Freedom in the Most Unlikely Place

Has God ever changed your heart in an instant? For me, it all started with what the media dubbed “Snowmageddon 2011.” As ice and white powder fell from the sky for a week in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex this past February, most of us battened down the hatches and hunkered in for a late-winter mini-hibernation. Schools closed. Offices closed. The Metroplex came to a standstill.

Day One of Snowmageddon 2011 was a blast. I didn’t have to go to work, and I had recently started watching the TV show 24 on Netflix. Talk about perfect timing … I embarked on a 24 marathon (and developed a slight obsession with Jack Bauer!). But that night, a pipe burst in the attic of my apartment building, and my bedroom flooded. All of my bedroom furniture had to be crammed into my small (yet dry) living room. I backed my mattress up to my couch and created a mega-pallet for myself. It was the ultimate in comfort for my 24 marathon. I loved it. This was my dream! Hang out … watch TV … eat junk food … not do anything.

However, as the week wore on and work continued to be cancelled, something very strange (at least for me) happened. My attitude about my “dream” situation began to dramatically change. I was shocked when I began to feel cooped up and claustrophobic. This wasn’t like me! I loved having hours of downtime to read and watch TV. I’m a bookworm, and I enjoy watching entire seasons of TV shows at one time. But suddenly, there wasn’t enough space inside my tiny apartment. I wanted to move around … I even had the urge to exercise (gasp!). At that moment, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was up to something in my heart.

Let me be very frank. I’ve never been one to exercise. I had never even been to a gym! Whenever people talked about going to the gym, I made jokes about how I’d rather be at home reading or cooking something delicious and full of sugar—I never paid the least bit of attention to what I ate. Yet I have battled health issues for years, and for that reason, I’ve always known I needed to change these bad habits. But for as long as I can remember, I’ve been secretly terrified of the gym, which is why I always made jokes about it. I wanted to divert attention away from me when the subject came up. I had all these thoughts about myself when it came to exercising:

You can’t go there or do that. Everyone else there is in such great shape; you won’t fit in. You aren’t capable of exercising like those healthy people. You’re too weak, and it won’t do any good anyway, because you won’t stick with it.

As I was battling a near-panic attack due to the claustrophobia, God revealed to me that these thoughts weren’t my thoughts. They weren’t His thoughts either. The Enemy had been whispering in my ear for nearly my entire life. And I believed him. God merely revealing the origin of those thoughts was absolute revelation to me! The truth about what I believe about myself changed. I began to look at myself and judge myself based on what God says about me. Psalm 139:14 says, “I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” And Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ, because he gives me strength.”

The week after Snowmageddon, I joined a gym. I was so shocked by my own actions that I didn’t even tell any of my friends or family. Now I work out three or four days per week, and I’m totally hooked! I’ve also become obsessed with diet and nutrition (just ask any of my co-workers … I’m always talking about it). And for the first time in nearly half of my life, I feel amazing!

I love it when God changes my heart in an instant and heals parts of me that I didn’t even know were hurt.

I found freedom at the gym. Who on earth would have seen that one coming?!