Fitness!

Have I told you about my friend Polly? She lives in Lara and is a bird-watcher, like me.
One day, about three years ago, I met her on a bird walk.
‘Hello Polly. How are you?’ I said, as you do.
‘I’m just fine, thank you,’ she replied. ‘Much better than when I was eighty.’
I stared, flabbergasted.
‘How old are you now, Polly?’
‘Ninety-one.’
‘What made the difference, Polly? I asked, when I recovered.
‘Exercise. I go to the gym three times a week. I do step-ups and I do weights, and I’ve got my strength
back and my balance back.’
I knew that I didn’t want to get to eighty and have lost my strength and my balance, so I decided to go to
the gym too. I never thought of myself as a gym-junkie! But until the Covid shutdown, I was going to the
gym three times a week and was stronger and livelier as a result.
I try to keep up with my exercise at home, or on walks, but it is not the same, without the group of
friends I have made, and the accountability I had with them. I am fortunate to have three steps inside
my house so I go up and down them until I am breathless. I do my garden, and a few other things, but I
know I am not as fit as I was. My level of self-discipline is too low!
What about you? How are you keeping fit in these restricted times? Perhaps we could share our
experiences and ideas and encourage one another in this area. After all, God made us to move, and lack
of movement can lead to all sorts of other issues with our health and welfare.
All things being equal, age makes no difference and is no excuse not to exercise, as Polly shows us.
In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul used the example of physical exercise as a synonym for the
spiritual disciplines too. Corinth is not far from Olympia, where the games were regularly held. The
wider Greek culture was pervaded with knowledge of the benefits of physical activity. They knew that if
you don’t maintain physical exercise, you will suffer for it. Fitness needs to be worked at.
Paul tells us that it is the same with our spiritual life. Let’s work hard in these Covid times, not only to be
physically fit, but spiritually, too, to remain close to God, to get to know Jesus better, to grow in the Holy
Spirit.
Let’s be reading Matthew’s Gospel over and over, dip into the Psalms, pore over the letter to the
Romans. Let’s all be more and more people of prayer, bringing our adorations, heart’s concerns and
issues, along with our questions and our doubts to the One who loves and knows more than can be
imagined.
It takes self-discipline! We make the decision and we do it. Perhaps we even have a bit more time in our
lives at present. Starting the day this way is good practice: to set our hearts and lives on the best and
most productive course for our days. Then we can get our physical exercise ... if we are disciplined …
Psalm 116 is so good! Some bits -
I love the Lord, for he heard my voice, he heard my cry for mercy. Verse 1
For you, O Lord have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living. Verse 8-9. Read the whole!