Boot Camp Blues

Monday morning. It started out like any other week. I made my typical trek to Dad's house, making sure all was well. I filled his dosette medication box as usual and did a few other chores, including preparing his meal for later, making his bed and some other general, typical Monday morning duties.

Then Rosemary arrived. She came through the door with a grin on her face and stretchy clothes on her body.

"Are you ready?" she sheepishly asked.

"I think so," I replied looking at Dad and tugging at my less than flattering exercise clothes. Rosemary fed Dad's fish and did a few other things while she waited for me to gather my bag and my courage.

 "Let's go!

My bossy big sister ordered me to get set for Boot Camp at the local dance studio.  She's not usually bossy, but she saw it her duty to keep me motivated! We had signed up for exercise class and time was drawing near. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into. Of course, we should have guessed it wouldn't be a senior's program when we discovered the name of the class - Boot Camp!

Since my surgery and chemo I have packed on the pounds and do you think I can lose them? I remember each time I went to the cancer clinic for treatments they would say how good it was that I wasn't losing weight! I felt like flushing the steroids down the loo - but I didn't. I listened to their reasoning about how the weight at that point, was an okay thing. But here I am almost two and a half years since that last bit of taxol/carboplatin dripped into my vein. And I am still huffing and puffing my way around life.

The class was wonderful. The teacher - tremendous. Leonna had us stretching and doing things that I really thought impossible given my years and sedentary lifestyle! I love my job - writing and teaching. I count my blessings all the time as I consider how I am able to work out of my home and be flexible with my schedule. However, the drawback - most of my work consists of me on my derriere! And oh, how I was reminded about that at Boot Camp this past Monday. Rosemary and I never thought we would make it past the first 15minutes. But we did. We hung in there. We stopped watching the clock and praying for the black hour hand to whip by and started focussing on what Sergeant Leonna was saying! And we didn't have to call for EMS.

At one point, as I was jogging a mile a minute on the spot, I thought about God. I wondered if I was spending enough time in Boot Camp for the Lord. In between panting breaths I thought about how I need to remember that not only do I need to sweat to get rid of the excess weight, I need to do a little sweating about the sin in my life. Is there any excess baggage in my soul weighing me down and making me less of a disciple? Do I need to make some better choices about bitter attitudes?

So here I am...doggedly determined to get myself into some semblance of better shape on the outside. And I also am equally determined to show the same enthusiasm for God.

Now if only I could get rid of this thorn in my side...oh just a minute...that's a pain in my (wanna' be)abs! Bring on the Advil!

Workout With God - Lynda Schultz

"… train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." I Timothy 4:7b, 8

I just came in from a four kilometer walk. I burned close to six hundred calories and took over ten thousand steps. My blood pressure dropped ten points. Besides all those healthy physical benefits, I got out into the fresh air, enjoyed a stroll through the bush with no one for company except squirrels, birds, and God.

Paul's right—physical exercise is a good thing. He says that it holds "promise for … the present life." Amazingly, he knew all this before diet books, aerobic tapes, and personal trainers. My morning walk is good—I might even live a few minutes longer because of it.

However, Paul's primary concern is the relationship that the "here-and-now" has to the hereafter. The important question in his mind, as it should be in ours, is how many "kilometers" we have walked each day with God. My spiritual workout in pursuing God and being godly, not only benefits me here, but it also has implications in the life to come. Because it has a wider application, that spiritual exercise ends up being more valuable than its physical cousin.

The time I spend exercising with God doesn't prolong the eternity that I will spend with Him. After all, eternity is, well, eternity. I think Paul is referring more to quality than he is to quantity. Just as physical exercise improves quality of life, so spiritual exercise—the pursuit of God and godliness—improves the quality of life here, and multiplies the joys which await me in the hereafter.

 When I seek God and His righteousness, the calories of the world are gradually burned off. As I move closer to Him, the weight of stress which often characterizes life in this present world, melts away. The uphill battles are easier as I become more conscious of the invigorating breath of His presence filling my spiritual lungs.

From spiritual exercise I gain temporal and eternal benefits which only cost me a little bit of discipline.

I am not normally given to making resolutions when a new year dawns on the horizon. However, I will make an exception when it comes to committing myself to more spiritual exercise—after all, next year I'll be that much closer to eternity.  

© Lynda Schultz 2007