Sweatin' w/ the Spirit

I have a wide variety of music on my ipod...everything from show tunes to rap/hip-hop to classical and oldies...I also have a good mix of classic Christian music and more modern praise and worship, usually stuff I hear in church.  The only time I listen to music is when I work out (not running, just at the gym) and when I clean the house.

Since changing gyms, I've been more drawn to listening to praise and worship music while I climb away on the Stairmaster or swing forth on the elliptical. Not sure why this is...but it is a time for me to close my eyes, be another anonymous body sweating away, and use the time to worship. More and more, I find myself concentrating on the words rather than the beat, raising my hands up when I feel moved, allowing a tear or two of gratitude to roll down my face, even hammering down on the side bars of whatever machine I'm on to emphasize a point. I do this unashamed and without care that someone will think I'm weird. I don't sing aloud, but I mouth the words and smile with joy...Yes, smile. 

What a difference smiling while working out makes! To allow praise to pump through my body as much as the blood is, burning calories for the Lord (HA!). I can't help but smile when I'm mouthing, "No matter what I'm gonna love You, no matter what I'm gonna need you"...I'm sure a few folks have snuck peeks at me and think whatever they may think...and a few times I have wondered if anyone would ever ask me about it or say something.

Today someone did. And oddly, it wasn't even a day I was sweating w/ the spirit--I chose to listen to the news instead because I wanted to know the weather, the update on the 3 girls who had been rescued in Ohio, and about Governor Christie's lapband surgery. I was sitting on a bench after doing cardio trying to maneuver a 40 pound barbell above my chest...Next to me, one of the trainers was coaching a woman with dumbbells. When I finished my set and sat up to rest, he walked over to me which kinda threw me--no one talks to me in the gym!

He said, "I just wanted to tell you I think it's so cool when you praise the Lord up there", and motioned towards the upper level of cardio equipment. I smiled and thanked him...then added, "How did you know that's what I was doing? Maybe I was getting into a cool love song?" He laughed and went back to his client.

I will continue to sweat with the Spirit...who knows how that may touch someone else, what message it may send, or how the Lord may use it...something so simple...