Everyone knows I love Pure Barre.
Okay, okay, I am slightly obsessed!
I am an instructor for this incredible exercise class, but my passion for the workout started as a client. Pure Barre not only transformed my body but honestly, a piece of my soul when I was struggling with a tough season of life. There are many reasons why I could tell you it is the best workout ever and a thousand things I could tell you to convince you to try it (and if you haven’t, YOU SHOULD), but that is for another time.
The Lord has been revealing to me just how my Walk with Christ is like Pure Barre.
Part I: Your First Class
Your first Pure Barre class is a lot like the first steps into Faith and trusting this Invisible God. It’s overwhelming, chaotic, stressful, and overall confusing. I remember starting the Warm-Up, and thinking, “HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE IT THROUGH 55 MINUTES?!?!” Then, the real kicker came, when my lovely instructor (who honestly could not have been more helpful or sweet), said, “move onto your forearms for your 90 second plank! This is your first REAL challenge of class!”
I wanted to scoff, laugh, and cry all at one time. HOW HAD THE REST OF THIS NOT BEEN CHALLENGING?! (for those of you that have taken, you know even those first knee ups can leave you winded)
The rest of class continues in this pattern. What is a tuck?! What am I supposed to be doing underneath this barre? WHY AM I SHAKING LIKE AN EARTHQUAKE?!
Then you make it to the end and final stretch, and you question everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! What in life has led you to make this decision to put you through such torture?
Then, everybody claps and you realize, wow you made it, and you’re ready to challenge yourself to do it all again.
This is very much like the first few steps in our walk with Jesus. We start optimistic in what is to come. We are eager to see what’s next, then the first real challenge comes, and without the foundational knowledge to sustain us, we feel hopeless and drained like we cannot go on. We are confused by whom God is and what He says He is capable of. We question Him, we question ourselves, and we question how we got here in the first place.
Then we make it through the first trial because of His Faithfulness, and suddenly, we are ready to take on whatever He has next for us as he continually equips us with the tools we need.
Part II: Deepening Our Knowledge
After you take a few classes of Pure Barre, you start to learn the lingo. You know what it means to tuck your hips, or to move down just an inch and up an inch (that pesky little paperclip), and you chase the shake to find the change in your body. But for those first few classes, you’re still pretending you know what’s going on.
Until one day, it clicks (or you go to a Breaking Down the Barre class, and all of a sudden LIGHTBULB!!).
Now you know not only what all of it means, but also you know how to make your body do it. Then you are deceived into thinking, “now I know what I’m doing, I’ll be better at it, and it must get easier!”
That is when you’re slapped in the face the next class and realize:
EVERYTHING HURTS SO MUCH MORE!!!
How can these little tiny movements cause so much pain and instigate such big changes?!
This is what happens when we start to learn more about the Character of Jesus. Our hearts become more inquisitive to know more and to better understand Him and His word so that following Him becomes easier.
Until we learn that it is actually harder. That He places trials in front of us to test our Trust and to build our dependence on Him. To remove the idols in our hearts.
Suddenly life is harder. Because just like moving your leg out just one inch, we surrender small pieces of our heart in each moment, until we are shaking in His Presence.
However, just like the small isometric movements in Pure Barre, these surrenders bring us closer and closer to Jesus. We start to ask for these challenges because trials take us into a deeper relationship with Him. Just as out technique makes class harder, we ultimately finish with a better workout and more visible results! Our faith works the same way. As we endure the next challenge in our walk, His Grace endures.
Part III: The Instructors
(First, please note that I do not speak of myself, but of the countless teachers I have had the pleasure of taking classes from!)
Pure Barre teachers have what seems like an innate energy. They are encouraging, uplifting, and unwavering in their belief that you can accomplish your goals! They are knowledgeable and speak the entirety of the class, giving directions, performing hands on corrections, and pushing clients when needed. They are there from the beginning until the end ready to help in any way that they can!
However, they are always continuing their knowledge of the technique and often are the ones who sweat the most in class, even when it barely looks like they are moving.
These are like our friends, disciples, and prayer partners. I have many people that have disciple me over the years.
My mom has always been a steadfast woman who lives Grace daily and shares the wisdom she has learned over the years of surrendering her will to Jesus. She and her prayer partner Susan Britt have lifted me up in prayer in all things, and I am beyond grateful for their faithfulness and unconditional love.
My mentor Susan is much like me. She has always been an old soul as I am and can relate to both the pain and joy I feel, because she experiences these things in the same way. She knows just how to pray and encourage me, as well as to lead me in a direction that will be most helpful.
And recently, I’ve been discipled by a good friend, Meghan. She knows when to encourage me, but she also knows when to challenge me. Just as my fellow instructors might tell me to take my heels an inch higher and my seat an inch lower, she pushes me to reach deeper into dependence on the Lord. And though it may be hard to do or hear, I am thankful in the end for the way she pushes me.
Each of these women, as well as the many prayer warriors that have been in my life, can guide and lead me in my faith because they have been there and have learned from the Lord. But they are all continually growing as well. They listen and learn from Christ and continue to surrender to Him daily.
Part IV: You’re Stronger than You Think
We use this phrase often in Pure Barre.
You’re stronger than you think.
It is meant to motivate you, to give you the strength to make it through those Final 10. To give you the will power to stay in your plank longer than you did last time, and to make you feel accomplished.
This is how the Lord trains us as well, but instead, we must fully rely on His strength.
He is bigger than all things. He is greater than all things. He is mightier than all things.
He is stronger than the box we put Him in.
So Go forth and follow JESUS! …and maybe LTB while, you’re at it 🙂
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