Train Like you Mean It

It’s easy for us to concede how a physically undisciplined person runs the risk of becoming fat and lazy. Add that to a regiment that keeps one in front of a computer for a good portion of the day and eventually the lack of movement will bring multiple health challenges. It’s something we can both physically feel as well as see with our eyes, and so it becomes the thing we all try to avoid in one way or another.

Life before television, iPhones, AI, and a whole slew of other day-to-day conveniences was naturally more fit. Just try living without a dishwasher for a week and see how that works out for you! The result of having all these conveniences is that people need to be inspired now to move, and so physical “challenges” are becoming more and more popular. Things like the “Tough Mudder”, CrossFit, marathon running, cycling, power lifting and even steps challenges are filling up our social media posts. Not only does that list go on, but we add to it all manner of specialized sustenance focuses such as detoxification, whey or protein shakes, carb and energy drinks, and whatever other fad diets grab our attention.

But what happens when we are spiritually undisciplined? Usually nothing, even though the spiritually undisciplined lifestyle has more costly and greater effects, not only here, now, but having eternal impacts as well, and not just on us but also on those we love. Yet I would dare think that there are far more spiritually undisciplined and lazy people than there are physical ones. The baffling thing is that because we can’t see it with physical eyes then we are often puzzled why we face spiritual “health” challenges whenever they come our way.

What would it look like if you were to give your spirit a workout harder than the one you give your body? If you knew that to be whole in body, soul, and spirit starts with the spirit, how might things change for you if you were to train like you were an athlete preparing for an event?

We long to have insight with understanding – that special kind of Godly discernment – into our everyday lives and the decisions we face. Comfort is a rival of discernment. When we’re comfortable, we tend to get lazy. When we get lazy, we tend to stop praying, and so on. Jesus is inviting us to be still and know that He is God. The most important thing about that passage is not discovering how to still ourselves in His presence, it’s the part about knowing He is God.

Just as there are no real shortcuts to having a healthy body, so there are no real shortcuts to having a healthy spirit. If we want it, we will have to work at it. Life is hard! It’s up to us which hard we choose.