Excerpt from the book Enlivened by Faith:Losing Weight with God's Help
If you flip through the pages of the dictionary and look up the word, “fitness", you might be surprised at what you discover. Webster’s defines it as, “the quality or state of being fit,” and it is listed as a synonym for health. Health is the synonym for fitness; they mean the same thing. “Arian, why are you pointing this out?” You might ask.
It seems that we associate fitness with being skinny and looking a certain way. Being fit for many of us means being smaller or having bigger muscles. This is not what fitness is at all. Being fit means that your body is in good condition; it refers to the total condition and state of your body.
I recently joined a new gym and was given a fitness assessment by one of the trainers there. He asked me what my goals were. “I really just want to be healthy,” I said. He was taken aback by my comment. “Most people want to lose ten pounds or get leaner,” he replied. I simply wanted to be healthy and fit and that’s rare. I’ve been on both sides of the coin, the one who wanted just to be smaller, and then the one that wanted more muscles and a leaner body. I was the one who went from not living healthy at all to working out every day, twice a day. With that experience I’ve learned that the bottom line of it all is just to be healthy and that is fitness.
Your reason for living a healthy lifestyle should not be simply to look a certain way. Being fit means that your body is in good condition.
As simple as this may seem, it’s pretty profound in our society where people are working out every day with no motivation other than to be the size they were in high school or to look like some model that they saw in a magazine. I’m in no way saying that you should not have goals. We all should have goals and strive to be better in every area of our lives. What I am saying is that your reason for living a healthy lifestyle should not be simply to look a certain way.
When this is your only motivation you can become vulnerable to trying just about anything to reach that goal. Whether it’s limiting your caloric intake to 1100 calories per day, exercising like crazy or taking oodles of supplements, none of these activities promotes good health. They promote the external benefits of good health, so while you may look good on the outside, your body is suffering internally. I mean, what’s the point in spending money and wasting time on living healthy when in the end you still become sick from not taking care of your whole self?
Living in a healthy way with an external focus is what I like to call, “fleeting fitness,” because it’s a false form of fitness that will only last a certain amount of time. Fitness with a worldly focus will not benefit any human being for total life health. 2 Corinthians 4:18 KJV says, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” The things that we can see, the worldly things that we too often cherish above the heavenly pursuits, are not of importance. 1 John 2:17 NLT says, “And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”
The craving and desire to be of a certain physique, and the practice of accomplishing that goal is temporary, it won’t last. Focusing so much on the external elements is not the total idea of fitness. In its entirety it includes the physical; internal and external, and spiritual man. 1 Timothy 4:8 says, “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.” This scripture helps us to understand that while exercising is important, the most important thing is for us to live lives that are godly and that glorify God.
The Message Bible version of this scripture makes it even clearer saying, “Exercise daily in God— no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever.”
Conversation Starters
What does the undeniable truth of fitness mean to you?
How can you incorporate the ideals mentioned in the article into your life?
More Resources
Measuring Your Spiritual Fitness
Functional Assessment – Know Your Weakness
