In the ‘spirit’ of Easter - pun intended - I want to share a quote I heard recently for the first time. I grew up in a Christian home and frequented a very Biblically-doctrinated church home, so it was much chagrin that I couldn’t recall hearing it before.

“When you’re hoping and striving for something you want in life, you must have the humility and faith to pray about it, but you have to ‘pray with your legs.’”

It’s not so much of a quote as it is an aphorism, but it hits home. It’s a pretty good synopsis for a famous passage in the book of James, which I highly recommend everyone read (it’s four chapters, a little over 2,000 words, is very practical and clear, and can take less than ten minutes to read in one sitting).

This precept simply means that if you’re going to ask for divine intervention on your behalf, you ought to be doing everything humanly possible down here on Earth to get it done as well. The Christian doctrine states this because, in the words of James the Apostle, “faith without works is dead.” Regardless of your religious beliefs, this must resonate at a near-spiritual level and serve you as an axiom of wisdom in Truth with a capital “T”. The reason I can claim this is simply because we have enough evidence. Think about the last time you had something absolutely amazing go your way. Chances are, it didn’t just happen e.g. winning the lottery. For most people most of the time, you can’t simply wish for something to happen and it works out exactly how you want. If you believe in a god, and you pray for something, why do you think a mighty and powerful creator of the universe would put effort into something you wouldn’t? A good parent wouldn’t oblige to that, neither a good teacher, mentor, or friend. If you do a little digging, the most supernatural and miraculous feats that we memorialize have a long laundry list of hard work, or “legs” behind the curtain. Championships won by an underdog, someone overcoming cancer, full court buzzer beaters, a person coming back to life after their heart stopped, The Hail Mary (it’s a famous football play), the West winning the second World War. All of these things, no matter how amazing they seem at the moment, are backed by someone somewhere putting in a lot of work. If you want something bad enough to think, wish, hope, or pray about it, then it’s you who should be giving those prayers legs. After all, I’m pretty sure skipping leg day is a sin.