Fit Bodies, Fat Minds
It's that time of year.
I'm not stepping on the scale because I know I'm 15 lbs over the 30 lbs that I'm normally over. It's that time of year when we all begin thinking of our health and getting into shape and feeling great. I love it! I normally add a little dose of guilt to every day after New Year's that I don't exercise. By February, if I haven't started exercising, I'll be in a bad mood. You'll see.
So it's strangely wonderful to be reading the Bible through right now. I don't have the time to exercise and I don't feel like I have the time to read, but I continue plugging along. Right now I stand at 2 1/2 days behind schedule. Several of you are even further back. But don't fret! This is a personal paced read-through and some people are only now joining us. They won't be trying to catch up. They're just planning on finishing a little later. No matter where you are in the reading, keep reading. We are around 1/6 of the way through! That's really pretty far. I don't know about you, but it seems like the reading is getting easier. And I'm getting more excited about it every day. The reading has ceased to be drudgery and it now feels really good and I'm very interested in what I'm learning. God just seems to keep laying it on me. The reading and work have left me very little time to write, but I'm marking up my text and I'm having a good time while I'm gaining a new perspective. God is good, all the time.
So about my body. I'm going to try to exercise a bit. I like to run when the weather is warm. I think right now I'm going to stick with sit-ups and some walking on the treadmill.
Also, I'm thinking about a few days of fasting here and there. Not to lose weight, but to pray. I feel like the reading is helping me to grow and I'd like to take advantage of that opportunity to come closer to God and really listen to what He has to say. If you get a chance to add a fasting day or two to your schedule, I think it will make a big difference.
Os Guinness wrote a book a few years ago called Fit Bodies, Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don't Think and What to Do About It. Guinness talks about the dumbing down of our culture and he makes a great case for the need for intellectual Christians, those who aren't afraid to think. Let me read you a portion of his text.
"The first step in reformation is repentance. We evangelicals need to confess individually and collectively that we have betrayed the Great Commandment to love God with our minds...God has given us minds, but many of us left them underdeveloped or undeveloped. God has given us education, beyond that of most people in human history, but we have used it for other ends. God has given us great exemplars of thinking in Christian history, but we have ignored them or admired them for other virtues. God has given us opportunities, but we have failed to grasp them because we have refused to think them through before him."
As you make your New Year's resolutions, if you do, don't forget the exercise of the mind. You're doing the right thing by reading God's Word. But don't just read it. Think about it.
I'm not stepping on the scale because I know I'm 15 lbs over the 30 lbs that I'm normally over. It's that time of year when we all begin thinking of our health and getting into shape and feeling great. I love it! I normally add a little dose of guilt to every day after New Year's that I don't exercise. By February, if I haven't started exercising, I'll be in a bad mood. You'll see.
So it's strangely wonderful to be reading the Bible through right now. I don't have the time to exercise and I don't feel like I have the time to read, but I continue plugging along. Right now I stand at 2 1/2 days behind schedule. Several of you are even further back. But don't fret! This is a personal paced read-through and some people are only now joining us. They won't be trying to catch up. They're just planning on finishing a little later. No matter where you are in the reading, keep reading. We are around 1/6 of the way through! That's really pretty far. I don't know about you, but it seems like the reading is getting easier. And I'm getting more excited about it every day. The reading has ceased to be drudgery and it now feels really good and I'm very interested in what I'm learning. God just seems to keep laying it on me. The reading and work have left me very little time to write, but I'm marking up my text and I'm having a good time while I'm gaining a new perspective. God is good, all the time.
So about my body. I'm going to try to exercise a bit. I like to run when the weather is warm. I think right now I'm going to stick with sit-ups and some walking on the treadmill.
Also, I'm thinking about a few days of fasting here and there. Not to lose weight, but to pray. I feel like the reading is helping me to grow and I'd like to take advantage of that opportunity to come closer to God and really listen to what He has to say. If you get a chance to add a fasting day or two to your schedule, I think it will make a big difference.
Os Guinness wrote a book a few years ago called Fit Bodies, Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don't Think and What to Do About It. Guinness talks about the dumbing down of our culture and he makes a great case for the need for intellectual Christians, those who aren't afraid to think. Let me read you a portion of his text.
"The first step in reformation is repentance. We evangelicals need to confess individually and collectively that we have betrayed the Great Commandment to love God with our minds...God has given us minds, but many of us left them underdeveloped or undeveloped. God has given us education, beyond that of most people in human history, but we have used it for other ends. God has given us great exemplars of thinking in Christian history, but we have ignored them or admired them for other virtues. God has given us opportunities, but we have failed to grasp them because we have refused to think them through before him."
As you make your New Year's resolutions, if you do, don't forget the exercise of the mind. You're doing the right thing by reading God's Word. But don't just read it. Think about it.
posted by 1daymore at
10:06 PM
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