Tangle With A Treadmill

Treadmill. For me, the word itself sounds uninviting at best, torturous a worst. Someone with a sadistic streak must have invented this miserable device. No matter how long you walk or run, you never go anywhere. And, you never really can win when doing battle with a treadmill. It has too many speeds and can outlast the Energizer bunny!

Sometimes treadmills can be just plain dangerous. I was with a close friend several years ago when he tangled with a treadmill that left both his body and ego badly bruised. We were in an exercise room, not for a serious workout, but just to kill some time. This facility had state-of-the-art weight machines, bicycles and, you guessed it, treadmills. Just for fun, he jumped on a treadmill to give it a whirl.

His treadmill of choice was extremely high-tech. It had a heart monitor, distance meter, speedometer, and kept a running total of how many calories you burned. In addition to these electronic gadgets, this treadmill had inclining capabilities. My friend got a kick out of seeing how steep of an incline he could negotiate. He did pretty well, I might add.

After returning to normal elevation, he did something pretty stupid—he attempted to walk backwards on the treadmill. What happened next was unbelievable. Because he could not keep pace with the treadmill’s speed, my unsuspecting friend shot off the treadmill with such a sudden stop that he sat down on the moving belt. As if an invisible hand grabbed the seat of his pants, the treadmill flipped him onto his back and hurled him across the tiled floor. He landed with feet in the air against a nearby rowing machine! I still get a chuckle when I think about my friend’s stunned look as he picked himself off the floor.

That humorous story, however, can have a somber application. If we approach Christianity from the perspective of performance-based acceptance, our religion can become like a merciless treadmill. When we think that everything depends on us—even our salvation—we fall onto a treadmill that inevitably leaves us on our backs and badly bruised. In contrast, God reminds: “The people who trust the Lord will become strong again. They will rise up as an eagle in the sky; they will run and not need rest; they will walk and not become tired” (Isa. 40:31; NCV). Now that’s good news for weary souls!