A Gym “Gem”

This summer I’ve begun to address the challenge I blogged about a while back–discipline.  Part of addressing this has involved, understandably, a gym.  My family actually joined a new one this year as our last one just didn’t seem to work well for me.  Well, this one didn’t seem to work for me either, until the past several weeks.  It turns out it was probably me and not so much the gym.  I’m ready for it now it seems, as I’m taking this whole fitness thing quite seriously, which means I’ve been there several times this week.  I pray it does last.

Well, when I was there a couple of days ago, the most unexpected thing happened.  I made a new and most remarkable friend.  And this was much more unexpected than one might think, because I had promised myself that I wasn’t going to be allow my gym visits to be social.  I was going to keep my head down, merely nodding politely to others, and focus on my work-outs.  I felt like I needed to do this because it takes very little to get me off track (silly pun intended).  I generally enjoy talking to others and hearing their stories and sharing my own.  And, according to my young daughter, I do it far too frequently.  So, I was going to be careful to minimize my new gym socializing.  I was, however, unsuccessful at this pretty much right away; and now, I am so very, very glad that I was.

On the very first machine Thursday morning, a man I’d never seen before approached me and told me that, according to an article he’d read, the leg machine I was using was pretty useless.  He also said that he wasn’t sure if he believed the article.  He then asked me where I was from and what I did for a living.  And that is where it all started.  I told him that I wrote now.  It turns out he’s a writer too (and an editor).  Then, when I told him the nature of Hear I AM, he told me that his wife too had gone through cancer in recent years.  One of the next questions he asked me was about church.  When I told him where my family and I are worshipping now, he said that his son worshipped at the same church.  When he told me the name of his church, I told him that the husband of a friend who shared my sick season was a pastor there.  And he, of course, knew my friend’s husband.

Then, he asked me where my husband works.  When I told him, he gave me a name and told me to ask my husband if he knew the person (his lovely daughter-in-law).  I didn’t even have to ask my husband because I recognized her name and remembered attending a Carolina Hurricane’s game with her and her husband.  And it just so happens that my husband’s coworker’s husband is the son of my new gym friend, the writer.  My new and most impressive writer friend also chose to spontaneously pray over me, by the snack machine in the corner, and to encourage me to soldier on sharing my story–and to know, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that I am indeed well.  All I can say about all of this now is only God!

As I’ve said many times since my sick season, the word “coincidence” just simply doesn’t work for me anymore.  There were a lot of women in the gym this Thursday morning but my new friend said that he felt compelled to speak to me.  And I then felt very strongly that I was supposed to keep talking with him.  And it was then that all of these uncanny connections were rather quickly teased out.  What my new friend doesn’t know is that I needed very much to hear from God this week, to hear from him in the miraculous way I used to hear from him so very much when I was most ill.  Back then, it felt like God just wouldn’t leave me alone.  And then, it sort of felt like he did…..for a while at least.

One of the greatest lessons God did teach me though during my sick season is that he’s always constant.  I’m the one who’s on the move.  If God’s ever felt distant, it’s most probably because I made choices that put distance between us.  I’m just so very glad I could sense his presence and his power this week and witness his sovereignty over even the smallest details of our lives down here.  He truly is in it all.  And even though I knew this, and have even written about it often, this week’s encounter, my gym “gem,” was so spectacular it felt almost like it was the very first time anything like this had ever happened to me.  God’s so amazing–a timeless Truth which feels fresh and new yet defines eternity.  Yes, only God!