Spiritual Excercise

It’s the middle of February and spring is beginning to peak its beautiful head around the corner. At the tail end of a frigid winter, a glimmer of sunshine carrying with it the warmth of a new spring creates all manor of different inspirations and thoughts. For some, the warmth means they can finally crawl out of the layers upon layers of clothing they don over the winter months; for others it means that they will enjoy the flowers and birds as they share their beauty. For me, one of the inspirations that I experiences was the motivation or the urge to become physically active again. With the spring weather comes memories of baseball games, outdoor escapades such as camping or catching a game of Ultimate Frisbee on the quad after class. The call to be active is strong, and I know that it will be fun and refreshing, but I also know with that fun and refreshment will come frustration; frustration at the limitations of my body which has been relatively inactive all winter. Almost instantly upon prolonged physical acitivity, I will feel the strain of physical activity on my cardio-vascular system as I hear my heart in my ears and begin to breathe hard and my sides begin to ache. My legs begin to turn into jelly and my muscles will be sore for days afterwards. Even though I love the activity outdoors, my body just can’t keep up with the demands that I put on it.

There is a way around this problem however. That solution involves being physically active all the time; some call it training, others ‘working out’. When spring comes and I have a desire to be more active, if I’ve been active throughout the winter, keeping my heart and lungs in shape, and maintaining the endurance of my muscles, I will have no problem (or at least less of a problem) when spring comes around and I want to participate in those things that give me great joy, such as baseball/softball and Ultimate Frisbee. If I’ve been consistently active; if I’ve made an intentional effort to exercise on a regular basis, when I do those things that tax my body, I will be able to enjoy those things longer, and I will be able to make a greater contribution to my team (if it’s a team sport), or otherwise be more able to ‘win’ what ever game it is that I’m playing.

In 1 Timothy 4:7-8, Paul is instructing Timothy to “Have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness [because] while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” Paul is telling Timothy here, that while physical exercise is a good thing (don’t stop); spiritual exercise is a better thing. In much the same way that you or I would exercise or train our bodies so that we can effectively and joyfully participate in activities that come in the spring, Paul instructs Timothy (and us) to exercise our spirits as well, so that when a season of spiritual activity comes around, we will be able to take full advantage of it. If we don’t exercise our spirit, when a spiritual “spring” comes about, we will long to participate in the activities that are able to be done in that season, but like my experience with physical activity after a season of inactivity, we will try to do the things needed to be done but will become frustrated by the lack of ability, the lack of stamina, the lack of training to really excel at what we are attempting. Our spirits will begin to give out. Impatience will begin to creep in; the taxing of our spirits will leave us sore and aching, unable to be effective in the spiritual arena.

The author of the book of Hebrews echoes this encouragement to spiritual fitness in chapter 12 when he says in verse 1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” If you are among those that make an effort to keep your body in shape, or to be fit, I say to you how more should you strive to exercise your spirit and maintain its ‘fitness’. The spiritual ‘spring’ is here. Jesus tells us the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. We are among those few laborers, let’s make an intentional effort to maximize our effectiveness by maintaining our spiritual fitness so that we can “run and not grow weary”; so that our spirits can better keep up with the demands God puts on them. I encourage you (and myself), the next time you ‘workout’ or exercise, to think about how you are exercising your spirit. There are many different ways; no one right way, but many effective ways. Just as everybody has their preferred method of physical training, find your preferred method of spiritual training.

Make yourself uncomfortable, force your spirit to grow by stretching it, by breaking it, and by coming back to Jesus to let it rest and heal. Whatever you need to do to make that happen, get it done for the purpose of spiritual exercise, knowing that someday you will enter a time of spiritual activity and you will be able to endure and win the prize, whether that be your own faith, the faith of another, or even the salvation of others. Train yourselves during the seasons of spiritual winter so that you can run with endurance in the spiritual springs in your life.