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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Bend and Stretch

A newspaper ad read,” NORDIC TRACK $300 Hardly used, call Chubby.” Feel free to laugh; doing so will exercise your facial muscles and a few more muscles if you laugh hard enough.

Exercise is good for us. It improves cardio-vascular health and lifts our spirits. Unfortunately, the only exercise some people get is that of jumping to conclusions and running up bills. Couch potatoes exercise their thumbs by operating the TV remote, but how many calories does that operation consume?

Just a reminder—the Christian’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19) and should be used to glorify God (v. 20). The apostle Paul compared the Christian life to the life of a first-century athlete. The athlete disciplined himself and dedicated himself to his athletic career. He trained and strained to win “a corruptible crown”—a laurel wreath that would last only a short time (1 Cor. 9:25), but the Christian’s eyes are on a greater prize, an “incorruptible” crown (v. 27b). That enduring prize is worth all the self-discipline we can muster.

It is hard to be at our best spiritually if we are at our worst physically. So let’s begin an exercise regimen or increase the one we have adopted. If you need to begin, a good start might be to push yourself away from the dinner table. If you need extra motivation, meditate on Romans 12:1, “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”