Godly Exercise
Remember the Mikey commercial? A big brother got Mikey who hated everything to try Life cereal. The cereal which was "some cereal that's sposed to be good for you" was taste-tested. In the end, all were happy because Mikey liked it.
In life, there are many things that are supposed to be bad for you and some things that are "sposed to be" good for you. One thing that is supposed to be good for us is exercise. Exercise is not anything I have ever been at all interested in. As a child growing up in the 70's exercise programs in schools grew by leaps and bounds. This was when The President's Council on Physical Fitness first came to be. PE became a requirement in most schools. It became a requirement at Lawhon (where Elvis Presley once attended) and several thousand other people in East Tupelo. I was one in those lucky thousands.
I was in the fourth grade when the idea of physical fitness began to take off. A Physical Education program began and my life was never the same again. My first PE teacher's name was Ms. Geno. I still see her every once and a while and we laugh about all my exploits to be excused from exercise every single day. I was awkward and clumsy. My philosophy was, "If God had wanted me to touch my toes. He would have put them up higher on my body."
When sides were chosen for dodge ball or kickball or softball nobody wanted me. In Jr. High Ms. Payne had to deal with the dilemma daily. When I entered high school I found a doctor who wrote me a doctor's excuse and I never again had to worry about how high or far I had to jump. The note said something about it was to trying on my emotional well being and my grades were suffering because of the stress, which was true, but it would probably be hard nowadays to find a doctor to say PE is bad for you.
Surprisingly the other day I did find some support for my anti-exercise agenda I strived for when I was young. A lady came into the store with a T-shirt on Saturday. It simply said, "Check your vitals I Timothy 4:8" I, of course, wanted to know what the verse said and looked it up. I found words in the Word that made me smile. "For bodily exercise profiteth little." Woo hoo! Yes! Sorry, for a minute there I was imaging I was ten or eleven and had found somebody finally saw things the way I did. PE is useless!
But unfortunately, or fortunately rather after researching the verse I found this explanation in the Adam Clarke Commentary.
To understand this expression it is necessary to know that the apostle alludes here to the gymnastic exercises among the Greeks, which were intended as a preparation for, their contests at the public games. They did this in order to obtain a corruptible or fading crown Timothy was to exercise himself unto godliness, that he might be prepared for the kingdom of heaven, and there receive a crown that fadeth not away. Those gymnastic exercises, so highly esteemed among the Greeks, are but little worth; they are but of short duration; they refer only to this life, and to the applause of men: but godliness has the promise of this life, and the life to come; it is profitable for all things and for both time and eternity.
Before I ever read the explanation of what the verse meant I found another verse that spoke of walking.
And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.
I Kings 3:14
As I grew older exercise continued to be nothing I attempted and nothing I thought could possibly be good for me. If I ever thought I might try it the thought never stayed long. It was kind of like this, Every time I get the urge to exercise, I lie down till the feeling passes.
Actually, that is just an exercise joke. I was never lazy. I am constantly moving doing something. I am usually never still. Walking is one form of exercise I do a lot of that I never really think of as exercise. Walking is something almost all of us can do which is a form of exercise. There is one form of walking everyone can definitely do, old and young. It is Godly exercise, Godly walking.
When we walk in God's ways our days will be lengthened. Woo hoo! Yes! Now that is something to get excited about don't you think? Try it every day of your life. Don't make excuses. Walk with God. It's "sposed to be good for you."
I found yet one more exercise joke I have to share that made me laugh.
"My mother started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 now and we have no idea where she is."
May we all walk far with God. Our lives will never be the same again.