“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”
Psalm 121:1-2
This past weekend I had the unbelievable privilege and joy to lead the faith Rx’D Iron sharpens Iron training camp in Cincinnati, Ohio. We were incredibly well hosted by Crossfit Cornerstone and could not have had a better experience with the gym.
What I’ve noticed as I’ve done more and more of the Faith Rx’D camps is that each camp seems to have its own theme and focal point. The attendees that come at each camp have been incredibly different and come with incredibly different desires and hopes for the camp.
This camp’s focal point seemed to be a desire to take their faith, which for the most part was incredibly strong in the attendees at this camp, and figure out ways to put it to work inside their CrossFit gym. We had a lot of coaches and owners and athletes who really wanted to leverage the Gospel for the glory of God in their gym but either were afraid of taking that next step or weren’t resourced well enough to know how to make that next step.
This camp was definitely the most spiritually mature group of campers that I have coached so far. What seemed to be their biggest struggle was an inability to focus and stay enamored by Jesus Christ amidst the tension and idolatrous environment they find themselves in at their home gym. Chip Pugh did a great job addressing this exact struggle. The solution to fear in tough situations is to put your gaze upon Jesus Christ and only allow your gaze to glance at the circumstances around you. Literally make the Gospel the center of your worship and place everything else behind it in such a way that you’re often enamored by who God is and not distracted by the circumstances surrounding you.
The highlight of the weekend for me was the panel discussion. Every camp we do a group panel in which the attendees get the opportunity to ask a couple coaches and a couple athletes any question that comes to mind surrounding fitness or faith or box management or really whatever they’d like to hear our opinion on. Since our last camp in Denver, Megan and I have moved back to Georgia and have grown as a family in incredible ways. One of the questions asked me was how do I maintain balance in my life considering all of the opportunities and obligations pulling on me each day. This is a question I would have answered very differently three months ago. Instead, I got the opportunity to share some incredible work the Lord is been doing in our family to keep us focused on Him and growing us together towards the Gospel. This is a new development in my life as I was doing a very poor job of that previously. Getting to answer that question was not only an opportunity to share what how good God has been to me despite my sin but also to encourage some other believers I met some in their same struggles.
Obviously a highlight for the weekend, on top of the panel, was seeing multiple men and women hit lifetime snatch PR’s. It’s always good to see a couple technical cues, the right environment, and a hard-working athlete get a little affirmation. I loved seeing in a couple men my group specifically pull this off.
If you are considering coming to a Faith Rx’D camp or want to know more about what they are, what Faith Rx/D is, or have any questions concerning the organization. I would love to help facilitate those answers for you. Feel free to contact me.
Our next camp is in Tampa, Florida at CrossFit TNL over the weekend of February 13-15. We would love to have you all join us. Click the link here to see the registration.