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Let's Get Spiritual, Spiritual....


If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. (I Timothy 4:6-8)

          Once upon a time, I jogged 6.5 miles a day, five days a week. For the last four weeks, I’ve gotten up six days a week and gone to the Y. There are some people there who clearly spend a lot of time physically training themselves. I have friends who are just as politically fit, philosophically fit, politically fit, intellectually fit, fiscally fit, relationally fit, or spiritually fit. I also know, and know of people who pretend to be fit, and people who don’t even bother to pretend. 
          According to Paul, godliness as value for all things. Godliness makes one fit not only in the life, but in eternity. Current training about physical fitness involves just a few basics as a foundation. You work the bigger muscles first and hardest without neglecting the smaller muscles and work muscles that oppose one another (push, pull, front, back…) You work with weights, resistance, and/or distance that causes the muscles being worked to tire – ideally to the point where you can go no further, push or pull no more. 
          Spiritual fitness is similar. Faith is the heart. It’s what pumps life out to the muscles. The greatest commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself are the biggest muscles. The point is to push all of them to their limits without hurting yourself. Believe me – damaging knees by trying to do what they aren’t fit enough to do gets in the way of fitness for the whole body. 
          This past week, I got a coaching session. I was told that form is more important than weight. The goal is to isolate and train the specific muscle and to make it work longer by going s…l…o…w. I’m trying to do what my coach told me. Similarly, our Coach is not interested in our impressing others through fast dashes and jerky lifts. Spiritual muscle is best built by slow, tedious pushes and pulls that may not seem impressive, but that require extended work on an isolated muscle – maybe joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control. The goal is to go to the limit without hurting yourself (or others) and when you’ve done that, you might grasp what you were reaching for, or you might not. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t. That means you have another repetition in you. Go for it.

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