I understood that my physical realization the day before had a spiritual corollary: The wall is not the wall. Grace means that at the end of my patience, God gives more patience. Whether pushing through the pain of a workout or the impatience that comes with parenting a toddler, the reality is that good things happen on the other side of surrendering myself.
This was the first time I saw that exercise could be something that might train the soul, not just the body. Ever since, I have been obsessed with exercise as a spiritual gymnasium where the body teaches the soul.
Anti-Fragility and the Way of Jesus
If someone told you to take a pill that would make your heart race, your muscles hurt, and your whole body sweat, you would almost certainly think it unhealthy. But if anyone could invent a pill to give us all that exercise does, it would instantly be the most successful drug on the market. This is because our bodies are anti-fragile. The right stress is exactly what we need to become healthy. In a physical sense, the way down is the way up.
Philippians 2 tells us a similar thing about the spiritual life of following Christ. Paul writes that Christ “made himself nothing,” humbling himself and taking the path of the cross, for which God “exalted him” and “gave him the name that is above every name.” In other words, in the Christian life as well, the way down is the way up.
My claim is not just that there is a spiritual reality being born out in our physical bodies (though that is worth dwelling on, because God made us on purpose, after all). The bigger point is that in the whole of life, we learn with more than just our heads.
The Body-Soul Connection
Of course, exercise has multiple benefits including more energy and better sleep patterns, two things that can be quite difficult for those in full-time ministry to achieve. This is because exercise is what psychologists call a “keystone habit,” one change that triggers a lot of other changes in discipline, productivity and healthy eating. Exercise is the flywheel of life that needs a big initial push, but then powers everything else.
That said, I think the most significant aspect is that in regular exercise, we train ourselves in the embodied truths of sanctification. While we are familiar with the claim that God uses suffering in our life to sanctify us and make us more humble, holy and loving, usually we limit that suffering to big events like cancer or deaths in the family. But the reality is that it is the day-to-day dying to ourselves where we actually live out lives of love for others.
A life of regular exercise is one way we train our bodies and minds in the routine of humility. In a mind familiar with anti-fragility, we start to expect hard physical things to make us stronger and, likewise, hard moments with children, marriages, community and colleagues to make us holier.
The reality is that most of us think about exercise mostly in terms of body image, but the reality is that regular exercise can train us in body as an image bearer of God. We become more concerned with lives that are full of love for others as we lay down our lives in small and daily ways.
Get Started.
First, I suggest that you look for some rhythm that is both possible and difficult. Possible, because if you’ve not been exercising, then all that might be possible right now is a walk a few times a week. (It bears noting that walking is correlated with longevity, so that’s a perfectly good place to start and stay if that’s what works.) But it also should be difficult, because it is supposed to challenge you.
