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Faith and Gym Memberships

By Gabe Garnica

The other day I was working out at my local gym when I began to notice the various types of participants around me.  One man was sitting at his weight station looking at his cell phone.  Another was shooting the breeze with two other guys who were standing near his exercise machine.  A few folks took longer to wipe down and wipe off their station than to exercise, lifting the weight three of four times and getting up.  A guy nearby lifted far more weight than he could handle, judging by the look of death on his tomato red face.  After a few lifts he had to stop.  A lady behind me lifted a very light weight something like 40 times and left.  There were a few folks who clearly knew what they were doing, applying proper weights and technique and the right reps and sets. However, for each effective exerciser there were ten who were clueless, oblivious, lazy, creative, or any combination of those latter traits.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that I have been each of those exercisers when it comes to practicing and applying my faith.  Sometimes I am more interested in my cell phone than in praying.  I can think of numerous times when it was distracted in church speaking to someone, or when I dropped into church seemingly as a drive by visitor.  There have been times when I lifted more commitment than I could handle and gave up soon thereafter. Other times, I have been quite proud of myself for lifting the lightest burden possible a million times, as if I had accomplished anything by the process.  For every time I have been focused and effective in prayer or meditation, there have been two where I was going through the motions.

We may ask why people sign up for gym memberships and then go through the motions or do not even show up to the gym.  We may wonder in awe at how folks can attend mass once a month or less and think that they are good Catholics just for doing that.  Truth be told,  we are all guilty of doing such things with our faith.  We act as if the beautiful faith that we  have been gifted is a permanent tattoo that we can just wear and that is all.

Like it or not, we have to actually practice what we believe and preach.  We have to make our faith a real meaningful part of our life, sort of a routine on steroids that we do because we feel it, not out of some mindless habit.  We have to help anyone who asks us to explain things, or who is reaching out in general to see if the Good Samaritan story is just a myth.  Perhaps we can use this Lent to make our faith more than a glorified gym membership.  I think we can if we try.

2017  Gabriel Garnica

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Read all posts by Gabe Garnica Filed Under: Culture, Evangelization, Featured, Spiritual Warfare Tagged With: Lent

About Gabe Garnica

Gabriel Garnica is crazy enough to believe that we can all be saints, and he refuses to buy the lie that we cannot. He is a college professor with degrees in law and mental health counseling. He was born in Colombia and came to the U.S. as a young child. While Gabe continues to enjoy teaching law, his greatest fulfillment as an educator has come from his ten years as a catechist at two local parishes. Gabe is passionate about sharing his faith through writing and speaking; and he has enjoyed giving numerous talks to children on such topics as Divine Mercy, David and Goliath, The Ten Commandments, and prioritizing one’s faith. While he enjoys talking to children, it is in writing and speaking to adults that Gabe truly feels he has found his calling. His goal is to continue developing his Catholic speaking and write several books on his topics of interest, which include meditations on the Ten Commandments, Divine Mercy, the saints, parable stories, general Scripture, Pro-Life, and The Virgin Mary. He enjoys writing for his blog Deus solus https://wordpress.com/posts/deussolus9.wordpress.com and as a columnist at Catholic Stand ww.catholicstand.com/author/gabriel-garnica/

Gabe’s favorite saints are Tarcisius, Therese “The Little Flower”, and Alphonsus de Liguori, whom he describes as giving us a powerful glimpse of the loving challenge which God has given each of us. As mentioned above, Gabe believes that we are all called to be saints, but we spend more time convincing ourselves why we cannot become one than trying to fulfill our true purpose in becoming precisely that. Gabe also speaks about Catholic marriage as being the true “Love Triangle”, with each partner and God.

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