90 and Sunny

So a perfect day for a run.  Ran down to Hamel and back.  Didn't bring any music to listen to, so I just thought about what I was doing.  Todd Wilken once said to me:  "the old adam hates cardio."  I laughed because it was so perfectly true.  My body, if I listened to it, wouldn't want me to push off the couch or away from the table.  It would gladly eat too much, sleep too much, and in general laze around.  No, our bodies are NOT evil, but they are broken, damaged by the Fall.  They tend downward, if you will.

St. Paul speaks of how he disciplines his body to keep it under control.  The body isn't for pampering.  Save that for your soul and spirit - pamper them with the goodness of God's holy Word and the joy and privilege of prayer - especially praying the Psalms.  But your body, it is for training.  It for making obey.  The weird thing is that even though your body doesn't LIKE the training and never will, it obviously responds by showing you that it appreciates the training.  Just like with little ones - how they long for discipline, though they'd never really think so.  But you can see how happy and content they are when they have it!  Yeah, when I don't stuff myself and when I finish up the exercise, it's not too long before the body is giving me feedback:  "I'm feeling pretty good right now."

My old Adam is never going to jump for joy when it's time to push back from the table, not go get another drink, or head out for a run.  But that's okay.  My old Adam doesn't need to like it; that old boy just needs to do it.  And you know what?  In the end, it's fun to make him a bit of slave.  "Ha!  You did what you were told after all.  And you didn't die.  So quit the griping and rest a bit."