Skip to main content

Confidential

Here is one of my big secrets. It's hardly a secret (or that big), but nonetheless...

I don't like to exercise because I'm not good at it.

I know that sounds ridiculous. It sounds as crazy to me as it does to you. But I don't enjoy doing things that I'm not good at and I enjoy doing things at which I am proficient or excel.

Now there are things that I don't LOVE to do, but need to be done and I don't suck at them... so I do them. I'm hardly an expert dishwasher loader (though if sheer number of times counts for expertise), but I do that. I'm not an expert lawn mower, but I do that. There are things which I do that I don't enjoy, but I do them.

If you've known me for years, you might say I'm "indoorsy", but I don't think so. I like being outside.

I like hiking. Fishing. Camping. Playing with the dog. Swimming. Canoeing in peaceful circumstances. I enjoy them when I'm doing them (mostly) and when I'm done, but the motivation...

And just straight up exercise... the thing you should do every day... I just dread it. You could argue that I need to find something I enjoy or that I'm doing it wrong or that I just need to get over it. You might be right on all counts.

In my head, I should be able to sprint like a deer, jump up and slap a volleyball, concentrate and flip my feet over my head in a back hand spring, be an Olympian if lacking the opportunity to try out for the competition. Instead, I'm sweating, ungraceful and much slower than I'd like to be. It's not character-building, it's humiliating and annoying.

Here's the reality that I need to accept. I can't be great at everything. I can't even be good at most things. I can be gifted in the areas in which I'm gifted and then the rest is just stuff I have to do. I can't do it all. I can't read myself fit. I can't pray myself fit. I can't sleep or eat myself fit. I can't journal myself fit. I just have to get up and put one foot in front of the other, for a significant amount of time each day, a little more quickly each time.

So I put fitness goals ahead of myself. And I work toward them. Because my faith in God's love of the body won't let me neglect mine.

In the end, that's what will do it for me. I can rationalize my opinion of my body. I can ignore other people's opinions.

But this...

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body," 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

That, I can't ignore.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm In

A few weeks ago ,  I was using voice-to-text to compose some prayers. After I was finished speaking the whole list, I was proof-reading the document and   realized that everywhere I said “Amen”, the voice-to-text wrote “I’m in”. “Amen” essentially means  “may it be so”,  but what would it look like to end our prayers with “I’m in”. What would change if we rose from our knees, left our prayer closets, closed our devotionals, and moved with purpose toward the goals for which we had just prayed.  Lord, in your mercy:  Grant justice to the oppressed and disenfranchised (I’m in) Cast down the mighty from their thrones (I’m in)  Console the grieving and welcome the prodigal (I’m in)  Welcome strangers and attend to the marginalized (I’m in)  Grant the space for the silenced to speak… and listen (I’m in)  Fill the hungry with good things and send the rich away empty (I’m in)  Forgive others as I am forgiven (I’m in) Be merciful as God in h...
Post a Comment
Read more

Top Ten Things to Learn from the book of Job

Readings: Job 1:1-22; Job 38:1-11; Luke 8: 22-25 10. Job contradicts Proverbs.   The writer of Proverbs offers the hope and consolation that people who live wisely and faithfully, according to the will of God, will flourish and prosper. The very first chapter of Job says: it ain’t necessarily so. You may well live righteously and with great integrity and, still, terrible things may happen. A faithful life is not an automatic buffer to calamity. Due to this contradiction between the books, both of which are categorized as wisdom literature, we are reminded of all those who have gone before us who tried to make the Bible speak with one voice. It doesn’t. The Bible has many voices, some of which are quite dissonant together, but they sing one song about the presence and providence of God.  9. Job is an old story, but a young book, relatively speaking. Since Job doesn’t mention Abraham or Moses or the laws or the Temple, some interpreters have considered it the oldest story ...
Post a Comment
Read more

While to That Rock I'm Clinging (Epiphany 2025)

I recently read a book that contained this line, “God can only be drilled out of us, not into us. I can see that now, from a distance.” God can only be drilled out of us, not into us. The author was discussing the griefs and losses of her life, but also her awareness of the larger scope of the movement and power that carries us all, even in the difficult seasons. You do not survive these seasons by thinking there is no God unless the idea of a God who cares, who is slow to anger, who is abounding in steadfast love has been drilled out of you.   How does the idea of God get “drilled out of a person”? In today’s scripture passages, we have an example of people who have held on to the majesty and mystery of God, even in times of trouble. Then we also have a person whose awareness of the Divine has been drilled out by a desire to retain power and worldly influence.  The magi or wise men were probably Persian astrologers or maybe Zoroastrian priests from the same region, modern-day...
Post a Comment
Read more