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Thoughts on Exercise

My first thought on exercise is that I can never spell it correctly. Anyway, I used to own a treadmill. It was in my house facing the TV. We bought it in San Jose and moved it up to the Bay Area. We had it for close to 20 years and I used it most every day. During its end of life, I did not run on it because it was very wobbly. After a time, it just died and the belt would not move. A Crunch gym had opened across the street from my church, so I went there and joined and I have been going there every day instead of using my own treadmill, which we donated for scrap.

One benefit of Crunch gym is that they are a full gym. They not only have treadmills, and lots of them, but they have weights and weight machines and classes and stair climbers and all sorts of stuff, so I can do different things other than walk/run on the treadmill. I usually start with 30 minutes on the treadmill to burn sugar and get my cardio up. I then move to various weight machines and try to build my upper body.


One thing I wonder, going to the gym every day, is this: does it do any good? I can look in the mirror, I can test my blood sugar and hope that things are where they are supposed to be, but the reality is, I will not know what good this does or how much benefit I get until I get older and see how my health is. By then it will be too late…no do overs. The other day I did go to the Doctor to check on a possible pinched nerve. She did the standard arm pull and push tests and she said this, “You’re strong. How did you get so strong?” So I guess it is doing some good…who knows, maybe she was weak.

Spiritual exercise is the same way, it seems. Psalm 73:13 indicates that way back then people wondered if righteous living did any good. There is no mirror to look in and there is no one to notice that you are now strong. Like physical exercise, progress is slow and mostly invisible. I teach that spiritual disciplines of Bible reading and study, church attendance and prayer are vital to Christian life, but many seem to wonder if it does any good. I suppose that is why they call it faith. It takes faith to go to the gym every day and it takes faith to keep up with the Christian life and its pursuits every day. It will also take other people to notice when we are strong and when we are wise from following God. My hope is that when I am 75 years old I will remain active and with all my faculties and that I will be wiser and closer to God in all my actives. I do things today, with the faith and the hope that the pay off will be later in life. I’ll let you know.



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