Outside the Walls: Get Off the Pew and Break a Sweat

I have lost nearly 150 pounds. Before you go comparing me to my boy Jared at Subway, you may want to know that, since I’ve been on a diet, I have also found about 170 pounds. You see, I’ve lost about five pounds — and found six — for the past 20 years.

Each time, those diets have started around Jan. 1. I inform my family and closest friends. I instruct my children to form-tackle me if they see me going for the Moose Tracks ice cream. Workout clothes are purchased, and gym memberships are acquired. There are a few quick wins, and then, in the middle of the night, I drive by a bright red sign that says, “Krispy Kreme: Hot and Now,” and the party is over.

I have done self-analysis on the issue. Here are my observations. First, my desire to be comfortable supersedes my desire to fit into smaller pants. Second, I want to lose weight, but I don’t want to work for it. Finally, I have to actually get off the couch and do what the man is telling me to do on those exercise tapes!

One of the biggest reasons that individuals who need to lose 100 pounds never get started is because the goal seems unattainable. Those who have actually lost it and kept it off lost it one pound at a time. You cannot lose 100 pounds until you lose 10, and you can’t lose 10 until you lose one.

The lostness in our nation is huge. You don’t have to watch the news long to see that. It seems to be out of our control, even as much as we yell and scream about it. The lostness in our state is on the rise. There were 3.6 million people who were not inside the walls of a church this past Sunday — three out of four people in South Carolina. Numbers like that can seem so overwhelming that the church is too paralyzed to move. The lostness is so great, and the task seems impossible.

Maybe your goal needs to change. Instead of trying to save the world, could you set a New Year’s resolution to engage ONE? It may be a coworker, family member, hunting buddy or neighbor. You set a goal this year to begin praying for them and for the opportunity to show them love and tell them about Jesus. Resolve that, over the course of the next year, you will have an ongoing conversation about your faith, your church and your savior. I know it’s tough. I know it’s uncomfortable. But they are worth it, and they matter to Jesus.

The goal of reaching our state is not unattainable. In fact, if all the Baptists who met at church this past Sunday set a goal of reaching one each year, we would be done with the state in a decade.

I have never met someone who lost 50 pounds and said, “I wish I was fat and lazy again.” You will never regret seeing someone you invest in come to know Jesus. It will be the greatest thrill of your life. So get off that pew and break a
sweat!

— If you struggle with sharing Jesus with someone close to you, consider reading “Close Encounters” by Lee Clamp, available at BaptistCourier.com/publishing.