By Kimber Otis
Hi, I’m Kimber. I graduated with my Kinesiology degree in April of 2017 from William Jessup University. I wish I could say that I dreamed of studying kinesiology my whole life, but like many, my story is just a little more complicated than that. When I started my college career, I was not passionately in pursuit of a nursing degree. Although I’d like to say I made a strategic plan to switch to kinesiology, it was God who was ordering my steps.
Growing up I never had a dream career. But, I could kind of, sort of, see myself as a nurse. However, I had the personal goal of getting a bachelors degree. I decided to go for it. Four years, three schools, and a whole lot of college credits later, I was holding a rejection letter from nursing school with no degree in sight. I was just about… actually I was just plain ready to throw in the towel.
PRAYER – THE PATH TO THE PERFECT CAREER
So, starting at what felt like square one, I got on my knees and prayed. I prayed for answers, and I honestly prayed that school would just be over. See, at this point in my college experience I had a lot of life happen, both in academics and in my personal life. I felt like I had lived through enough trials to last me a lifetime.” I wanted out.
Well fast forward six months, every moment of which was spent praying and making countless pro/con lists, and I was, by God’s grace alone, walking into William Jessup University to meet with an admissions counselor about the kinesiology program. To be honest, going into that meeting I only had two questions: how many credits did I still need and how fast could I graduate.
I went in thinking Jessup was my back up plan. I knew friends that had gone there, it was close to home and I had already been accepted, so it seemed like a safe choice. But by the time I walked out of the building, I was enrolled in the program, set to graduate in three semesters and I started class three days later.
Before Jessup, my academics had been about performing; studying the most hours, getting the highest grade, striving to meet an unrealistic standard. At a Christian university like Jessup I was given the space to fall in love with the subject I was studying and the God that created it.
By Scott Roberts, William Jessup University
1. Follow Jesus in his footsteps.
2. Endurance training becomes living by faith.
3. Seek Jesus for all the guidance we need in life.
4. Discipleship becomes submitting your will to God.
5. Invite Jesus into your health and fitness goals.
6. Draw on God’s power to renew your thinking.
7. Good form becomes being an example to others.
Learn more about how you can apply these 7 ways to achieve life transformation and grow spiritually beyond physical fitness.
Looking back, my road to Jessup was anything but normal or even close to what I had planned, but I have never been more certain that I was on the path Jesus had planned all along. It was through those trials, that discomfort and those friendships, that I fell more deeply in love with Jesus and who He created me to be than ever before.
EVERYTHING WE STUDIED PROVED SCIENCE AND FAITH GO TOGETHER
When you spend as much time as we did studying the physiology of the human body, it becomes clear that none of it is an accident. We spent a lot of time in our program studying and defining what it means to be holistically fit. Our research led us to the conclusion that the way to live a life holistically healthy and fit is through a life that is rooted in relationship with Jesus. Everything we studied proved that you can’t be fully healthy in just one area, mind, body OR soul, but that it has to happen simultaneously, mind, body AND soul.
Through my time at Jessup, the Lord showed me that true fitness is so much more than getting your body to look a certain way. He showed me that true fitness begins only when you surrender your soul to the Creator. Without a soul anchored in Jesus, you will always see your body as the world does: never “fit” enough. But when you see it through the eyes of the One who created it, you start to see your body as He does: the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). A temple that should be deeply treasured and immensely cared for.
VOCATION, VULNERABILITY, AND THE VALUE OF TRANSFORMATION
I’ve now been working in the health and fitness industry for over two years. As I meet with more and more people, I’ve started noticing that my job is really just helping bring people to that same conclusion. I currently work in corporate fitness as a Health Fitness Specialist. The best part of my job is getting to be a part of the beginning steps of someone’s life transformation.
Our first meeting together usually starts with them asking for a work out routine that will help them lose weight and without fail about three follow ups into training, they realize their goals require more than just cardio and strength training. By the end of our time together, their program consists of not just exercise, but diet, self care, relaxation and a balance of all the above.
