Every time I go to the gym I can't help but think about a conversation my mom and I had with our small group in Malawi. My mom was trying to explain that we liked to run for exercise but the girls thought running for pleasure was a strange concept. They had to walk long distances, haul wood and water... they didn't need extra exercise to balance out their energy consumption.
I go to a packed gym. People working out, running, lifting weights. Why? Because they want to lose weight... because they want more muscle... because they want to look good.. I go regularly and every time the same word comes to mind: why.
We have technology that makes us lazy. We don't have to carry. We don't have to haul. We don't have to walk miles for water.
But we can't eat right. We can't balance our activity with our consumption.
I don't even know how anymore. I've taken nutrition classes. Read far too much about the topic. Battled the reflection in the mirror and the number on the scale. Now that I'm in charge of my own food consumption, I have no idea how to eat enough. Am I eating too little.. or too much?
So I go to the gym.
2nd Corinthians 4:19 - So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
But instead of making sure my heart rate gets above 150 bpm, I should be exercising my compassion.
I've got to go to the gym for my spiritual heart: the walk across the street to the homeless man who looks hungry and wet.. inviting my new friends to church, even if I don't know them all that well... reaching out to someone I haven't talked to in a while... resolving disagreements... disadvantaging myself to advantage someone else.
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