I just got back from an early morning men’s meeting. I heard an ex-NFL football player talk about the importance of physical fitness. The theme was based on Deut 34:7 – “Moses was 120 years old when he died, yet his eyesight was clear, and he was as strong as ever.” Quality and quantity of life. I learned a few things I didn’t know. According to a Harvard study, it is better for your health to smoke a pack a day then to go without 90 minutes of physical activity a week. The average American spends about 10 years in a severely degraded and diseased condition before dying. Along with several other fun facts.
He went on to talk about how 3 times 30 minutes a week will reduce that 10 years of morbidity at the end of life to 5 years on average. Physical activity for 5 hours a week, cuts it down substantially from 5 years. The average age of this group was probably 50+ so he wanted to end on an encouraging note. He talked about a recent study where men, 70+ years of age in a nursing home, started a fairly intense (for their age) weight lifting routine. No cardio. Just weights. In three months the tripled their strength, and a great many of them threw out their walkers, canes, etc.
The speaker went over time and before he took questions the MC gave those who had to leave permission to leave. I had to get to work so I took that opportunity to get out of dodge. In my head I was pleased with the opportunity to run out without having to strike up conversations with any of the guys sitting around me. I have only gone to this group a few times and I really didn’t know many people. The old social stuttering phobia is hard to break.
As I was driving back into the office, I started to reflect on times, in my life, of reduced social stress and phobia. Those times occur when I am “socially fit.” When I am spending 90 minutes, or, maybe even 5 hours a week in situations where I have to introduce myself, make small talk, etc. The more “out of shape” I get in the social realm, the more my social morbidity increases.
I got to thinking about other areas of “fitness” that we can neglect. Other areas that may benefit greatly from either a small amount of “activity” per week. Spiritual fitness, are we spending 90 minutes a week? 5 hours a week, talking to God, learning about him, etc? How about parenting fitness? How much quality time are we spending with our kids? Spouse fitness? Mental fitness. Are we reading, writing blogs, etc.? Generosity fitness. How much time and resources are we freely giving each week to those who need it in our lives? On the negative end of the spectrum. If we have anger management issues, what is our anger management fitness level? Gossiping fitness? Integrity fitness? Can we dedicate 90 minutes a week to gossip free times?
The American culture is obsessed with physical fitness. A certain amount of investment in physical fitness not only makes sense from a human perspective, but also spiritually. God expects us to be good stewards of our physical bodies for many reason. However, is it possible that many of us may be out of balance in other areas of our lives? Are we neglecting fitness in the other areas of our lives? For some the neglect in the other areas of fitness may be because of an over emphasis on physical fitness, or some other forms of fitness may be out of balance.
In any case, this ex-NFL player went on to say that time, motivation and discipline were the biggest roadblocks to physical fitness. In my experience, discipline is really the biggest barrier to any type of fitness. Couple that with one of my favorite phrase, “Accountability beats discipline every time,” and you may say that accountability is the biggest barrier to any and all kinds of fitness. When I have a physical workout partner, I am very consistent. When I have no partner, I rarely exercise. I believe the same is true with any other areas of fitness – spiritual, relational, etc. I need accountability in those areas to get it done. That is much harder find in those areas than it is for physical fitness, and it’s pretty hard to find a dedicated workout partner even for physical fitness.
If I want to “be the change” I need to be there to offer accountability to others. Maybe that’s where it all starts.
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