The Elliptical

The Elliptical
As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.
Proverbs 27: 17 (NLT)

Santa brought me an elliptical for Christmas. I sked for it because I hadn’t been feeling very healthy lately (you know that sluggish, I don’t want to move feeling?). It is caused by the ice cream and chocolate chip cookies that I love to eat.

My thought was that the elliptical would be a pleasant alternative to winter walking. Kind of like a friend who would encourage me to exercise when it is cold outside because I hate walking in the winter.

I love walking outside from May until November. When I walk, I can focus on God’s beautiful world around me. The birds, the wildflowers and even the sky speaks to me of His love. The only thing that speaks during winter walking is my freezing exposed skin!

My elliptical has been in my rec room now for three weeks. I am using it, but that hunk of metal and plastic doesn’t feel like the friend I thought it would be. I think it is because the thing communicates to me things I don’t like to hear.

The first time I walked on it, I went for ten minutes and it told me I was too slow and had not hit my target RPMs, whatever that is. It also told me my target heart rate and by the time I got about half way there, I felt like I was dying.

I am up to thirty minutes on the thing now and it told me today I only burned 312 calories. Makes you never want to put another chocolate chip cookie in your mouth because of the agony you have to go through to burn it off. Two cookies equals 312 calories. Something is just not right about that equation.

While I was on the elliptical today, I was reminded again of how I thought originally it could be a friend. That is when I remembered the verse from Proverbs. “Iron sharpening iron” is talking about about friendships and how social contacts can have a stimulating and positive effect on our minds and our personalities.

I thought of a couple of my friends who have had a positive influence on my life, not because they always told me what I wanted to hear but because they told me what I needed to hear. Their honesty helped to make me a better person.

Our consciences, the sense of what is right and wrong that governs our thoughts and actions is like that. It is our friend, the iron that sharpens iron. When I allow sin to enter into my life, my conscience begins to make me feel
spiritually unhealthy and sluggish. That is when I need to get on my spiritual elliptical, that time each day when I read God’s word and pray.

Yes, sometimes my spiritual elliptical tells me things I don’t like to hear (iron sharpening iron) but I know it speaks the truth and if I follow that truth, it will make me a better healthier Christian.

Not only can our physical and spiritual ellipticals remedy what is wrong with us, it can prevent future damage to our bodies and souls. But we have to use them daily.

And an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. I should have asked Santa for that elliptical ten years ago.