“Physical training is of some value.” That’s what Paul said to Timothy. I’ve been watching what training has done for Andrew during the last month.

Andrew set a goal for doing 2000 pushups in September. It looked like a stretch. But it wasn’t a strength stretch as much as it was a commitment stretch. Andrew had been doing pushups regularly, two or three times a week. Two thousand represented what would happen if he did his regular workout every day.

Tomorrow is the one month anniversary of his commitment. He’s somewhere over 3000. He kept showing up. The daily discipline made him stronger. He went over his goal.

Andrew’s challenge challenged me. We talked regularly about how we were doing. We let each other know when we had done our pushups. We commiserated in a couple of rough spots.  I didn’t get to his level, but I did more than I have ever done in my life all together.

Nancy and I are sitting on vacation right now. While visiting with some friends, we talked about pushups. In the course of the day together, four other people did pushups. People who haven’t tried for awhile. People who discovered that the friendly competition, the challenging example, got them to try.

So Andrew’s simple shared commitment to himself meant that in the course of a month, my life has changed and 4 other people got a taste of what they could do.

Paul’s statement was larger than the physical training. He went on to say, “train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

When I think about the impact of Andrew’s physical training, it gives me a picture of what Paul meant.