God's Fingerprint on Fitness - Nate Birner

welcome back to another episode of

Christian Natural Health today I'm

excited to have Nate burner with it Nate

graduated from Michigan Lutheran

Seminary in 2003 and has been Fitness

coaching since 2005. he left the church

entirely for most of his career in

Fitness multiple and sometimes traumatic

injuries and surgeries slowly revealed

to Nate that he had made Fitness into an

idol in his life now he has a more

balanced approach to health and fitness

and owns a strength training gym in

Cedar Park Texas called fit goal culture

Nate is using his new book God's

fingerprint on Fitness to encourage

Christians struggling with their health

and weight to take steps toward Fitness

and to encourage Fitness enthusiasts and

coaches to lead their clients to take

steps towards a deeper relationship with

God welcome Nate thanks for joining us

thank you for having me absolutely so

tell us a little bit more about the back

story flesh that out for me like how and

why did Fitness kind of become an idol

in her life what was the story there

sure so I was raised in Lutheran Church

um I have my grandpa was the minister at

the church I grew up in I have uncle and

cousins are Pastors in the wells

Lutheran Synod teachers okay so for me

that was always just kind of the path I

was set on before I even made the

decision

um through that experience I grew up the

chubby kid and got started in high

school and lost a bunch of weight

so when the time came to go on from

Seminary uh to be a pastor I maybe felt

suffocated ran from God and and

um moved towards Fitness now

uh yeah multiple multiple

injuries that happened along the way at

this point I've had my left hip both

knees and my left foot reconstructed

um when a biblical hernia still dealing

with torn rotator cuff and a labral tear

my shoulder and

um

yeah it was it was really kind of a mess

and got to the place where I was just

losing the joy in it

um and kind of through all that

um you know found myself at a

particularly low Point finally turned

back to God in a prayer that

you know something to the effect of if

this is all there is then just take me

home and

um you know it was kind of from that

place you know that rock bottom that

trajectory changed and this book I wrote

really is kind of a way to maybe bookend

That season of my life okay what are the

what are the lessons I learned that are

valuable and what do I need to get rid

of right right and by the time I

finished

um you know I had something that you

know I said wow this this may actually

have some value for people sure yeah

absolutely so just out of curiosity what

were you doing were you doing like a

bodybuilding or something or like

you know kind of evolved um at first uh

I got into powerlifting in my early 20s

um

then maybe moved to more of a

bodybuilding Focus

um these days you know I I feel like I

have a more um

uh how do we help the most people and I

think most people most of the time you

know some variation of strength training

that factors in

their joint health and their compliance

and all the other realities of life is

is kind of where I land these days

okay so and then just uh also kind of

curious what was it do you think about

Fitness that enticed you away from God

why were those two things mutually

exclusive to you

yeah no that's a a good question

um

I think it stems from insecurity and uh

a lack of identity

um you know for me Faith was always just

an intellectual practice growing up you

know I had never made a decision the

concept of a relationship with God is

not even a a term I had heard until my

30s

um so I was just searching you know why

am I here and it was just a way to

validate myself

you found something that you were good

at and that you got accolades for and

you dove in that's it yeah makes sense

so you kind of gave us a little bit of

an elevator pitch for the book uh but so

who's your target audience are you

mostly writing to people that are in the

fitness industry or to anybody that's

really a big Enthusiast or or what was

your goal there

yeah you know I don't know that I had a

goal in particular and that's a good

question because it's it's kind of

evolved in recent months

um I short answer is I really think it

would serve either demographic okay

maybe Christians who are struggling with

their health and like how do I how do I

get started without you know becoming

that Instagram Fitness person

or right

um or the the fitness enthusiasts okay

like how do I integrate this with my

spiritual practice

um but the deeper I go you know I

I want to impact the church with this

and I believe when we start talking

about like

systemic cultural change within the

church that has to start with the

leaders

um so my hope is to get this in the

hands of of a lot of the pastors out

there and maybe

ship perspective or um

um you know hopefully

just uh give it more weight than it's

typically given in most churches from my

experience

and so in your opinion what do you think

are some of the big dangers and pitfalls

that people tend to fall into in the

fitness industry when they start getting

going how do they end up from that to

like this becomes their entire life and

how do they navigate it so they don't

fall off yeah

well I think the

the fitness industry and a lot of the

you know influencers and such tend to

funnel people to a place of making

Fitness their identity and to be to be

sure if you make Fitness your entire

identity you'll probably be more

successful in Fitness

um but if you chase that rabbit to its

end uh you know it's an empty place

um and so I think to to get this started

um

really needs to begin with you know your

relationship with Christ and your

identity in him

um and when you

when you start with that is your

foundation then look what scripture

actually has to say about all this

making decisions that are going to

possibly impact your health kind of

become your default if you are you know

honest with yourself and and aren't a

slave to your comfort right so

um

you know yes you you should take the

stuff very seriously

um no you shouldn't make it more

important than the people around you of

course yeah absolutely so I love how it

sounds like from your story you got to

this place of surrender to God and then

he Sanctified the thing that you were

passionate about and gave it back to you

and so like God to do that kind of a

thing were you afraid to surrender were

you afraid you were going to lose all

this entirely at that point or did you

trust him enough oh I bought it for

years yeah absolutely

um and even through it you know there

was a lot of

painful prayer and um

you know how

how am I supposed to be the person to

lead a front like this when like my own

health is seemingly being stripped of me

um but as I come out on the other side

of it you know

um I think that was necessary one for me

to get to a place that I could let go

completely but also you know I'm no

longer

this you know 220 pound like Jack guy

peaching from a Pulpit like I'm kind of

right in there with you you know yeah

