Staying Spiritually Fit

There were two activities I especially enjoyed about the Spring during my high school years, one was playing baseball (my favorite sport) and the other was running track, my specialty was the 800 meter race. Training was rigorous. I would practice with the baseball team for about an hour and a half and then run the oval track around the football field until the sun went down.

On Friday afternoons, I would take a ten mile jaunt around a nearby golf course and then run the fire trails of a heavily wooded area, which was home to wild boar. There were a number of times I found myself running as fast as I could to either find a tree with low lying limbs in order to escape or as the coaches at the University of Alabama would scream at Forrest Gump, “Run, Forrest, run!” My lungs were good and strong.

Then there was the assignment with the Second Marine Air Wing. When I was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort, we would run our PFT (Physical Fitness Test) every morning at 6:30 am, a regimen of sit ups, pull ups and a three mile run. I was proud of myself. I never scored lower than first class. I wasn’t much on the pull ups, but I could do the situps and keep pace with the rabbits in our unit. Sadly, those days are gone.

Two summers ago, Roy and Katie Nicka made the trip to Montreat, along with other parents, to watch the Friday evening Concert sponsored by the Worship & Music Conference in Anderson Auditorium. They were there to watch Jack and Lucy Mae, and the other children and youth, and listen to them sing in their respective choirs. It was a packed house with over 1,200 in attendance. It was a night of beautiful and glorious music. What I remember about the next morning is Roy running before breakfast all the way through the Montreat community up to the staging area where hikers begin their trek up Lookout Mountain. Roy ran up the mountain, down the mountain and back to our residence on Tennessee Road, a distance of well over 5 miles. He was hardly out of breath, I was impressed and envious!

A church member visited with me in my Study years ago, a gentleman who in his earlier years had jogged regularly and even ran marathons. I gathered he harbored growing concern about my developing sedentary lifestyle, sitting at my desk too long without getting proper exercise because he loaned me a book titled, “Deconditioning.” It is unfortunate that I didn’t treat the subject more seriously. As time passed, my daily runs fell by the wayside. I surely can’t keep up with Roy!

Finding myself at home more than usual these days, Kay and I have begun walking each day, something we enjoyed doing together years ago before daily responsibilities and obligations began to dominate our schedules. We walked over two and half miles at noon time with Laura and Keeler walking with us. Six hours later, I’m sore. No longer able to really jog and beat the pavement, I’m finding our daily walks to not only be good for us physically, but good for us socially as well as we visit and talk along the way. We are noticing more in the neighborhood, too. Things we haven’t noticed because of the hectic pace of life that we all fall prey to.

The point of all this is to simply share a word of encouragement that we use care in how we practice our spiritual disciplines during this time of staying home and social distancing so we do not decondition spiritually. I frequently make reference to the teaching of the apostle Paul about running the good race. (1 Corinthians 9.24) Paul understood that constant training for an athlete enables him/her to compete against the best. Let us be careful to discipline ourselves as we tackle our home schedules and chores “decently and in order,” and let us be diligent for the right reasons as we seek to be still during some portion of the day and know that God is God, as we read from the Book, as we offer prayers of adoration, thanksgiving, confession, intercession and supplication, and listen for the still, small voice that gives guidance and direction, comfort, reassurance and hope.

Until tomorrow, may you sleep and rest well and welcome the new day in the peace and security of Jesus Christ. +

—
Steve Keeler, Pastor