HEART THOUGHT from Helen

“Take time and trouble to keep yourself spiritually fit. Bodily fitness has a certain value, but spiritual fitness is essential, both for this present life and for the life to come.” (1Timothy 4:7b-8) JB Phillips

Are you physically fit but spiritually flabby? We live in a nation that fanatically demands physical fitness.

Our ten year old grandson, Boaz and I went for a “walk/run” recently up to the Richard Jackson Park off Hwy 101. Wonderful place to go and exercise on the well kept track around the baseball fields that predominate the park. The complete outside loop measures 5/8 mile. We did about two and a half loops until the heat beat me. Boaz is going out for football for the first time and I decided to give him opportunity to start getting in shape. It also gave him a chance to run my golden retriever, Sadie. So, off they ran and I walked behind enjoying watching them run. It’s a pretty isolated park and hardly anyone else was there, so the quiet morning exercise encouraged me and exhausted my companions.

Years ago I faithfully followed the ‘shape up’ crowd into aerobics, exercising to Christian audio tapes. One of the cool down tunes was “El Shaddai”. I’m not too sure that God Almighty, the Powerful smiled on my sweaty, contorted limbs and yet I determined to present a fit, not flabby, body to Him. Shortly thereafter, I herniated a disk, which brought aerobics to a halt. Years later, we purchased a treadmill that has been enjoyed and used by everybody in our household over the years. It recently underwent its own work out to get in shape and got a tune up. I love it. I can listen to my music and walk and worship as I walk.

Our forefathers had no problem staying physically fit. Hard work took the place of aerobics. Totin’ and hauling, shoveling, digging, building, animal husbandry, gardening, washing and cleaning, substituted for pumping iron and working out at the gym. Today’s sedentary society finds that sort of ‘exercise’ archaic.

My grandchildren can do push-ups with the best of the crowd and do them regularly. Sometimes, they do them to show off; sometimes they do them for disciplinary reasons. Nonetheless, it doesn’t hurt their physical fitness.

Don’t misunderstand. I am a strong advocate of physical fitness. Our lives, however, and now my age, consist of more than the physical. A person IS a soul that indwells a body, NOT a body that happens to possess a soul. Our primary need is SPIRITUAL FITNESS. Just as physical fitness calls for discipline, spiritual fitness calls for determination. We will not always inhabit these earthly tents, but our souls exist eternally.

Are you physically fit…but spiritually flabby?