PHYSICAL FITNESS AND SPIRITUALITY

A Question For The Lonely

Dear God

I have a question

I hope you can answer for me

It has been said that what you are

I may aspire to and someday be

Well, I have been thinking

I’ve been wondering

How you must feel

It seems to me to be an eternity

Of heartache and disappointment

To see all that you have seen

To watch your children push your love aside

To destroy their very world

You so tenderly created

It must take great strength

To suffer this way

It must tear apart your heart

To have the doors of heaven open wide

And all the while the fires of hell

Take your children from you

One at a time

Oh Father

For you I feel great sympathy

When I am l lost and in pain

You seem t walk for a while with me

Who can console the heart of God

To be like you

Must be very lonely.

-1996-

Physical Fitness And Spirituality

Physical fitness and spirituality.

Right now you are probably thinking: “What does one of these things have to do with the other?”

Have you ever heard the phrase “Your body is a temple.” Have you ever spent time contemplating what that phrase means. I have spent a little time asking random people around me what their thoughts are pertaining to “Your body is a temple.”

The most common answers go something like this: “You must live a righteous life and be a good person.”

I think that it goes much deeper than that. My body is my temple. What is the definition of a temple? The New Oxford American Dictionary definition is: Temple^: noun, A building devoted to the worship, or regarded as the dwelling place, of a god or gods or other objects of religious reverence.

A building devoted to the worship or the dwelling place of God. Now that adds a whole new twist to things doesn’t it? So my personal little body is the dwelling place of God. Maybe it is time to clean the house a little so God should want to choose to reside here.

I need to cleanse and strengthen my temple. My house of God must be strong enough to endure the trials and tribulations of this mortal world. My temple has to be quick and agile so I have the ability to avoid the slings and arrows of the Devil himself because his goal is to tear down my temple faster than I can build it. It is kind of strange to think that gluttony and slothfulness are two of the seven deadly sins according to the Bible and those particular sins directly affect the physical well being of our mortal bodies.

Ah, the ancient ones also understood this concept. The fitness and strength of my body has a direct correlation to spiritual development.

Think about how the use of mind-altering drugs or alcohol affect judgment, reasoning, inability to control moods or emotions and the vanishing of any semblance of rational thinking. If I eat foods lacking in proper nutritional value then my body cannot function properly and the same reactions occur as drugs and alcohol use affect the human body. If I fall into the habit of eating without proper moderation, my pants don’t fit anymore. If I neglect my general physical fitness, my body grows physically weak and unable to maintain itself. I lose the ability to move properly, my body mechanics begin to break down and I begin a rapid downward spiral into inactivity, obesity, disease, mental weakness, emotional distress, depression, and eventually I give up and my life has no meaning to me. It becomes an existence of physical and emotional anguish for both myself and those who love and care about me.

How can God reside in a temple of such disrepair? If I fail to maintain a physically fit body, does that really have an effect on my personal spirituality?

Yes, it does.

If I am in good physical condition, my body is healthy; it is operating at an optimum level. I have the physical strength to endure the challenges of mortal life. I have the mental health and well being that is associated with proper nutrition and physical fitness to maintain proper communication with God. If and when illness strikes, my body already has a reserve of strength to use for healing. A strong body builds a strong mind and will. That is how seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong defeated cancer. His body and mind were strong enough to endure the chemotherapy and radiation treatments that were necessary to defeat his cancer.

My personal spiritual journey has been tough emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, and physically. It has had a noticeable effect on my physical body. The nature of my former profession as a Firefighter necessitated a high degree of physical fitness much like a military soldier. It is a life of mortal combat. It is not a place for the weak of heart, mind, or body.

My personal spiritual journey was and is a physical one. It is not a journey of intellectual study or postulating theory. Mine has been and is a hard knuckle battle to claim and hang on to what I have been searching for. My physical body has to be up to the task I have demanded of it.

My body is my temple. It may be simple and plain lacking fancy décor or lavishness. My temple, is in fact, rather Spartan but it is clean, fortified, and well defended by a body that is well maintained and ready for the struggles that lie ahead. God does reside here because he has given me this body to use and maintain and I am trying with all my might to make it a place that he chooses to be.

After all, everyone needs a safe clean place to just hang out with friends once in a while.

Even God.