06/06/2026
What the Gym Taught Me About Leadership
I want to share something with you today that the Holy Spirit taught me during what started as a completely ordinary night at the gym.
I say ordinary, but by the time I left, I was a different leader than when I walked in.
Let me take you there.
I have a routine when I work out at night.
I run supersets, which means I alternate between two machines, back and forth, until my sets are complete. Before I start, I always make sure both machines are free. No sense starting a routine if someone else is already using one of them.
That night, there was only one other person in the gym when I arrived. He was on the treadmill. Both of my machines were clear. I got started.
A little while into my workout, another guy walked in.
He moved around the gym slowly, looking at the different machines, reading the labels, studying the equipment. I did not think much of it. Then, right after I stepped away from one of my machines to move to the other, he walked over and sat down at the machine I had just left.
I walked over and asked if he wanted to work in, letting him know I still had another set on that machine.
He looked at me, a little confused at first. Then he said okay.
I finished my set on the other machine and came back.
He was still sitting there.
I asked if he was done with his set.
He paused, then told me he was still getting his workout strategy together.
Now I will be straight with you.
That annoyed me.
In my mind, you figure out your strategy before you sit down at a machine someone else is clearly using. That is basic gym etiquette. I kept it respectful, but I was irritated. I asked if he minded if I went ahead and knocked out my last set while he was still thinking it through.
He asked me to give him another minute.
I used that time to go to the restroom. When I came back, he had not moved. Still sitting. Still thinking.
I asked again, as patiently as I could manage, if I could use the machine.
After a pause, he slowly got up.
I completed my last set, cleaned the machine, and told him it was all his. Then I moved on to my final two exercises for the night.
A few sets in, I glanced over.
He was still sitting at the same machine.
Not working out.
Just sitting.
My annoyance was still there; I want to keep it 100. But something shifted in me when I saw him just sitting there after all that time. It stopped feeling like inconsideration and started feeling like something else.
I walked over and asked him, "Are you okay?"
He looked up at me and said,
"I have never worked out before. I do not know where to start."
He told me he had watched YouTube videos, but none of them told him where a complete beginner should actually begin. He did not want to pay for one of those online programs. So he came to the gym anyway, hoping the instructions printed on the machines would be enough to guide him.
They were not.
And then it hit me.
He was not being difficult.
He was not trying to get under my skin.
He was gravitating toward the person he saw something in that he wanted for himself. He positioned himself near me, hoping that by being in my orbit, something would transfer. That I would notice him. That I would take the time to show him something.
He was just too intimidated, too ashamed, to come out and ask. I don’t know if it was because he looked like a middle-aged man who most would assume would know what to do. But it seemed to be a factor.
I looked at him differently after that.
The annoyance was gone.
We talked. I asked him some questions. Together, we mapped out a solid starter program, and I walked him through several exercises right there. Before I left, I told him I would help him each time I saw him at the gym until he found his footing.
As I walked out into the night, the Holy Spirit spoke to me clearly.
He said: Learn to be patient with people.
Some people do not know what they are doing when they offend you.
Some people are not being inconsiderate. They are just lost, and they are hoping that someone will be patient enough and secure enough to meet them where they are instead of writing them off for what they do not yet know.
Then He took it further.
He reminded me that many ministers and leaders have people hovering around them right now, people who are watching closely, positioning themselves nearby, hoping to be noticed and taught. They may be awkward about it. They may even irritate you before you understand what they actually need.
But they are not trying to be difficult.
They are trying to find their way.
And here is the part that stayed with me the most.
Spiritual maturity is not determined by physical age or how long someone has been in church. Some people who have been saved for years are still spiritual beginners in certain areas. Some people walking through your doors for the first time are carrying more hunger than people who have been in the building for decades.
We cannot assume.
We have to look closer.
So today I want to speak directly to every leader, every minister, every believer who has influence over someone else.
Love people where they are.
Let them be themselves without making them feel small for what they do not yet know.
Point them to Christ, not to your frustration.
And do your best to be an example worthy of following, because whether you know it or not, someone is already watching you and hoping you will notice them.
"Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine." (1 Timothy 4:12-13, NKJV)
Paul was not just telling Timothy to look like he’s about it.
He was telling him to BE about it, in every area of his life, because people in need of direction will attach themselves to whoever looks like they know the way.
That night at the gym, I almost missed him.
"But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.'" (Luke 15:20-21, NKJV)
The father did not wait for his son to arrive at the door clean and ready.
He saw him from a distance, while he was still a mess, still a great way off, and he ran toward him anyway.
That is the standard.
Do not wait for people to get it together before you extend compassion.
See them where they are.
Run toward them.
You cannot clean a fish before you catch it.
I hope this has been a blessing to someone. Until next time, remember we walk with Christ, one day at a time, one step at a time, one prayer at a time.
FROM THE DIRECTOR'S DESK: Apostle Gerald Gold.
