Keep the core thing the core thing

I was ten minutes from the end of an energetic spinning class when the instructor announced that we'd be mixing things up. Your momma might have told you to never mix your drugs, but it became swiftly clear that she shoulda also said the same thing about spinning and other exercises. A minute later, still spinning away furiously, we added arm "exercises" (and I use the " " advisedly. I'm not quite sure what they were) - everything from punching the air to circling our hands around each other to doing spirit fingers, ala that mad dance instructor from Bring It On.

The whole point of this was, of course, to .. Actually, I don't know what the point was.

It's not like the exercises were going to have any measurable impact on our arms - they were faaaaaaaaar too flimsy for that. I eventually convinced myself that these additional exercises were supposed to help us focus on our core muscles, as the shifting movements destabilized our balance.

Yet, even that justification felt a bit weak, as I soon realized that the arm exercises were not only detracting from my focus on my core muscles, but also from my spinning. As an amateur multitasker, I was struggling to breathe, spin, and punch the air all at the same time with the result that I was punching the air in time with everyone else, while my breathing was erratic, and my cadence (the rate at which my legs were turning the pedals) had dropped down to about 50%.

Although I'm competitive by nature, and I fiercely kept up with everyone else's handswirling rate, I toned it down after about 5 minutes. My purpose of attending spinning class was, wait for it, to spin. Everything else, as beneficial as it might seem, was a bit of a waste if it distracted me from this main goal. Therefore, if it was the spinning or the arm exercises, then heck, the arm exercises had to go.

This made me think through my Christian walk over the last few years. I'd had quite a few periods where I became distracted by helpful/ exciting/ cool sideline interests that appeared beneficial to my relationship with Jesus e.g. spending a lot of time talking to other people about God, blogging about Him, thinking about Him. Yet, these 'sideline' habits at times overshadowed the most important things, e.g. talking to Him, with Him. When they overplayed their role, needed to be reassessed and placed again in their rightful position as an add-on, not the main thing. If it isn't about Jesus 100%, then there's no reason to even consider the add-on habits, you know?

As I left class that day, my legs buuuuurning nicely, and my core feeling all the stronger. My arms? They were feeling fine. And that was the way I wanted things to be. So lets make sure that we are all keeping the core thing the core thing!