I'll Pass on the Gravy

So, almost every week day, on my lunch hour, I head over to a gym near my office, and get in a quick 45 minutes of sit-ups, weights, and pain! I hate it. I am not one of those crazy people who gets some sort of euphoric high from exercising. Nope. I dread every minute of it, and do everything I can to make the time go faster. I do, however, like the results, so. . .

Anyway, I say that one of the reasons I work out and run occasionally is so I can eat whatever I want, but really that's not what ends up happening. After going through all the pain and effort to beat my body into form, I find myself refraining from a lot of food that would be counterproductive. It's like I have this subconscious attitude that says, "Look, if I going to all the trouble to work out, I'm gonna eat things that help me. Not ones that undo everything I've been working so hard for."

Here's the thing: this is the same kind of thing that I see happening in my spiritual life as well. See, a lot of people think that grace gives you a license to sin. It's the attitude that if all my sins have been paid for, and my salvation secure, then why not just go do whatever I want, right? But really, the more I understand and "get" grace, the more I find the opposite to be true. Just like working out and eating bad, I find that I'm more compelled to spiritually stay away from those things that seem contradictory to my new nature. Not because God will like me better if I resist them, but it's like I have this subconscious attitude that more and more leads me away from the unhelpful things and more to the helpful ones. Now, it's not that I never use grace as a license to sin. Just like I sometimes (most weekends!) use the fact that I worked out all last week as an excuse to eat whatever I want. But rather than leading me to more and more sin, I'm finding that grace and adoption into God's family leads me -- at times with seemingly no thought on my part -- away from sin.

I know, I know, it doesn't make logical sense. 'Course neither does God choosing me as his child. I'm just glad both are true!