Whispersfrommyheart's Blog

Junk In, Junk Out.

There is no greater feeling than pushing your body to the limits on a long distance bike ride. So far, fifty-six miles has been the farthest I have ridden. Eight hours on a bicycle seat. There were twenty cyclists signed up for the 62 mile ride, and a few hard core cyclists who signed up for the 100-mile bike ride. Most of the cyclist had signed up for the easier 15-mile ride. Once the whistle blew, we set our pace and our hearts toward finishing our trek during the time frame allowed. During our rides, we stopped long enough to gobble down peanut butter and grape sandwiches, and banana’s, and grab a bottle of water to wash it down. Then we would stuff a handful of Gatorade packs in our pouches before we were off again. Miles of hills and highway lay behind us, and many more miles stretching out before.

Exhilarating.

As a cyclist, conquering miles and hills on the seat of a bicycle takes grit and determination. More importantly, to keep your leg muscles pumping, it takes proper nutrition.

Before I became interested in long distant cycling, a former teacher and mentor would relate stories of his long distant grueling rides at the beginning of class. His stories intrigued me enough to purchase my own bicycle and begin to ride. My first few days I completed ten miles. The first day I spent a lot of time walking my bike up the hills, but the second day, I was able to ride more than I walked.  By the end of my first week, as I extended my mileage, I noticed my stamina was bottoming out.

I felt depleted.

After emailing my mentor, he gave me tips for nutrition prior to and after the ride, proper rest, and then encouraged me with the following words:

“Junk in, junk out. What you put into your body you will get out. So, if you are filling your body with junk that is what you can expect to get out of it.”

I have never forgotten his words, even though I haven’t followed them all the time. But, when my energy level bottoms out I know I need to provide nutrition: hydration, protein and carbs. That nutrition will revive me and give me what I need to go on.

In order for our body to be its best and work at its peak performance, we must maintain proper nutrition and hydration. Junk in, junk out is easy to remember while maintaining our physical life, but, what about maintaining our spiritual life?

In order for our hearts to be in tune with Jesus, we must nourish our spirit with proper nutrition.  Time in the word and in prayer and time with other believers is the balance we need to maintain a healthy spirit life. The world lures us with television, song lyrics, internet images or social networks. Don’t get me wrong, these things are not necessarily sinful—though some are, but they provide mindless junk. They do not nourish our soul.

In John 6:35, Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life…” (NIV). Bread was a diet staple during this time; it filled the void hunger left. Jesus claimed to be the bread that satisfies the void the world left.  We must nourish our spirit with this bread. This bread will revive us and give us the strength to go on.

Jesus also declared, in John 7:38, “Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.'” (NLT) Everyone understands that physical thirst, even though it has been quenched, will return. Within us is a spiritual void that must be filled with something. The things of the world do not satisfy. Other religions do not satisfy. Only the living water that flows from the throne of God will create the rivers flowing from our heart. We need this kind of water to revive our soul and to give us strength.

Without Jesus as our Bread and Water, the lure of the world has a stronger pull. A tighter grip. We easily lose our foothold on the slope.

We cannot expect our physical body to maintain an athlete’s pace if we do not nourish our body properly. Likewise, we cannot expect to maintain a healthy relationship with our LORD if we neglect our spirit man. If we put junk in, we can only expect to get junk out of it.