yeah that makes sense so you can

identify with people more and they can

relate to you in terms of yes ma'am yeah

very cool so okay so what's your

perspective on First Timothy 4 8 where

it talks about that there is some value

of physical training how does that play

into this what's your your point of view

on that concept yeah yeah the uh

Christian friendly reason to back burner

Fitness

um

here's the thing though is

when we look at

the people this was written for okay

um

the fitness industry as we know it

didn't exist the Obesity and epidemic

did not exist the supplement industry

did not exist in bad diets right right

um physical training when this was

written wouldn't refer to doing a yoga

class or going for a walk to

counterbalance the fact that you sit on

your butt all day right physical

training would be talking about you know

purposeful intense training for sport or

for war

and I believe that the the value that

this verse talks about has a lot more to

do with the the character traits that

that style of training develops oh

interesting rather than just taking care

of your body right taking care of your

body realizing that a 21st American 21st

century American lifestyle is kind of

mindlessly mindlessly pulling us towards

sickness and obesity

um that falls under just suiting your

extruding your gifts

um but I think that there are good Godly

reasons to go beyond just health and

actually pursue Fitness

um

you know the the character traits that

you develop through training like you

know discipline and self-control and

grittiness and perseverance and patience

you know the only way you improve those

things is by using them and you know you

don't want to be limited by your

self-control by example in your walk

with god

um and I think there is a a direct

carryover into your faith walk

fascinating so that's almost the same

argument I hear with respect to like

fasting for example it's one of those

things where you're disciplining

yourself so that you're denying the

Cravings so that you can subject those

to the higher spiritual values is that

sort of the similar concept of what

you're saying yeah absolutely you know

um I think we Americans maybe in

particular are just a slave to our

comfort Comfort can be an idol as well

yeah it's it's okay to be uncomfortable

arguably good for you

and so do you catch yourself

occasionally trying like does God have

to course correct you and keep you from

going off into the extremes or are you

kind of over that now

I think I'm I'm pretty well beyond that

now

um you know this book took me a couple

years to write

um but 90 of it happened in the last few

months leading up to the release and

that was because every time I sat down

to write it

I found myself

trying to cram Jesus into my box you

know the things I wanted to be true and

then running into him and just you know

being challenged by it and having to

kind of step back and reevaluate yeah um

but at this point you know I think I've

it's found its place yeah yeah that's

great and

tell me a little bit more about your

what you

are gifts during

stewards why is that important for

somebody that struggles to get off the

couch and like exercise some of that

discipline what would you say to them

beyond the fact that we're commanded to

by the creator of the universe

um you know

one it's going to directly and maybe

significantly negatively impact your

walk okay we are not infinite

self-rejuvenating beings and you have a

limited amount of energy and so to

purposely make decisions or purposefully

ignore decisions that are further

reducing that

um it feels like a slap in the face of

cod

um but also you know

um

from a leadership perspective you know

whether you you take that responsibility

seriously you're not you are having an

impact on the people around you and so

for you to neglect your own health that

rubs off on on the folks around you and

and

you're you're harming their health in a

very real way yeah

I just read this

research and it was

the idea a behind

how it's generated essentially and she

had this idea that I'd never heard

before the concept of the body budget

the idea that many of the emotions that

we find ourselves not being able to

control it's because we're tired or

we're hungry or we're we haven't been

exercising or we're not getting enough

sleep and then that ends up setting you

up for all these stress hormones that

your brain then interprets as being

these negative emotions it's a very

interesting I it was an interesting idea

to me and it kind of to it sort of plays

into what you're saying I think this

idea that we're stewards of our bodies

because that actually plays into our

ability to exercise self-control in that

sense where science meets fake yeah

exactly exactly love it so what have I

not asked you that you want to make sure

you leave with our audience

um one thing I think maybe is just

really important for people to establish

early on

um you know we're used to talking in

terms of body and soul as two separate

things and

that's not necessarily the way the Bible

talks about those things okay I'm not a

Hebrew scholar but I've done a lot of

research through this book and when you

look at the word that the Bible tends to

use that we translate as soul and the

Hebrew is nephesh

um and it's a pretty flexible word and

it can be translated as you know people

or persons or living being but you'll

occasionally see the equivalent of Mine

Fish written but translated it is to me

it doesn't translate to my soul it

translates as me

um and when the Bible talks about

the spiritual part of us that leaves our

body after we die there's a different

word shade

and it's generally looked at in a bit of

a negative light in that we're we're not

totally Who We Are

in as a shade okay

um and the point I make with all that is

is

Soul we we are intended to be all that

we are our body is part of that you know

it helps us understand why at the end of

the time God intends to resurrect us and

have physical bodies with him right

um and so

when we start by viewing our health and

fitness through that lens you realize

that physical exercise is not something

ancillary it's a part of your spiritual

practice because it's part of the

totality of your existence that God

calls us to give to him

um so I think if you if you can approach

you know the rest of this book and the

rest of what scripture has to say about

your health through that lens it's it's

a game changer Body Mind Spirit awesome

very cool so where can people go to

learn more about you and maybe pick up a

copy of your book

yeah uh head to nateburner.com if you

look in the description you can see a

link as you may not want to try and

figure out how to spell my last name

um there's a link there to buy the book

or you can just download the first

chapter if you just kind of want to see

it see what it's about and see if it's

something you're interested in or uh at

Nate burner on Instagram

um you can find me pretty active on

there as well

into that in the show notes

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