Olympic Spirit

Olympic Spirit I am no sportsman! I am the original couch potato! However, I love watching the Olympics - the range of sports we seldom see on the media and the spectacle of women and men at the peak of their fitness. They challenge me on my spiritual fitness. Paul was not slow to make the connection between spirituality and sport. Greek civilisation was famous for its sporting games, but Paul wanted people to apply their sporting disciplines to their spiritual lives. Train yourself to be godly. 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. (1 Timothy 4:7,8 - NIV) 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. (1 Timothy 4: 7,8 - The Message) What is your daily regime for keeping spiritually fit? Do we consider our weekly worship as our visit to the gym - a time for a weekly workout? The Olympic athletes will have devoted thousands of hours of physical discipline in order to compete in the London Games. That may inspire us - but it is obviously out of our league! Let’s be a bit more modest and practical. In recent research we were told that lack of physical exercise can damage our health as much as smoking or obesity. Lack of exercise can contribute to heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer of breast and bowel. The researchers recommended two and a half hours exercise per week. Translate that into spiritual terms. Do we give two and half hours per week to our spiritual fitness - to train ourselves in godliness, to exercise in God daily? Think about it. That is less than half an hour per day. A number of years ago RT Kendall was speaking at CLAN gathering in St Andrews to a group of Christian leaders. He suggested that the one thing that would change our ministries was to take one hour per day in prayer. I took up that challenge, but wondered how to do it. Then I found a simple liturgy that I have used over the years as a shape - a simple pattern of prayer and Scripture and some music. Sunday worship usually follows a simple pattern: praise coming honestly into God’s presence listening for God’s word responding in dedication and intercession praise. Imagine that as your spiritual fitness regime for the week. Take 20-30 minutes each day and follow that same pattern: put on some music that lifts your heart or quietens your mind use a simply prayer of approach - saying the Lord’s prayer slowly or reading one of your favourite Psalms or settle into silence read a part of the Gospels - with the help of Bible Reading notes, or perhaps writing your own in a wee journal or notebook pray for others - and make some commitment to making a difference in God’s world today, perhaps some simple act of kindness listen to some music again as you prepare to face the day. Sunday worship is offers us a workout regime to carry into the week. Give it a go. Sanctuary First offers you a rhythm of prayers and readings to help you with your spiritual fitness. Over the coming month we will pick up on the Olympic theme - taking a workout with some spiritual disciplines, looking at the metaphor of faith as a race, remembering that we are part of a great relay race as we pass the baton of faith on from generation to generation, and asking what it means to finish the race of life well. Enjoy the Olympics and let them inspire you to: “Exercise daily in God. No spiritual flabbiness, please!”