Ode to Planet Fitness

Every year during the fall and winter, without fail, I take a hiatus from my normal exercise routine. It bugs me that I do this, but I have zero motivation to keep it from happening. I always joke that I am in hibernation mode and that those extra pounds will keep me warm on the ski slopes! So, as I saluted Planet Fitness with my Dunkin Donuts on my drive to work this morning, I thought about my identity, not only in this world, but in God.

Romans 12:1-2 (Message) says, “So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

Our pop culture tells us how important it is to have a slim and trim body and to wear the right clothing to show it off. Being wild isn’t necessarily bad, and being normal is boring. Teenage boys are taught that girls are objects and that relating to each other is all about sexuality. In addition, we are taught to focus on achievement, money, possessions, pleasure, gratification, and comfort.

It is our responsibility to make sure we are pointing our children and others to Christ so that they might find their identity solely in Him. The first thing to do is to take a good look at yourself and ask where you are finding your identity. It is a continuous struggle for all of us. We want to feel acceptance and significance, but ultimately our identity is in Christ and Him alone.

So, how do we help our children? By culture watching. Culture is constantly changing and shifting, so we need to stay on top of the messages that are being presented to our children. Then we should confront these lies. Tell your children that the world says this, but Jesus says that. Kids are smarter than you think. They will pick up on whatever has a hold of your identity, and if you have embraced Christ, it will send a strong message on the who they have been made to be!

Finally, Ephesians 4:21-24 (NIV) says, “When you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Here is a great link for a list of scriptures showing who we are in Christ: http://www.persevering.org/perceiv.html

Have a Blessed Day!