| If swimming laps or doing Pilates won't substitute for regular study, prayer, and spiritual devotions, but taking off the shackles of laziness, overeating, and the physical debilitation brought about by ignoring our physical fitness can set our souls on a course of pursuing God with a renewed vigor, earnestness, and delight.
Christianity Today columnist Carolyn Arends writes of feeling convicted about "spiritualizing" her inclination toward avoiding physical fitness by focusing on "soul things" instead of "body things." A wake-up call provided by her parents' bout with ill health led to a significant life change, after which Carolyn concludes the following:
Jesus called us to love God with our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. Just as his words disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed, they call the overactive to stillness and activate the overly still. They restore the soul to those who overemphasize the body, and redeem the body for those who focus only on the soul... For your own health and vitality, your own spirituality, your own family, and your own personal satisfaction — will you consider [the idea of 'faithful fitness']? Not as a diet. Not as a fad. But as a life change, birthed as a spiritual exercise, a part of your worship, a new way of surrendering to God's presence in your life...
I pointed out to [my son] once how, though exercise and staying in shape require a lot of work and even regular pain, not being in shape requires its own pains and labors. If I'm going to hurt in this fallen world — and everyone of us will — I'd rather hurt and be sore getting in shape than hurt and be sore because my body isn't fit.
By God's design, we are a people with souls who desperately yearn for intimacy with God — people whose souls reside in bodies that can hinder or help this pursuit. Which will it be? | 
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