If you live in the Twin Cities and you’ve been thinking you really ought to get back in to a fitness routine, check it out. Lion’s Gym has two locations now–in St. Louis Park and in Robbinsdale.

When you go, tell Stephen that Noel sent you. It’ll be as good as if you area already his old friend. Please let me know when you sign up, so I can high-five you.

Below is what I wrote a year ago about Lion’s Gym and Stephen & Leah Menya, the owners.

__________

We ran into a friend who felt her life had been changed by training with Stephen Menya and Leah Menya (page down on “our team” page) at Lions Gym.

I have to say, my first drive-by impression was underwhelming. If I hadn’t been looking for the gym, I wouldn’t have noticed it, tucked between a tanning salon and something else in a mini-stripmall sort of building.

But we all know it’s what inside that counts. And our friend was very persuasive, so we signed up. It was amazing.

Here are some of the things I like about Lion’s Gym:

• There’s a flavor of Africa in Stephen’s voice and words and laughter and often in the music playing.
• He calls us Mamá and Papá as he would any other people his parents’ generation in his home village in Kenya.
• After our one initial session, Stephen knew what we needed. Mamá needs to work on her abs. Papá needs to strengthen his lower back.
• Stephen sets the tone at the gym, and he is outgoing, happy, and funny.
• He introduces members to each other so we introverts can’t just sweat and be miserable in our separate corners.
• Stephen and Leah are Christian believers, and we have prayed together about challenges in their life and business.
• When we arrive, we sometimes hear worship music playing.
• Where else would the encouragement to push harder be, “Don’t waste your reps!”
• Stephen and other staff train all 3 of us at the same time, cycling us through sets on separate machines or sets of weights. I have seen them work effectively with 6 at the same time, each doing different exercises.
• Most important, the trainers know their stuff and are good teachers. We always appreciate the breather when we pause so they can show us a chart and explain how some group of muscles works so our exercise makes sense to us.
• Occasionally we get to see their wonderful toddler Sam. He drops into knee bends at the prompt of  ”up – down – up – down.”
• Finally, you know that I care about life being accessible to people with disabilities. Recently, I found out that Stephen and Leah rearranged all those monstrously heavy machines so that one client who is visually impaired can make his own way around independently while he is working out.

Postscript: Matt Ledbetter joined the staff after I wrote the above. He’s good. I’ve seen him working winningly and effectively with both ends of the fitness spectrum: high-level athletes at one end and at the other end, elderly people who can hardly walk into the gym.

If you want to follow the comments in the order he made them, read from the bottom up.

And remember: Watch @desiringgodPastors Conference in 4 languages —  #English #Spanish #Chinese &#Russian::ht.ly/8Lv0j

NoelPiper10:10am

Work of the Holy Spirit: I have never had [in myself] everything I need to do what God’s calling me to do. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper10:07am Work of the Spirit– 5. WALK: the Spirit gives us power to do boldly what we need to do. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper10:06am Work of the Spirit– 4. Live: He fills our lives by living in us, and we model that life before our children. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper10:06amWork of the Spirit–3. Fruit: We don’t produce fruits of the Spirit. They are supernatural work of the Spirit. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper10:04amWork of the Spirit– 2. Led: If you’re led by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper10:01amWork of the Spirit — 1. Walk: Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:58am The Holy Spirit is not an influence. He’s a person who has regenerated, baptized, sealed us. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:57amHow easy it is to ignore the work & power of the Holy Spirit in transformation. @CrawfordLoritts#dgpascon

NoelPiper9:55amIn cemetery with my son: Remember, these people paid your “tuition,” as we are for the next generation. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:52amPop, as I’m walking out the door when a teenager: Do right. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:51amPop, after racist incident: That’s all right. We know who we are. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:50amPop: How people treat you should never define you. It’s not what people call you; it’s what you answer to. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:49amPop, about report card: How can somebody be so smart & so dumb at the same time? @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:48amRespect is the incubator for honor. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:45amPop’s 3 D’s with no negotiating: Dishonesty, Disobedience, Disrespect. @CrawfordLoritts#dgpascon

