Many years ago I made a competition to myself. When visiting hospitals with parking garages, I would take the stairs. I like to challenge myself with silly things like this. When I arrived at the parking garage today, I knew from the beginning I would not be parking on one of the bottom levels. Each level was jammed packed.
I circled one level after another before finally locating a parking space. When I approached the elevators and stairs, I saw I was on level eight. I knew that would be a little challenge after my visit. After the visit, I made my way back to the parking garage walking right past the elevators. I did not even entertain using them.
I put my head down and trudged up one step after another. I did not even notice what floor I was on until level three. That is when the legs started burning and I started getting a little winded. Three down and only five more to go. Levels four and five brought further burning in the quadriceps and more shortness of breath. At level four the thought crossed my mind that I was half way there. Then a second thought surfaced why I was even doing that. Normal people just take the elevator.
To me, it is a way to not give in to old age and a sedentary lifestyle. I try to push myself to uncomfortable levels physically while I still can. Over the years I have challenged myself to crazy ideas. When I was 12, I entered a 30 mile bike race. It was not easy, but loved every mile of it. In high school, I challenged myself with certain weightlifting goals. I even skipped lunch to get in additional workouts. In the summers, I worked out in the hottest part of the days.
You would think I would outgrow that in adulthood. I didn't. I challenged myself to ride a bike from Paradise, TX to Hurst, TX one Mother's Day. That was a 50 mile trek. Brenda and our sons drove to Hurst to meet her family and I told them I would meet them riding my bike over. That turned into a more daunting task that I first considered. For starters, I really did not take into account the heavy traffic I would ride in. I ran out of water with several miles to go. It took me three hours, but eventually I arrived. I showered and fell asleep on the floor. I wisely rode back home with my family.
In 2008 I got the wild brained idea to ride 100 miles to raise money for a mission project. I rode for months to train. When the day arrived, I saddled up and started peddling around 7:00 a.m. Except for bathroom breaks and lunch I pedaled for nine hours. I asked myself repeatedly in the midst of that ride why I committed to such a thing. Six hours into the ride the battery on my iPod died. I rode three hours with nothing but my thoughts. My thoughts were increasingly on quitting rather than finishing several times. With God's physical and mental strength, He enabled me to finish.
Brenda bought me a Fitbit to keep track of how may steps I took and how many miles I walked. I walked over 20 miles in one day just for the challenge of it. I may have worn my knee out in the process of all that walking.
I downloaded a fitness app that put me in competition with people around the world. Again I competed with fierce determination onetime ranking all the way up to number seven in the world. To do that I had to exercise about four hours a day. Eventually my Fitbit broke because I guess I sweated too much.
This morning I did the same work out I challenged our athletes to do yesterday in weightlifting at school. Challenge accepted. It was not easy, especially the ab exercises. Challenge accepted.
Back to the stairs. Level six was not so difficult. I paused a moment and thought about taking an extended rest. I thought I only had two flights to go. I pounded the pavement up to level seven and again thought about resting. Just one more flight and I would be done. Slowly I stepped up eighteen more times to reach the landing of the eighth floor. There was no celebration. I was too winded and my legs were too tired for that.
Our lives have built in comforts. Remote controls. Remote starting to warm up or cool down our cars before we even get into them. We have cruise control and now even hands free driving. We are increasingly becoming a softer generation. Instead of cutting our own firewood we pay somebody else to do it. People pay to have their lawns mowed. My sons and I once had a thriving business mowing other people's yards when those sons were younger. People do not cook from scratch as much as they buy boxed meals. Instead of reading we prefer someone else to do our research for us, including preachers.
I think it is good to challenge ourselves. To make ourselves uncomfortable. To toughen ourselves a bit. I don't know how people would fare if we had to live like Pioneers lived. In the great winter freeze of a few years ago, we were without any power for several days. It got down into the upper forties temperature wise in the home, even with a burning fire in the fireplace. I made up my mind during that time not to complain. To tough it out like many people have to do on a daily basis around the world. Those were uncomfortable days for sure.
Hard times make for tougher people. Easy times make softer people. That is why I choose to take the stairs. To make it tougher in this modern convenience driven age. In the big scheme, a few flights of stairs is not a big deal. While God allows me the ability to still do so, I will keep choosing the stairs.
I hope you will find ways to challenge yourself. To go without eating to pray and fast. To get up a little earlier to pray or workout. To stay up a little later to read. To let the cold water flow over in the shower just a bit to be uncomfortable. To get outside in the weather and choose to go through a day without complaining about how cold or hot it is outside. And if you are able, maybe just maybe from time to time choose to take the stairs if you are able.
