My life as a [non] gymnast.

I'm a gymnast.

Sort of.

I was a gymnast from like age 3 until the end of my freshman year.

And I wasn't a real gymnast - since I never seriously competed - only little meets and stuff.

But man, I loved it. I tell you, there's nothing like the satisfying *smack* when you hit the floor in a solid finish after flying through the air in a backflip. I love that noise.

*Smack.*

But now I'm getting all nostalgic.

One thing I really miss, though, was the workout. Nothin' like a good 2 1/2 hour workout and conditioning afterwards.

It is OoooOOoooohhhhh so painful sometimes. No, a lot of the times. Especially if you're doing like splits.

On a 3 inch wide beam.

Yeah. Ow.

So in the last 2-3 years that I've been out of gymnastics, I've tried to work out on my own to stay in shape.

::cough::

Um, yeah, about that....

The thing is, I can't do it myself. I don't have the equipment, the resources, or the right locations.

But, in order to get flexible and to get stronger - you have to work out. Consistently.

Working out makes you stronger.

And it made me think of the verse - you know, that says "work out your own salvation."

I've always been a little confused by that, because you don't need to work to earn grace.

But it doesn't mean "work" in that way. I think it means that once we are saved, we need to work consistently if we want to get stronger.

Cause, see, you don't have to work out to sign up for the gym. But once you're in - and paid the price for it - it'd be pointless to just sit there and do nothing, wouldn't it?

Can you imagine if someone else paid your gym membership - for life? Of course you'd go work out, wouldn't you?

Working out without the right equipment and without the right coaching can be dangerous - and you can easily hurt yourself.

I can't get stronger by myself - I need a coach to push me. I don't know the right exercises to do myself - I need a coach to teach me.

But what if you had the coach who created the sport in the first place? Boy, would that be a workout.

And that's the thing about life, I can't do the right things without my Coach. I can't become stronger and better unless I'm working out consistently.

But how awful it is the number of times I just sit on the sidelines instead of getting in there and doing my splits.

Yeah, I'll admit it. I put off doing splits because, let's face it, it is painful. Especially when you haven't worked out in awhile.

OH! and that's another thing! The longer you don't work out, the more painful it is to get back to where you were. Think splits are as easy for me now as they were when I was doing gymnastics? Think again - they hurt way more now because I haven't been working out consistently.

Okay, so that was a long post - and I might have stretched the analogy a bit.

But what do you think? Am I totally off my rocker here? Is the concept of working out applicable to the verse "work out your own salvation?" Or what do you think that verse really means?