When it comes to spiritual and physical fitness, there are so many lessons that can be shared.
In 2012 I wrote a book, Christ Fit Fusion – The Fusion of Spiritual and Physical Fitness, in order to do my part to bridge the gap between the two by using physical fitness analogies to emphasize the importance of spiritual fitness.
As a veteran fitness trainer (1998 – 2010), I had always believed in taking care of our bodies.
God spoke to me and gave me a vision of how closely spiritual and physical fitness are related.
For example, as a fitness trainer, if I had instructed my clients to eat breakfast on the day of our training session, but not to eat again for the rest of the week, they would have thought I was crazy and not kept me employed very long.
Yet, how many Christians get one spiritual meal a week sitting in church and then starve themselves for the remaining 6 days?
I know I have been guilty of this in the past.
One of the biggest challenges people face in the world of fitness is developing a lifestyle that leads to permanent results.
The fact is that life is full of storms both spiritually and physically.
We get sick, injured, go through challenging seasons with kids, divorce and etc.
We are in a storm, coming out of one, or heading into one somewhere in our future.
We will weather these storms better when we are spiritually and physically fit.
This takes consistent work and living a healthy lifestyle.
It is not that I do not get sick or face challenges but when I do, I recover much faster and withstand the heat better as a spiritually and physically fit person.
If you eat a healthy spiritual and physical diet, exercise spiritually and physically and do them both consistently you can’t avoid getting results and becoming what I call “Christ Fit.”
What I’m going to do now is essentially give you a template of what it means to live a healthy spiritual and physical lifestyle.
Physical diet:
We must eat a balanced diet of healthy macro nutrients (Protein, Carbohydrates, and Fat).
We also need fruits and vegetables to get our vitamins and minerals.
We need to graze, eating every few hours to keep our metabolism running fast and burning hot.
We also need to avoid junk food and minimize the nutrient empty “rice cakes” and etc.
Spiritual diet:
As with the physical, we need to graze on Godly things throughout the day.
Aside from consuming God’s word daily, we also need to snack on it throughout the day.
That is why scripture tells us, “My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you.
Keep my commandments and live, and my teaching as the apple of your eye.
Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.” (Proverbs 7:1-3, NASB).
Hang meaningful verses up on your walls.
Put scripture cards in your car and workplace.
Listen to praise and worship.
Listen to Christian podcasts.
Is secular music and TV bad?
Not all, but how much spiritual nutrition does it have?
You don’t necessarily have to keep your nose in the Bible twenty-four seven but it helps to meditate on the word of God and give thanks throughout the day.
Physical exercise:
Optimally, our bodies need a healthy balance of resistance exercise for our skeletal muscles and cardio for our heart and lungs.
If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.
Yes, it takes discipline.
You’re going to either experience the pain of discipline or the pain of disappointment and defeat.
You choose.
Spiritual exercise:
In order to exercise our spiritual bodies, we must engage spiritual disciplines.
These include activities such as reading, praying, fasting, serving, memorizing, tithing, loving (even our enemies) and etc.
We cannot do it once a week and expect to be spiritually healthy any more than exercising physically once a week will do any good for our bodies.
To close, I want to say that I spent 30 years as a Christian addicted to pornography, alcohol and marijuana.
I was consuming a ton of toxic spiritual and physical food, and abusing my body, mind and spirit.
The only thing that kept me from completely falling apart was exercising spiritually and physically and healthy spiritual and physical diet and doing them both consistently.
When I wrote my book, I was writing it to myself as much as anyone.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Our chief want in life is for somebody to make us do what we know we can.”
When I chose to do the right thing by getting into recovery, get accountability and get a coach to also push me to do what I knew I could, my life changed.
I remain in community and fellowship with others further down the road of recovery than me.
I continue to have mentors, people to disciple me and I also continuously hire a coach to challenge me and push me to the next level.
I hope that what I have shared will inspire and motivate you to do something right in your life, being consistent in fusing the spiritual and physical, both in diet and exercise.
This is true self-care.
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