There is a discipline in sports that requires you to control your breathing as you increase in strenuous activity. In fact, it goes beyond breathing into managing and understanding how your heart rate effects your ability to compete. It is a physiological look at the old story of the “Tortoise and the Hare.”

In short, you have the “Rabbit” (anaerobic)

Strenuous exercise, low oxygen intake, high heart rate, inability to turn carbohydrates into fuel, longer recovery period

Then you have the “Turtle” (aerobic)

Medium exercise, high oxygen intake, medium heart rate, effective use of carbohydrates and fats for fuel, shorter recovery period

So what does this have to do with spiritual growth?

While swimming and monitoring my own heart rate, I began to understand a parallel between our physiology and our spirituality. In order to maximize your ability to compete and achieve success you must be willing to use both anaerobic and aerobic activities. Through planning the level of strain and trauma you put on your body, you can increase the effectiveness of your exertion and create sustained success.

Spiritually, God needs us to go through periods of hardship, strain, and trauma in order to teach us how to rely on him. The problem is that if we rely on him in only short bursts, we experience spiritual anaerobic side-effects. We suffocate our spirit, cut off our understanding that comes from the word’s nutrition, and we find ourselves unable to recover.

The parallel continues with those nagging hardships that are designed to keep us on a regular rhythmic path. However, we don’t grow in God by only experiencing one type of strain. Together, all the events of our life our used as an opportunity allow us develop quickness and endurance.

Don’t fight your spiritual training…recognize it, and use it to become effective and successful.

Chance