Cross Training
“All Scripture is
God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in
righteousness…” (2 Timothy 3:16)
It you are like most
people, it probably makes sense that some kind of exercise is an important part
of a healthy life. As we move toward
the New Year, we find this as a resolution for many. But like most people, you probably find that
fitting it into your schedule is sometimes a challenge. At times, our reasons are fairly legitimate but
more of often then not, they are as sour as expired milk. Just like anything else in life, you have to
find a way to pay now or you are going to have to pay later.
Steven Head, health
educator with Sports Therapy Services in McLean, Virginia, doesn’t buy the “too
busy” theory though. He says, “We seem to find time for things that are
important to us, no matter how busy we are.” Ain’t it the truth?
Surveys reveal five common excuses for not beginning an
exercise program:
1) Intimidation: Peg Jordan, spokesperson for the Aerobics and
Fitness Association in Sherman Oaks evaluated the statistics of 1880 people
about fitness motivation and found that more than 80% saw exercise as “too
scientific, too complicated…so that beginners risked exposing their
incompetence and ineptitude.”
2) Impatience: Susan Kalish, executive director of the
American Medical Athletic Association in Bethesda,
Maryland argues that “People want
a quick fix. Even though it took them 30
years to get out of shape, when they don’t get fit overnight, they blame their
genes.”
3) Unrealistic Expectations: “People who exercise in search of the perfect
body are doomed to failure,” says Kelly Brownell, director of the Yale University
Center for Eating and
Weight Disorders. “But if they are
looking to become healthier, more energetic…then exercise can deliver.”
4) Denial: “Many people are in denial that health
problems could happen to them,” says Carol Kleinman, a therapist in Maryland. “Then when they have a heart attack or
physical problem, all of a sudden they have the motivation to reorder their
priorities to exercise.”
5) Irrelevance: Pam Peeke, assistant professor of medicine at
the University of
Maryland said that people
falsely believe, “With today’s technology, it’s no longer necessary to move to
exist. Exercise doesn’t add to people’s
income, and many people consider it another chore to add to a time-starved
life.”
Peeke adds that
physical movement is essential to healthy, especially in handling stress as he
book, Fight Fat at Forty, contends that sedentary living turns our natural
“fight or flight” response into an obesity-promoting “stew and chew.”
May I suggest that
there is another kind of exercise that we know is important to a healthy
spiritual life, and like others, we at times neglect to fit in into our
schedules. We even tend to use all
the time-worn excuses from intimidation to irrelevance. Of course I’m referring to God’s Word. Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17,
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is
useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so
that the man (and woman) of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Gives a new meaning to the idea of “working
out” you salvation, doesn’t it?
Terry Risser
Reflections:
1) Has God’s Word been part of
your steady diet?
2) How can you get on a New
Year’s plan starting in the new year?
Copyright 2014- Terry Risser
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