Pet Peeves and the Glory of God

At the gym I go to there are signs everywhere telling people they need to re-rack their weights. All that means is that if you're using equipment that requires free weights, the big round ones, and you have loaded those onto the bar or the machine, you are expected to remove them to their proper places after you're done with them.  No one does it though or if they do they just put them wherever it is most convenient for them.  It drives me crazy.  It used to make me mad but it happens so much that now I just expect it. 


Between sets of my workout, while I am cooling down from the strain I have exerted I re-rack weights where I know no one is working out.  Even the things that are re-racked I re-rack to make sure they're right, all the same weight hanging on the same peg, not some mixed-up groupings.  I re-arrange the dumbbell rack to put things in their proper order. 

For a couple of years I griped about it, to anyone who would listen and to myself, partially in the hopes that there would be like a movement of people who would care and we would change the culture through our mutual disgust for the people who didn't re-rack their weights but it didn't happen. 

I had really strong feelings about people who didn't re-rack their weights.  I wouldn't talk to those people but I would talk about them.  They were lesser people who shouldn't be allowed to work out on equipment that required weights, they should be allowed only to use machines that have stacks of weights where you use the little pins to set the amount you want to lift.  There is no responsibility in using those but there is a responsibility that attaches to using the equipment I use.

The funny thing is, I am a really messy guy.  My wife gave up years ago trying to get me not to be such a mess.  She has worked it out that if I will put things away everywhere else in the house she will allow me to have a really messy desk so we have an arrangement.  So I don't have any OCD, everything needs to be organized kind of thing in my life.  There is no other aspect of my life that is organized or where I feel the need to organize things but at the gym it is an obsession for me. 


Lately I just decided it was just life and I would just re-rack things without thinking about it or talking about it to anyone.  It didn't seem to matter anyway to many people so it wasn't like I was attracting like-minded people to my cause and it was probably true that I was driving people away by talking about it.  Now I just make it part of my workout to do it and I really don't give it any real thought.

Today it occurred to me that I could do it with a purpose, I could do it because I want to be obedient to Jesus' command to love my neighbor like myself. 

My real motivation from the start wasn't because I think everybody ought to play by the rules, I am definitely not that kind of a guy.  Early on when I started working out I saw women struggling to take 45-lb plates of weight off machines they wanted to use because some inconsiderate jerk didn't take the time to remove them and I always volunteered to do it for the women.  I always wondered if they thought I was probably the inconsiderate jerk and just felt guilty because I saw them struggling so I made sure they knew it pissed me off someone had done that.  So my purpose was to help the women and to talk about the inconsiderate jerks with someone who would surely, given their inconvenience, share my indignation.

Today it occurred to me that I had gotten over the anger thing and that I really was just re-racking weights.  I began to wonder if it was possible to re-purpose my effort and decided that I want to do it to love my neighbor, I want it to be right for them, to make their time in the gym more simple and enjoyable, less frustrating.  I know it sounds trite but I think it will change my attitude and I can do it with a smile on my face because it gets me thinking about all those people who are now my neighbor.

Now I have to work on how I feel about my fellow Christians who don't re-rack their weights because they obviously don't love their neighbor as much as I do.  Sin never ends does it.