I’m not making this up. Got a tweet today, from Under Armour saying “We have a new sports bra just for you!” C’mon man! I’m a little overweight. OK, more than a little overweight. But I don’t need no stinkin sports bra!

But it does remind me of some verses. One is from I Timothy 4:8 “For bodily exercise profits little: but godliness is profitable unto all things….” OK, that reinforces my sedentary lifestyle. Let’s try again: I Corinthians 6:19—“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you…?” The point evidently is that God made our bodies. We must certainly not engage in immorality, but rather seek to glorify God in our bodies.

Most of us pastors SIT. We sit, and work at a desk. On a computer. Books open. Sermons written. We counsel folks. Oh, we do go out. I visit folks in hospital rooms or rest homes. If I am in a home, I invariably get offered something to eat, maybe sugary to drink. What we don’t do very often is physical labor.

With our church staff shifting somewhat—I got assigned “Physical Plant Overseer”. Anything goes wrong with any of our structures—the buck stops on my desk. We have a seven acre campus with an aging infrastructure. And that includes fences that separate us from neighbors. One lady’s fence was about to go down, with a storm coming in. We in essence own half the fence—the part we have to fix. So I am out in the back 40, finding a hammer, nails, a board. Several nails later, several slivers later (in my hand) the job is done. I’ve exerted some calories. I feel good that some task was brought at least to a temporary conclusion.

My point is: we need to exercise more! We need to keep these “Temples” in better shape! I now have a “coach” through my health insurance. I have to share goals during our next phone conference. I have two: to do some cardio exercise three times a week, and to start keeping the “points plus” program at Weight Watchers. I pay for WW now—just don’t go to meetings, and up to now, didn’t really track. Exercise? Oh yeah, I also pay an annual fee to belong to a gym—I just haven’t been there much.

I’ve gotta do better. How about you?

Tom,