A Gem from the Gym

February 7th, 2009 |

This week’s “nook thought” comes as a result of spending some time at a fitness center that Kathy and I joined several months ago. I am happy to announce that we are sticking with it and it’s become part of our routine. However, my thought today is not what you might think. You would think that I might remind you that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and that you should take care of it. You are and you should. You might think that I would tell you that both physical fitness and spiritual fitness require commitment. They do, but that is not my thought for today. You might think I would remind you of the cliché “no pain, no gain”. I could point out that taking care of your self requires effort. It does. I might remind you that there are mornings I want to roll over and forget the whole thing. There are, but that is not my point here. Today our spiritual lesson is derived from how clean the fitness center is. A lot of folks move through there each day but the place stays in mint condition. Why? The staff is constantly working on it. They wipe down machines after each use, sweep up debris, seemingly, as it falls, and just generally keep the place from becoming cluttered. This is all done without any big fanfare. It seems to be just part of what they do everyday. Although everyone who works there is a trainer, they also serve as custodians. They don’t advertise how clean the place is, but the place being clean is advertisement enough. Think about it. It is easier to keep a place clean than to clean up a place. How you keep your house is your business. How you keep His house is a whole different matter.

“Don’t you know that you yourself are God’s temple and that God’s spirit lives in you?”

I Corinthians 3:16