Spiritual Reps: What 3,100 Pushups Taught Me About My Prayer Life
January was a blur of aching triceps and busy calendars. But in the middle of the "new year, new me" chaos, I realised I’d been neglecting the most important muscle of all.
How on earth is it February already? I feel like I blinked somewhere around Boxing Day and woke up to find the January mortgage payment had already left my account.
January in the UK is always a bit of a slog, isn’t it? It’s dark, it’s perpetually damp, and everyone is collectively nursing a financial and emotional hangover from Christmas. For me, it was a month of “nuts” work schedules and family life firing on all cylinders. I’ve spent the last four weeks making “mental notes” of things I wanted to write about, which is really just a polite way of saying I’ve been thinking about things in the shower and then immediately forgetting them the moment I try to find a matching pair of socks.
I love this process—sitting down with a brew, letting the thoughts spiral, and seeing what the Holy Spirit might be trying to nudge into place. Usually, it starts as a “splurge” on the screen and, with a bit of luck and a lot of editing, turns into something that resembles a logical thought.
But this year, January had an extra layer of “slog” for me. I turned 47, and as a bit of a birthday challenge to myself, I decided to raise money for Cancer Research UK by doing 100 pushups every single day.
The 3,100 Rep Revelation
By the end of the month, I’d hit 3,100 reps. My arms currently have the structural integrity of overcooked spaghetti, but I’m chuffed to say we raised a good bit of money for a brilliant cause.
Now, I’m a 47-year-old man; I cannot do 100 pushups in one go. If I tried, I’d likely end up needing a structural engineer to hoist me off the carpet. So, I did them in “reps.” Ten here, twenty there, thirty while waiting for the kettle to boil. By the final week, I actually managed a set of fifty in one go. There was visible progress—not just in the numbers, but in the fact that I could actually move my limbs without groaning like a rusty garden gate.
It became a habit. My better half, Julia, suggested I keep it up—partly for my health, and partly, I suspect, because she quite likes the idea of me not completely falling apart as I hurtle toward fifty.
But about three-quarters of the way through the month, I felt a familiar tap on my shoulder. It wasn’t Julia, and it wasn’t Buckley the dog looking for a walk. It was that quiet, persistent prompt of the Holy Spirit.
“It’s great that you can find time for these pushups,” the voice seemed to say. “But how about you apply the same logic to Me?”
Ouch.
The Eye and the Lamp
I realised that in the midst of the “busy-ness,” I’d been treating my faith like a luxury item I couldn’t quite afford this month. I’d been praying, sure, and reading bits here and there, but my focus was scattered. My eyes were everywhere—on the bills, the work emails, the daily rep count—except on the One who holds it all together.
At church recently, we’ve been talking about “Simplification”—the idea of being devoted to, formed by, and sent by Jesus. We looked at a verse that hit me right between the eyes:
‘Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light.’ Matthew 6:22 (NLT)
I had to ask myself: what am I looking at? If my “eye” is fixed on my to-do list, my whole body feels the weight of that stress. I needed to simplify. Not the “sell everything and live in a tent” kind of simplification, but a simplification of my focus. I needed to stop waiting for a “perfect, uninterrupted hour” of spiritual bliss that was never going to come, and start doing my spiritual reps.
Living Words and Marriage Frictions
When I finally carved out the time to sit and process, I landed in Ephesians 5. Now, Julia is almost certainly reading this (hello, love), and she’s probably bracing herself for what I’m about to say.
We’re a great team, truly. I couldn’t do life without her. But let’s be honest—when life gets busy and we’re both exhausted, little frictions creep in. You know the ones: the way a spoon is left in the sink, or a tone of voice used during the school run.
Reading Ephesians 5:21–33 with fresh eyes felt like God handing me a key I’d dropped in the tall grass. It challenged me to look at how I love, how I sacrifice, and how I lead in our relationship. I decided to actually listen to the advice and put it into practice.
And you know what? It’s been different. A really good different. It turns out the Bible isn’t just a book of ancient “shoulds” and “oughts”; it’s a living thing that actually works when you apply it to the messy reality of a Tuesday afternoon.
Start Your Own ‘February Reps’
My takeaway from this blurry January is simple: if I can find the time to drop and give the floor twenty pushups to change my physical health, I can find the time to drop my ego and give God my attention to change my spiritual health.
If you’re feeling like you’ve “failed” at your New Year’s resolutions already, or if the “messy middle” of life has left you feeling a bit disconnected from God, here’s a thought.
It is not too late to start. We are only a few days into February. There are 28 days this month, and there are exactly 28 chapters in the Gospel of Matthew.
Why not start a “Spiritual Pushup Challenge”?
One chapter a day. Don’t worry if you can’t do it all in one sitting. Do a few verses over breakfast, a few more on your lunch break, and the rest before bed. Do it in reps. Just get the Word into your system.
I think you’ll find, as I did, that as you fix your eye on the Light, the rest of your day starts to look a whole lot brighter.
Blessings,
Jonathan
A Prayer for the Busy Soul
Lord, life is loud and my calendar is full. I confess I’ve spent more time counting my struggles than counting Your mercies. Help me to simplify. Give me the strength to show up for the “small reps” of faith—the quiet prayers, the few verses, the moments of surrender. Light up my eyes so that my whole body might be full of Your peace. Amen.