Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...