helped you, share it with
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: someone who needs to hear it, and don't forget to
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: subscribe and need a review. Some of our people can
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: find faithful Fitness. My dad's devotional Faithful Fitness is available
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: now and you can join our Faithful Fitness community by
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: clicking the links in the show notes. We all have
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: a cross to carry, but it's lighter when we do
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: it together. See how lay it an alligator. But until then,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: train hard and pray even harder.