The First Rule of CrossFit, Faith and Recovery

Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples . . . Isaiah 12:4

I go to a specific type of gym, where the participants – me included – can be a little fanatical. We tend to like it so much, that we cannot help but talk about it . . . a lot, which is annoying to those who don’t subscribe to the program. In my house then, we have a running joke – used mainly to mock me. The first rule of CrossFit is: Always talk about CrossFit.

This is normal for us. When something is important, we naturally want to tell others about it. If it has impacted us, we share it – even with those who really don’t care.

Why then, are we so timid to tell others about what Christ has done for us? As Christians, we insist, on Sunday at least, that our faith is the most important thing about us, but if we measured its importance by how much we spoke of it the rest of the week, it wouldn’t even appear on our top ten list of life events.

For me, my previous reluctance to share my faith was honestly because I didn’t have that much to tell. Prior to my addiction and recovery, my faith was mainly an intellectual belief that hadn’t dramatically impacted my life. I believed in God, but I followed me. Now though, since I have caused myself such misery and since I have found such joy, life and purpose in following God, it’s hard not to tell others what he has done for me.

I’m not suggesting that everyone needs to go out and become an addict, so they have a good story. I am suggesting that most of us already have some struggle which we have not allowed God to touch. So, when asked what God has done for us, we just don’t have an answer.

We don’t need to go out and find a new life disaster. We simply need to allow God to work on our anger, gluttony, pride, lust, greed, or selfishness. Daily, we must turn from the misery of ourselves, to pursue the joy of God. We must first experience his peace and life for ourselves, and then we will have something about which we must tell others.