Lynn Jones: Becoming strong
By Lynn Jones
When I was a boy, on most Saturdays we went from Plainview, Louisiana to Many, Louisiana to shop. For me, the highlight of the day was going to Morgan & Lindsey Variety Store. Mom would give me a dime, and I would buy a comic book. I wanted to read the comic book on the way home, but I always got car sick while reading. I would try to read a few pages, and then had to stop until I got home.
On the back of a lot of the comic books was an ad showing muscleman Charles Atlas. Charles Atlas had at one time been a 90-pound weakling. A picture on the back showed him as a 90-pound weakling on the beach when a bully came by and kicked sand on him right in front of his girlfriend. It was very embarrassing! But Charles Atlas discovered the secret of “Dynamic Tension,” and, by using this body building technique, he soon became a muscle man who never took anything off another bully.
It was not clear exactly what “Dynamic Tension” was, but, judging from the picture on the back of the comic book, it consisted of pushing with one arm against the other until you built bulging muscles. We were encouraged to fill out a coupon printed on the back of the comic book, send it to Charles Atlas, and he would show us the secrets of “Dynamic Tension.”
We didn’t have any beaches around Plainview, and I didn’t have a girlfriend, but I sure didn’t want to be embarrassed by some bully kicking sand on me in front of some future girlfriend, so I filled out the coupon and mailed it to Charles Atlas. On the coupon, you had to list your age so in that blank I put my age, “7”. I was very disappointed that I never heard anything from Charles Atlas. He evidently thought that, given my age, I was a poor prospect for getting any money out of me.
It was quite a disappointment. Who knows what might have happened had I learned the secrets of “Dynamic Tension”. I might have been whipping bullies on beaches all over the world. I might have been a member of the Power Team, breaking concrete blocks with my bare hands. But, it was not to be. I grew up to be a 145-pound weakling who studiously avoided beaches and bullies. But, it’s really not my fault. You can lay all the blame at the feet of one Charles Atlas!
Actually, the model for growth and strength is not Charles Atlas. It is Jesus Christ. Jesus “grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40). Unfortunately, I have not become like Charles Atlas nor Jesus, but my goal now is to become more like Jesus!
Lynn Jones is a retired pastor who lives in Oxford. He does supply preaching for churches in his area and often serves as an interim pastor. Jones is also an author, has written two books and writes a weekly newspaper column. He may be contacted at: kljones45@yahoo.com.
