Because We Are Changed By It

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have all been told through the years in a parental kind of way that exercise is good for us.  And there is no quicker way to make exercise into something gruesome.  No quicker way to drain the fun out of it.  Just let me run and enjoy it.

But whether exercise is fun or a chore, we are changed by it in incremental ways.  In a New York Times article last weekend, author Gretchen Reynolds expounded on the physiology of physical exercise.  In all of its forms -- cycling, walking, running, hiking, swimming, whatever-- exercise is not just what we do, but what it does to us, cell by cell, minute by minute, step by step.

"But we still know surprisingly little about just how exercise changes us for the better," wrote Reynolds. "What are the many, interconnected biological steps and transmutations that allow a walk today to add to our life span decades from now?"

And it made me think how even more we are changed too by intentional and interconnected spiritual habits, transformed by God day by day, minute by minute, step by step, even when we don't realize what God is doing in our deepening intimacy with Him.

When I read that article about exercise, I immediately thought about a friend of mine long ago who battled cancer for a number of years.  Instead of being defeated by her dire circumstances, she was instead an immense blessing to everyone around her.  I heard that when she went to the hospital for her treatments, nurses would fight over who got to be assigned to her.  She was that kind of a joyful person caring for others, even as others cared for her.  Even as she lay on the gurney receiving her painful radiation treatments, she did not grumble.  She sang hymns as she lay there, thinking she was singing only to herself, but the melodies infiltrated down the hallway.  Her strong resolve could not be explained away as if she was just naturally strong and cheerful.  She had been trained for this hard place through the every days --years of seeking and serving God, praying, marinating in His Word, and loving others well. 

And those things can't help but do something to you.  She was changed by God in tangible ways. 

In his classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers points out:

"If we do not do the running steadily in the little ways, we shall do nothing in the crisis."

God changes us, day by day, step by step, verse by verse, prayer by prayer, grace by grace, even in ways we are not aware.  Strength does not come suddenly, but built over time in layers.

Every time we exercise, our cells change a little bit more.  We don't "just" exercise.  Every day, we follow God into what He lays before us, He strengthens us not just for today, but building His strength in us for decades from now.  Not just for the finish line, not just for ourselves, but the strength to help others along the way, for His glory in every step.

 

Train yourselves in godliness.

For while bodily training is of some value,

godliness is of value

             in every way,

as it holds promise for the present life

   and also for the life to come.

                         1 Timothy 4. 7-8