Praxis - Think like Jesus - Exercise

     The world says get fit, look good, stay trim, live longer.  I suspect Jesus nods, and maybe says “Amen” – but it’s interesting that Jesus never “exercised.”  In fact, the whole notion of “exercise” only makes sense in a comfortable society where you sit all day and thus need exercise.  I know a woman in Haiti who walks 5 miles carrying her woven goods to market – and 5 miles back home, where she also carries water, on her head, about a mile uphill for her family. 

     Paul recalled Olympic games he had observed, and thought of the Christian life as running a race, “to obtain the prize…  Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. I do not run aimlessly… I pommel my body and subdue it” (1 Corinthians 9:25).  And, “I press on toward the goal” (Philippians 3:14).  And “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day” (2 Timothy 4:7).  I wonder if we might exercise, not only to feel or look better, but as a chance to “glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20)?

     Can we think like Jesus while at Zumba, while running, walking or biking, lifting weights?  I’m not merely staying fit, but pressing on toward the prize of fitness for Christ’s Kingdom.