Spiritual Fitness 101--A Primer for a New Way

So, there we were, all shapes and sizes, all levels of experience and inexperience, sitting in the bleachers of the old gymnasium at my little college in suburban Chicago.  Some of us were very accomplished and polished, others had no idea what was going on.  All of us were there for the same reason: we had to be.  Even though this class was required for graduation, I still remember thinking to myself, “This is gonna be a waste of time.”  The class was “Fitness and Wellness for Life.”

At the time, I had been a life-long runner and a member of track teams since the seventh grade.  I had been running varsity track as a sophomore in high school and had plans to qualify for the state meet until my third knee surgery sidelined me for my senior year.  I had rehabbed hard and was able to run track at my little NCAA D-3 school for the past four years.  I was coming off a season of cross country and I would go on to be a part of a record-setting 1600m Relay Team.  I read running magazines and books voraciously, looking for the latest and greatest training techniques and tools.  One of the happiest days of the month was when the new Runner's World would appear in the library.  What was an introductory class going to teach me?

Here I am, fifteen years later, and I’m beginning to realize that this “Fitness and Wellness for Life” has provided a background and a framework for what I was really at school to study: pastoral ministry leading to spiritual fitness.  I didn’t know it then, but that class and its principles could be used to talk about a person’s spiritual fitness and where it’s developed.  Sure, there are many intangibles and differences between physical training and spiritual training but I still contend that some of the general principles of becoming stronger physically can translate into being stronger spiritually.

I've had a chance to sit, study, ponder and write some of these ideas off-line for the past few months and I'll be sharing these ideas over the course of the next few days and weeks as a way to begin.