Sweatin' To The Oldies

We had our very first exercise night tonight at the church. (Don't worry we didn't do it in the sanctuary, we did it downstairs in the fellowship hall.) We set up the projector and exercised to Richard Simmons Sweatin' to the Oldies 2. It was a hillarious time! Fifteen women, many of whom hadn't exercised in years, and never to 50's style music, trying to do an aerobic workout. Some were really well coordinated, some of us weren't. Some were in their teens, some in their twenties, some in their thirties, many of us in our forties and some older than that. But we all had one thing in common: we were there to exercise. It didn't matter our age or ability. We were all the same. It was a fun time and we accomplished an hour long work out together.

Just us being able to come together on equal footing and do something like this reminded me of one of my favourite scriptures:

"So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

(Galatians 3:26-28)

We are all equal because of Christ. He made us equal. When He looks at us He doesn't see us as being Jew or Gentile, male or female, He sees us as being His children. He sees us as equal no matter what our talents or abilites are. He sees us as equal. Ladies, He saw us as equal long before the Women's Liberation Movement called us equal. Maybe you belong to a church or a family that doesn't allow women to have a voice or opinion, let me tell you this: God sees you as equal to men. He just said so in Galatians 3. You are not inferior. You are equal.

We're planning to meet every Thursday night for a night of exercising. It's good for our bodies but it's good for our spirits too. It's good when the playing field has been leveled and everyone is equal. There were no hot shots there, no one better than the other, no one bossing people around. We all exercised to the best of our ability and when some got tired and couldn't, they went to the side of the room and called encouragement out to their friends who were still going. That's true equality. We laughed and shared in the accomplishment. It was a good night.