I know the value of consistent workouts. As a high school running coach for many years, I created daily workouts to help my athletes reach their max potential as the season closed. It was amazing to watch the transformation that took place in them!
Daily exercise has also been a part of my life for decades. It helps me feel strong, energetic, and alive. The runner’s high is a real thing!
Many men will work to improve their physical condition for years but pay little or no attention to their spiritual condition. That’s where the Exercises come in. Officially known as the Ignatian Exercises, this 9-month program is an incredible soul workout. I know this from my own experience of doing them. The transformation that happened in me was amazing. And I see that same transformation in the men I have coached through the Exercises.
So here are four reasons why you might need this soul workout..
#1: You know God loves you, but you don’t feel that love.
This is a common issue with so many men I have worked with. They give cognitive agreement to the idea of God’s personal love for them. But after talking with them, what they feel inside is anything but loved. Many feel shame about themselves, coupled with an incessant inner critic. For others it is anxiety, guilt, or fear that cripples them.
Enter the Exercises. You begin by spending seven weeks soaking in God’s personal love for you. Seven weeks with only one purpose! And that’s not all. This personal love becomes the backdrop for the rest of the Exercises, something you are called back to again and again.
Only love truly heals and transforms. It’s the soul workout you might need.
#2: You know Jesus died for you, but you feel distant from Him.
There may have been a first love awakening with Jesus, but that first love has gotten drowned out by so many things. Soon a man starts going through the motions of church or Bible reading. His mind and heart drift. He starts to feel distant from Jesus.
The magic of the Exercises lies right here. It will walk you through the whole life of Jesus from birth to resurrection, using the four gospels. But you are not asked to read or study the stories. You are asked to imagine them and then enter them yourself. It’s called Entering the Scene. What happens here is surprising and sometimes startling.
When we use our imagination, we are not just thinking about something, we are experiencing it. And hundreds of times, I have watched the real Jesus show up in this imaginative prayer. You actually experience the real Jesus, up close and in person. You even begin to feel what He felt. It is breath-taking to watch what happens.
To experience Jesus is transformation, period. It’s the soul workout you might need.
#3: You feel split between your false self and true self.
Face it. We have all done this, me included. We offer the world what we think will garner us fame or approval or success. It becomes our false self. The tragedy is that it seems to work, often for a long time. But the split in a man’s soul that results widens and will eventually tear him apart. We were created for so much more. But how can a man discover his true self, buried in the rubble of all his false projections?
The Exercises work their wonder here too. As you experience more of Jesus’ love and connect more to Him, you find that He is not interested in your false self. That’s not the man He loves or cares about. Further, so much of the work of the Exercises involves naming and listening to your deep desires as a man, desires for purpose, meaning, belonging, connection, and affirmation. These desires reside in the province of your true self, who you really are.
The transformation into your true self yields remarkable freedom. It’s the soul workout you might need.
#4: You want to spend time with God, but you struggle with prayer.
This is a universal struggle. Once Jesus gets a hold of you, you sense the need to find your soul’s foundation here. But who really coaches you in prayer? It is often assumed a man knows how to pray. But I can tell you from countless interactions that this is not true. Like everything else, we need to be mentored and coached in prayer.
A unique aspect of the Exercises lies in introducing a number of new ways of praying that expand a man’s relationship with God. I have already mentioned Entering the Scene, but there are others: the Examen, the Triple Colloquy, Centering Prayer, and more. Each opens new windows into talking to God and being with Him.
Praying in new ways will transform. It just does. It’s the soul workout you might need.
Interested in hearing more?
I am writing this post now because of the time element involved in the Exercises. They are done on the school year calendar, starting in September. Anyone interested in them first goes through a discernment process in June or July to discover if they are ready for this workout.
So if you are interested, now is the time! Contact me and let’s begin the conversation. You may just want to hear more, or you may already know you want to try this.
I only take three or four men at a time. So contact me if you feel this might be your time.
Bill
Photo by Li Sun: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-working-out-2294361/