There is something about being a health professional in the exercise and fitness field that allows a unique vulnerability in people. Vulnerability does not come naturally to most, especially in a corporate environment, and it goes against human nature to let someone see our weaknesses. But the more I work with people in this field, the more I find that they actually long to let someone into those insecurities, they just need someone that’s willing to listen.
So often their struggles go so much deeper than their weight loss goals, they have just never been given an opportunity to express that. Creating the environment for them to do that becomes far more valuable than simply handing them a workout routine.
FOLLOW HARD AFTER CHRIST FOR A BETTER CAREER FOCUS
When I started the road to my career it was paved with uncertainty and a longing to mold my path to fit everyone else’s vision: same college for four years, graduate and get your dream job. I think we so often get caught up in desiring the patterns of the world that we forget to include God in our path choice. We become so focused on having the college experience that looks the best on Instagram or choosing a career that is valued highly in society, we actually forget what it truly means to be a follower of Christ.
Being a christian often means taking the road less traveled or picking the career that doesn’t necessarily carry the highest status. As human’s we chase the feeling of contentment, always wanting to feel fulfilled in what we are doing. But we have to remember that the path to true contentment is only found in complete surrender to the Lord’s will. Whether it’s concerning our bodies or our life’s work, the Lord’s path is the only one that leads to the “abundant life” He promised us in John 10:1.
Although my path didn’t turn out anything like I had planned, it led me to a career that allows me to pour out his love to others in such a unique way. That requires complete dependence on Him.
5 WAYS GRADUATES CAN BE LIFE
1. Encourage others to stop separating their spiritual walk with their fitness journey. The two are deeply connected and until we understand that we will never fully reach contentment in either area.
2. Start changing the conversation when it comes to fitness. Shift our critical language to Godly language when it comes to our bodies. The Bible refers to our bodies as several things and not one of them even comes close to the negative adjectives we use to describe ourselves.
3. Start reminding yourself and others that the Lord created your physical body to be able to do amazing things and if we want our body to function the way the Lord intended, we need to fuel it with the right balance of movement, food and rest.
4. Christians are called to “honor God with their bodies” in 1 Corinthians 6:20. That includes celebrating the unique ways He created YOU and using them to further His kingdom.
5. Create communities that are centered around faith based fitness and wellness. We need to hold each other accountable in living a life that is God-centered in ALL areas, not just the most talked about ones. The self confidence you find in fitness that is fueled by Christ has the power to become the most powerful testimony.
Publisher’s Note:
I do Faith & Fitness Magazine’s Redefined Conference every year to support church leaders, business owners, entrepreneurs, club managers and others in the fitness industry to help them make their business and services more faith-centered and thus more effective and results driven for their clients.
There are two big conversations we have. The first is about the importance of hiring employees who are equally competent (perhaps even holding two degrees) in both kinesiology/wellness skills AND ministry skills. When they ask, “Where can I find someone like that?”, I reply – from a Christian university. We then proceed to the second conversation. These growth-minded businesses must be willing to empower these distinctly trained employees to innovate and do faith-centered fitness.
Today many universities throughout America are increasingly non-supportive and even hostile toward conservative values and the Christian faith. That means graduates from these schools are less equipped to understand the faith needs and cultural mindset of many customers that they’ll serve thus impeding business success by delivering a disconnected customer experience.
One big reason why the magazine has a College Fitness department is because I believe Christian universities hold tremendous potential for preparing a new generation of graduates who are skilled and able to do their vocation both technically with excellence and with the ministry impact that customers need AND want. Yet there is much to do among Christian universities to better engineer courses, degree programs, employment and ministry preparedness and student/graduate expectations and vision. There’s a lot of work to be done to catch up with the opportunity before us. That work begins with prayer and real investment in some big changes.
This much I know, the multi-billion dollar fitness business is constantly looking for ways to deliver better results and grow. The industry is open to the expanded role faith can have in the fitness business.
