Our Spiritual Software & Hardware

Bill Brown ..Xiamen University
"For physical exercise is of some value, but godliness has value for all things..."1 Timothy 4:8 4:8 "操练身体，益处还少。惟独敬虔，凡事都有益处..." 提摩太前书4:8

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" 1 Corinthians 3:16 "岂不知你们是神的殿，神的灵住在你们里头麽。" 歌林多前书3:16

I just returned from my morning spiritual exercise. It was not a Jesuit "Spiritual Exercise" but an hour walking the beautiful Xiamen Boardwalk with my best friend, Susan Marie. This is a daily ritual that does wonders not only in keeping body and soul together but also husband and wife!

Why Walk? Paul said that exercise was only of "some" value because in his day people did not live sedentary lives. Only athletes training for competition needed to push their bodies further than the demands of the day. But today, most of us engage in little physical activity, and it shows not only in our physical health but our spiritual as well, because the two are usually related.

We cannot compartmentalize spiritual and secular activities (being holy on Sunday and a holy terror Monday through Saturday). In the same way, we cannot nourish our spirit while ignoring our physical well-being, which influences our emotional and psychological outlook, which in turn can affect our spiritual walk. This is inevitable because our Father created us as spiritual beings but for now has encased our spiritual software within the hardware of a physical body, and he expects us to care for both.

Heavenly Bodies Many people cling to Paul's "exercise profits little" comment as an excuse to neglect their bodies, but Paul also asked us, "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" 1 Corinthians 3:16 "岂不知你们是神的殿，神的灵住在你们里头麽。" 歌林多前书3:16 If our body is ineed God's temple, then we had best be good caretakers of it, because in this life we only get one. And the best way to keep the body is to use the body.

Use it or Lose it. Scientists have shown that one of the greatest aids to combating cancer, heart disease, obesity, depression--just about everything!--is exercise. And it doesn't mean we have to join the Xiamen International Marathon! A simple daily walk will work wonders in keeping body and soul together--and keeping them functioning as our Father intended. But in today's world, it is so easy to give our physical temple the short end of the deal.

The Vicious Cycle I can easily spend ten hours a day in the classroom or at the keyboard and exercise only my mouth and my fingertips. But when I don't take time to exercise each day, I tire easily, lose energy and enthusiasm, and cannot sleep well. The lack of sleep only worsens the vicious cycle, and before long my teaching, writing, and relationships with my loved ones, and even my Father, are affected. The solution for me is a morning walk with my wife. And after enjoying the Xiamen Boardwalk's brisk sea air and scenery, or the trails or our home in Reedley, California, I can be much more confident that I will hit the day, rather than have the day hit me.

The Daily Road to Emmaeus. Today, go for a walk--but let it do double duty. Don't just look at the scenery. Look within, and listen, and let that daily walk become a daily road to Emmaeus, nourishing the soul even as it restores the body.

In closing, some of the greatest people in history were productive even well into retirement because they disciplined themselves to begin each day with a healing and restorative walk, followed by a time of quiet reflection and prayer. They also took mental breaks through the day. During the horrible height of World War II, Churchill still took time off in the afternoon to paint in his garden--and I know of a Chinese billionaire in Hong Kong that does the same,
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