God is with us on the Treadmill…
by Ryan Boulger - Sep 2001

My wife and I have had a difficult time at the gym lately. We go just often enough so that each workout seems like we are starting again for the first time (but I digress, that is not the primary source of our difficulty). Most of our trials revolve around a wicked machine called the treadmill. Our 'fitness center' has twenty treadmills set up right next to each other, so you can almost touch (but more likely ) the sweaty person next to you. Walking and running can get quite dull, so what my wife often does is pray. On one recent occasion, she was having a particularly engaging time with God as she was running on the treadmill. As she ruminated on his goodness, she entered a different world. She enjoyed that world: it was a peaceful place. But it was not to last. Suddenly, that world came to a crashing halt. One thing she forgot to do when she entered this other world was to keep running. Following a blood-curdling scream, off the treadmill she flew. Finding herself face down on the carpet behind the treadmill, she looked up to the various half-amused stares down the aisle. But she did not let the carpet burns keep her down. Finding some unknown strength within herself and looking resolutely ahead, she got back on the treadmill and began to run again. Not even the pathetic lie of her treadmill neighbor ("That's happened to me before") kept the emotional bruises away. She learned her lesson: the next time she prayed (at least on a treadmill), she would stay in this world as well.

I had a different treadmill experience. Mine did not involve laying prostrate on the gym floor, but again, prayer was the culprit. Why does prayer get us into so much trouble? I have this terrible habit of praying out loud. I just can't do the silent thing. So one time I was praying in a very foreign way (silently) and like my wife, soon forgot where I was. "Oh God, help me work through these things, help me understand these things", etc. I started praying through my day, whatever came up. I looked up, and the stares I got! Who is this man having a conversation with? The lady's face next to me beautifully captured the look of surprise with sincere concern. My wife was simply incompetent, but I was delusional!

What do these stories seem to express other than my wife and I need to find another gym and that treadmills are deceptively dangerous? Perhaps not a lot, but I am searching for some meaning in these experiences (I have to redeem them somehow). I will take a stab at it. One lesson we might learn is that we do not get to leave our bodies in this life (even though my wife felt she entered a supernatural realm, she did not entirely, as the carpet fur in her nose will attest). Another thing we might want to consider is the whole relation of the natural (treadmill) and supernatural (prayer with God) realms.

In actuality, the natural and supernatural realms are a false dichotomy. Our world, our universe has only one realm, not two. Our natural existence is entirely supernatural. For where can we go where God is not? God is the author of our lives, the one who watches over our every move with great care, always cheering for us to choose his purposes over lesser ones. He is the one who heals us, who connects with us in our worship, who sends a friend to hold us when we are hurting. He designed our whole environment, from the most complex eco-system to the small coffee bean (Hallelujah!). Although many do not acknowledge him, he is the one, through his mercy, who gives us medicine, music, art, and love, i.e. creativity of all kinds and shapes.

As Christians, if we believe in two fixed realms, then we will live two separate lives. We will live one way in the natural realm, where we go to work, pay our bills, and spend time with family and friends. We will live another way when we enter the supernatural realm where we pray for God's intervention and when we worship Him. In addition, prayer becomes much more difficult if we believe in two realms. We need to persuade God to leave his realm and enter ours. We then struggle with our faith as we wonder if he will really intervene. The result is that we screen God out of most of our reality. He is in heaven, and we are on earth, alone, except on the occasion that He intervenes.

The natural/supernatural divide is foreign to the people of the Bible. Abraham entertains angels on several occasions. God could not be more involved than he was with Moses and the people of Israel. God's presence is a regular part of David's life and prayers. With Jesus, Paul, and the others in the New Testament, God is involved in a very 'natural' way. The overall testimony of Scripture is that God lives close to his people and does not reside in a supernatural realm far, far away.

When we look at the early church, we do not see the separation of realms. It is not until much later (beginning in the fourteenth century) that the natural/supernatural split becomes a part of church practice. In the so-called 'dark ages', the world, and all that was in it, was 'supernaturally natural'. The world contained one realm, and all things led to God. His fingerprints were on everything: our work life, our family life, our friendships, our church life, our politics, and our environment; all were imbued with God's design. God's work, his intervention, and his presence, were 'natural'.

Psalm 24:1 reads "The earth is the Lord's and all that is within it". The psalmist testifies that God created a wonderful world, and that everything bears witness to his goodness. Yes, it is a fallen world, but it is still His world. All creation still bears witness to Him and who he presently is. It is not like God left the universe because of sin. Through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, God affirms his desire for creation and his commitment to us. He has not left the building; God is still 'in the house'.

People outside the West, along with many postmodern people (the MTV generation and the various artistic types) understand the spiritual nature of all reality. These folks know that for a spirituality to be 'true' it must be a reality 24-7, and not just at certain times and places. They see as dysfunctional the idea that God is far away in a supernatural realm and that people here on earth live in the natural realm. On the contrary, it is those who reside in the West (and specifically the Christians) who, for the last 800 years, got confused and created two realms.

Eddie Gibbs (Professor of Church Growth at Fuller Seminary) and I have travelled throughout the UK interviewing church leaders who are connecting with the emerging culture. We have been looking for common denominators in these churches. One pattern that we see again and again is the understanding that the natural/supernatural dualism must go, and that our life with God is a 24-7 'supernaturally natural' affair.

The idea that God is in a supernatural realm (and not in the secular realm) is simply a story that was invented in the fourteenth century and perpetuated inside and outside the church until the present day. It is a story that we need to abandon. We need to return to the biblical story, the idea that the earth is the Lord's. God made a good earth. Through Jesus Christ, he is close to us. It is one world, and he is intimately involved in all things, seen and unseen. Let us embrace his closeness, and never push him away again…Let us be faithful and celebrate his presence in all of our (formerly) unspiritual activities. Like the lesson my wife learned, let us 'run the race' fully aware that God's presence is with us on the treadmill.