I’ll be seeing some new faces at the gym over the coming days. It will be the New Year’s resolution “I’m going to get in shape this year” crowd. And the gym will be crowded, for awhile. But by April, most of them will be gone, having decided to quit for one reason or another.

Dr. David Jeremiah is probably my favorite media Christian preacher. I enjoy and can relate to his solid, practical Biblical teaching. Dr. Jeremiah overcame a battle with cancer a few years ago and he now exercises regularly to keep up his health. Once on a TV broadcast, he stated that he was asked if he enjoys going to the gym. He replied, “I don’t particularly enjoy going to the gym. But I enjoy having gone to the gym.” And that’s something to which I can definitely relate.

Let’s face it, exercising and getting into shape is not particularly fun. And it’s not easy. It takes time and effort. Dr. Jeremiah feels that the health benefits of going to the gym are worth his time and effort, even though he may not always enjoy it. For most of the New Year’s resolution gym crowd, they will decide it’s not.

Is it worth the time? Is it worth the effort? Those are questions we ask ourselves probably every day, whether consciously or, more often, subconsciously. And not just whether or not to go to the gym. Is going back to school to get that degree worth the time and effort? Is the money and benefits received from that new job worth the time and effort of a career change? Is getting married worth the time or effort? (Be careful how you answer that question!) Those are big questions where we obviously should consider the time and effort involved. But there are other times that are not so obvious.

Will you go to church this Sunday? Why or why not? Without getting too spiritual, whether you do or not really came down to those two questions. Is it worth my time? Is it worth my effort? (Just so you will know, I think it’s worth the time and effort.) You may go this Sunday out of habit. You don’t think about it, you just go. But somewhere along the line, you determined that going to church was worth the time and effort, and was worth going on a regular basis, and thus became a habit. I suppose the opposite could be said if you have a habit of not going.

How do you determine if something is worth the time or effort? In business, they do a cost-benefit analysis. Will the income, or benefits, from a product manufactured outweigh the cost involved in its manufacture, such as labor, materials, machinery, etc.? They also have to determine what will be the negative consequences for not manufacturing the product. Leaders in the business world have to answer those types of questions on a daily basis.

But since the benefits or consequences are not often immediate, it’s often hard to take the time or make the effort, especially when it’s actually going to take time and effort. It’s easy to quit going to the gym when your schedule gets crowded, or you didn’t lose that fifteen pounds that first month. It’s easy not to get up and go to church when it’s cold outside, or you had a long week, etc. The easy and the immediate are the enemies of time and effort. That’s where discipline becomes important. (I know, I hate that word, too.) Discipline helps us get through something we may not particularly enjoy in order to reap its benefits later.

I suppose that’s what the author, in Hebrews 12:11, meant when he wrote, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” So hang in there, all you New Year’s resolution folks. You may end up liking going to the gym. Well, at least like Dr. Jeremiah, having gone.

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By Mac McPhail

Contributing columnist

Mac McPhail, raised in Sampson County, lives in Clinton and can be reached at [email protected].