Weakness is a Key to Strength

I hate feeling weak. I want to feel strong, able to accomplish my tasks with energy, to have something leftover at the end of the day to enjoy myself.  But if I don't exercise my muscles (whether they be physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, etc),  they lose strength over time.  And exercising muscles requires a conscious choice on my part.  Not only that, to really build strength I need to push my muscles past their point of weakness.

Right now I'm sitting here, trembly and weak after a tough work out with my trainer.  When I showed up he asked if I was ready to get my butt kicked.  He then proceeded to do just that.  It was hard.  It was embarassing to get to the point where I couldn't do something and then had to do it anyway.  And I did.  It wasn't elegant.  It was necessary.  I'll never push past my limits otherwise. 

It seems that the culture we live in has become at ease with making excuses for our weaknesses.  That we've accepted "I can't" as a reality instead of pushing past into an overcoming position. This keeps us weak!  In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul talks about his weakness and how he asked God repeatedly to remove it from him.  Instead, God used it as a point of building strength in Paul's life - God strength.  Paul was getting some God-muscle, "that the power of Christ can work through me....for when I am weak, then I am strong". 

Today, I was doing a series of exercises that were targeted at my greatest area of weakness, one after the other, ending with an exercise I seriously despise....because I can't do it.  As I did the first set, I struggled.  As I did the second set, I hated my trainer.  I wanted to quit.  I wanted to cry.  He was yelling at me to keep going.  I just couldn't.  Until I did. 

In life, we all have areas of weaknesses.  Don't ignore them.  Work through them to the point of strength. 

And by the way, I don't hate my trainer.  Afterwards I'm always glad he pushed me further.  After all, when I started I couldn't do a set of 10.  Today I did 25.  And I know he's working with me to reach my goals.

Where do you want to be strong?  What weaknesses do you have?  How are you going to push past them?
Just do it.  I know you can! :)