What The Church Can Learn From Crossfit
When the shutdown first happened in 2020, the only thing I missed was Crossfit. Not my church. And that’s an unfortunate statement.
Before I get hate mail, I should get one thing out of the way. I love Jesus. I also love Crossfit. But I’m not so sure I love the church as much as either of those first two things. But I wish I did. I’ve been a CrossFitter for ten years, and a follower of Jesus for far longer. However, those ten years have made a permanent mark on my soul.
CrossFitters love it [insert: hate it} when an outside observer asks them, “How do you know when someone does Crossfit?” Followed by, “They tell you!”
Outside observer dies laughing at a joke they think you’ve never been told. CrossFitter internally rolls their eyes while outwardly pretending to play along with you. So please, for the love of all things holy and good, STOP WITH THAT JOKE.
What the outside observer fails to realize is that people talk about the things they love the most. Have you ever loved something so much you couldn’t help but talk about it? I bet you have. Your new car, those perfect leggings, football, your dog, that dream vacation, a restaurant - you get the idea. And you’ve done it. The more you love it, the more you talk about it. Duh.
I could have titled this post, Five Things CrossFit has taught me, but that isn’t nearly as provocative. Or fun. I’ll start with the five things anyway. Because they explain, in part, why I love CrossFit so much. And what I want the church to know.
Community Matters. People make all the difference. You come in to lose weight and gain muscle, but you stay for the community. We have been created to long for relationships that have meaning, and to crave the experience of belonging. God made us like that; it’s in our hard-wiring. I’ve found both of those things in my gym. CrossFitters know that testing your physical limits alongside other people gives you a unique bond that no one else shares with you. The bond is inevitable in an environment like that. CrossFitters instinctively circle you to cheer you on and always want you to win. Every time. The eruption of noise in a gym when someone hits a PR rivals the decibels coming from the fans cheering on their team at the SuperBowl. It’s a shared language that we all speak, no one else understands, and it feels special. The best part? These relationships far surpass the hour working out and the building where it happens.
Commitment Makes a Difference. Small deposits over a long period of time pay huge dividends. This is a life principle. The downfall of technology at our fingertips is that it’s created the I-Want-It-Now-Syndrome. Some people like to call it entitlement or instant gratification. Take your pick because it really doesn’t matter. The point is still the same; long-term results don’t happen over night. And I don’t care that you want it now; put the work in consistently over time and you’ll get it. But the choice is yours. The choice is always yours. Your outcome is a reflection of your effort and commitment over time. I didn’t learn double-unders in one week. I bought myself my own jump rope and spent month after month in my driveway, after hours, practicing those stupid things. Because I was determined to not be tripped up by a jump rope; literally, not be tripped up; I now slay with that rubber-coated piece of wire. But CrossFit taught me to keep showing up week after week. And then, the results will come.
Not All Hard Things are Bad. Just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean you can’t do it. It means you have room to grow. And it will reveal your weakness. Newsflash: we all have weaknesses. But CrossFit affords you the opportunity to decide if you are going to complain about them and give up, or show up tomorrow and try again. Failing forward is a real thing. What a waste if it’s hard, you fail, and you never learn anything. So what that you missed that lift, tripped on the box, or only made it up the rope three times instead of four. Hard things happen to all of us all the time. It’s called life. Let the hard motivate you to grow. Your mind will always give up before your body does. I think the only time you fail is when you quit.
Coaches are Important. A friend of mine has developed a habit of always asking the question to those closest to him, “What is it like to be on the other side of me?” I think the principle of that question applies to all areas of life. The truth is that none of us will ever know how people experience us if we don’t ask. When I’m in the gym, my coach can see every move I make and help me. They provide feedback, encouragement, correction, and praise. I need all of those things if I ever want to get better. When I’m beating myself up, they are cheering me on. When I have questions, they provide the answers. And when I crush a new goal, they smile the biggest. I don’t know what it’s like to be on the other side of me. But the coaches do. And it makes all the difference.
Rest days are good. Take a freaking break sometimes. If you don’t allow your body to get back to its baseline, you’ll start to experience diminishing returns and put yourself at risk for injury. And I hate this. I hate resting, taking breaks, and slowing down. I don’t like time off. Ever. But guess what? No awards are passed out for never taking a break. If you don’t take both planned days away and give yourself the freedom for the unplanned ones, the fatigue will set in and start to do damage. Mentally and physically. Haven’t you ever noticed how refreshed you feel at work after coming back from vacation? This rings true in every area of life for every person. Not taking a break and never saying, “no”, doesn’t make you a hero. It makes you an idiot.
So, back to the church and the point of all of this. People are looking for purpose and community. And when I say looking, I mean they need it. And they want to be better at life, too. Who wouldn’t? But I think the church should be the place where those things are found. After all, isn’t that how God designed it? But the reality is that many of us are finding it in the CrossFit gym instead. (Well, a version of it anyway. I mean, I’m not a heretic). And we love it. So we talk about it. A lot.
But what scares me about this is that it’s all temporary. Our bodies and these relationships are confined to time and space. It’s our souls that will live on forever. And that’s what CrossFit will never be able to remedy.
What if I loved the church so much, it was the only thing I talked about? Disclaimer: loving the church does not automatically mean you love Jesus. That’s another conversation. Rather, I’m making the point that I wish the church had a reputation, in the very least, as great as a CrossfFt gym. Because if it did, wouldn’t that just change everything?