Wannabe and Do-be
A visit to the gym for Bruce? Yes, your eyes do not deceive you.
 I was at the gym. Stop! Before you move on, please go back and read that sentence again. Some of you probably read that as, “I was talking to Jim.”
Jim’s a nice guy, but on this occasion I was actually at the gym. A couple of heavyweight men walked in who looked like they were off the set of some kind of muscle movie.
They went immediately to the weights and began lifting and pushing them around. They’d loaded up the bars and the machines to about the weight equivalent of a couple of small Hyundais.
I was working out with weights as well, and let me tell you they were set at the equivalent of a couple of trucks—Tonka toy trucks. Really big Tonka toy trucks, mind you, but these guys were at a level way beyond that.
When they left, I tried to lift some of the weights they’d been throwing around. I think they’d nailed them to the floor.
I’m there thinking that they hadn’t raised a sweat, and I couldn’t even raise the weights off the floor. I’m wishing I could be like them—muscled—but I wasn’t that keen to do the hard work they’d done to make it happen.
Then I’m reminded of how often I turn into a wannabe about something that’s way outside my capabilities. It’s a bit like thinking you could be a great singer, but your voice comes out as if you’d been trained at the Jetstar School of Music.*
Here’s the challenge and the difference between the wannabe and the do-be. What I can be and can’t be.
Now I’m thinking about God, and His plan. I don’t believe He wants me to be a Mr Muscle (isn’t that a cleaning agent?). He wants me as healthy and fit as I can be, yes, but not as competition for those heavyweight guys I saw at the gym.
Being a wannabe may set a challenge, but God’s plan is for us to use the talents He’s given. The good thing is that we can be a successful and champion do-be in those areas.
There’s a bonus. He does want us to be heavyweight people—helpers, carers and sharers of the good news. He’s given us the ability to be a do-be in these areas, at least in our own style.
Meanwhile, back at the gym, I’ve added a bit more weight to the bar. Not enough to challenge the muscle men, but enough to challenge me.
* For the uninitiated, Jetstar is an Australian airline company with television advertising featuring a woman who sings the company jingle, but sings it off key.
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Bruce Manners (left) is senior pastor of
the Avondale College church.