NoelPiper9:43amPop’s lessons in manhood– 4. Out of integrity comes your inheritance. @CrawfordLoritts#dgpascon

NoelPiper9:43am Pop’s lessons in manhood– 3. Out of discipline comes integrity. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:42amPop’s lessons in manhood– 2. Out of strength comes discipline. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:41amPop’s lessons in manhood– 1. Out of struggle comes strength. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:40amPop never sat down & had a talk with me about manhood. He just lived it. @CrawfordLoritts#dgpascon

NoelPiper9:39amA real man embraces obligation & responsibility–not curse words or burden, but his purpose in life. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:38amTeen thinks manhood=doing what I feel like. Father needs to pull himthrough to knowing right & wrong. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:36amA father teaches what to say “no” to, so a child knows what to say “yes” to.@CrawfordLoritts#dgpascon

NoelPiper9:35amA father teaches limits, the banks of the river that leads to the destination he wants his children to reach. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:33amBroad category of need,met primarily (but not only) by father: accountability, discipline, parameters, goals. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:29amBroad category of need, primarily (but not only) from mother: touch, affirmation, warmth. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:28amEvery 28 days a woman is reminded of who she is. A man knows he’s a man only when a key man tells him so. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:25amMy history not only intact Black family. I’m ticked when we set up a new kind of slavery to entitlement. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:24amI want to keep my eyes set on where I’m going: that city built by God. @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:23amWe have lost a noble vision of eternity, of a city built not by hands, but by God.@CrawfordLoritts#dgpascon

NoelPiper9:18am @CrawfordLoritts‘ father: Karen didn’t ask to marry you. You asked to marry her, and you better take care of her. #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:16amMy father (slave grandson) wasn’t God. WAS a man of impeccable integrity. I’ve always wanted to be like him @CrawfordLoritts #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:10amBe careful of your ego. God spoke to Balaam’s ass. Make your own application. @CrawfordLoritts#dgpascon

NoelPiper9:05amMother washed my mouth with soap for saying “Shut up” to my sister. I’d learn respect if she had anything to do with it.@JohnPiper #dgpascon

NoelPiper9:03am@CrawfordLoritts is Senior Pastor, Fellowship Bible Church, Roswell, GA. #dgpascon  ow.ly/8ME1W

NoelPiper8:49amPhoto: Hundreds of pastors begin day together with prayer. #dgpascon   pic.twitter.com/mHCF0lgV

NoelPiper8:20am@CrawfordLoritts speaks at 8:30 session about lessons learned from his father. #dgpascon  ow.ly/8Myvb

I’m thinking about that reality now, after hearing from some people who are suffering right now. The causes are quite different, but for all of them, Christmas as they’ve known it seems like another planet.

That makes me want to put it down in stark black and white: Christmas can be hard, really hard, unbearably hard–all the more when we look around at all the jolliness and feel like we’re alone in our grief or pain or loneliness or uncertainty or fear or hopelessness or confusion or alienation or . . . .

A few years ago, I wrote to a friend whose child had come through a crisis not long before Christmas.

I realize that it doesn’t resolve your situation to hear that you’re not alone. But I pray it might help lighten the burden at least a little to see what some others have to say, people who are in your shoes now or they have been there.

These articles are in no particular order and are from from various perspectives. I think it will be quite possible as you read to substitute your own challenges or the struggles of a person you love.

When Christmas Stinks, by Michael Monroe

Joy (and Grief) and Joy at Christmas, by Molly Piper

The angels’ words were a battle cry, by Joni Eareckson Tada

FAS and Christmas, by Julie Martindale

“Suffering is the reason for the season,” Charles Colson

White Elephant: Explain that to an FASD Kiddo, by Barb Clark

He Says There’s Something Worse than Death, by John Knight (poem by John Piper)

God Uses Silly Videos to Make Much of Himself, by John Knight

The Most Important Posting I Will Ever Write . . . & a Christmas Greeting, by Mike Evans

Home for Christmas, by Greg Lucas

Together on the Ledge, by Lisa Qualls

A request to you: Please share with us resources that have helped you in your difficult times.