learning life lessons during a workout

Tonight, I went to my workout not really wanting to be there. It started snowing here around 5 and the prediction is it could get really bad. I had emailed Johnny to see if we were still working out tonight and got no reply. Considering the fact that I am going home to K-town this weekend, i felt like I really needed to go tonight to ensure that I would meet my goal of 5 workouts this week.
So, I went. I was not joyful about it. I whined through this workout. I said things like--"this is too heavy" "how much longer" "you want me to do, WHAT?" I was having difficulty breathing(for those of you who keep telling me I have asthma, I'm starting to believe you!). At one point after doing an exercise called hamstring curls where you lay on the ground, I just wanted to lay there and not get up.
I made it through the workout. I still wasn't happy about it. As I was walking to my car, I started thinking about how most of the time I feel really proud of what I accomplish in a workout. Tonight to begin with, I just still felt like it was the hardest thing I had done in a while. Why did it have to be so hard? Why couldn't it be easier? Do I really have to keep enduring this?
Then I was reminded that this is how life truly is. God calls us through things that aren't easy. We go through difficult times whether we really want to or not. The burdens that we may be given often times feel too heavy. The rough times seem unending and we ask God, "how much longer." I am certainly guilty of saying, "you want me to do WHAT?" when Christ leads me to something that I am just not so sure about.
I've been back from my workout for about an hour now. I'm starting to feel good about my accomplishments. I've had a little while to be removed from the situation and look back on what I actually did tonight. That is the way it is when we go through hard things in our life. We may question it, but if we hang on and let God lead us through it we can look back and be proud of our accomplishments. There is new meaning tonight in the verse,"I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me"!!