Painting The Other Side

Have you ever thought about our choice of words - and how we can be so blind about ourselves, even willingly so?

• You are principled.  The other side is ideological.
• You honor tradition.  The other side is stuck in the past.
• You follow the rules.  The other side lacks flexibility.
• You are practical.  The other side lacks vision.
• You are spiritual.  The other side is religious.
• You made a mistake.  The other side sinned. 

This is only a short list.  If I was all into numbers and numerology - I'd add one more to make it seven.  I'm sure I could come up with more.  Let us examine ourselves and eliminate the kind of double-talk which really are just attempts to discredit our opponents and those with whom we disagree.  

That's it for today.  I just felt like getting some thoughts out.

Ham-Nye Creation Debate Thoughts

No, I don't personally want to debate the issue right now - especially on something like Facebook.    Go on a run with me and we'll debate...while you're in oxygen-debt.  LOL. No, seriously, I would first debate more fundamental issues regarding how we know what we know and what the nature of evidence and proof is before debating the Young Earth Creationion vs. Neo-Darwinian Evolution question.  Philosophy matters.  In any event, Christians of good will can and do disagree on Old Earth vs. Young Earth Creation, but the disagreement is particularly vehement and full of caricature, ill-will, and vitriol when it comes to Christians and Secularists debating the very validity of the Young Earth Creation view.  Christian and Secular names and groups are all abuzz about this debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye - so it's somewhat of a big deal.  It touches the popular consciousness and popular culture.  I'm not going to listen real-time tonight...there's no rush.  However, I plan on listening later.  I will predict a few things though:

1. If Ken Ham wins the debate the other side will immediately attribute the win to his debating skill, debating "tricks", and the fact he, in essence, had the "home field advantage."

2. If Bill Nye wins the debate Secularists will be happy and attribute it to the superiority of the conventional Neo-Darwinian view as well as of science unhampered by supernatural presuppositions.

3. If Ken Ham wins the debate, those of the Young Earth Creation view will be happy and attribute it to the superiority of what they consider not only the obvious understanding of the Genesis creation account, but of science unhampered by naturalistic presuppositions.

4. Most people will not have their minds changed.

From what little I've read, it seems that Nye's side is preparing for a debate defeat.  Many of his ideological kindred strongly object to his even taking part in the first place  since they feel it lends validity to the opposing view - Young Earth Creationism.  Sorry, that objection is weak.  If Young Earth Creationism is such a weak and outlandish view, then why fear debate?  If the position is so unassailable then why attempt to make it (Neo-Darwinian Evolution) the winner even if Nye loses.  I weary of excuses like this.  If creationists are such boneheads, and Creationism such an unworthy and silly position, then don't fear discussion and debate.

Because I know some out there will suggest doubting Neo-Darwinian Evolution is like doubting gravity, let me say a few words.  Doubting the Neo-Darwinian Evolutionary model is not akin to doubting gravity.  The evolution we actually observe happening is not the same as the evolution we postulate happened but did not in fact observe.  They're different - so let's not use these types of objections which are used primarily to make the Creationist look silly.

As with all debates, I hope that both sides respect the humanity and dignity of their opponent.  I hope both sides start with the assumption that their opponent comes in good will and wishes only to promulgate and support the truth - whatever it is. This is the same attitude we should have regarding anyone with whom we disagree.  It is especially at attitude that someone called by Christ should have.

Exercise: The Good Alcohol

Please know that I am of sober mind and body as I type this; I am not in a state of exercise-induced intoxication.  Perhaps this may post might be better if I had just been on the rower.  At least I came up with the idea after being on the rower.

Exercise can be like alcohol.  No, this is not drinking a beer for each lap or a beer for each mile.  No, in fact this does not have anything to do with the type of alcohol which can result in a DUI.  It does, however, have much to do with a freeing of the mind and a freeing of the mouth.  In running, it is often referred to as "the runner's high." It has this in common with alcohol:  It is a type of liberation quite refreshing to those of us who are either naturally or by force of habit or by force of will rather self-restrained.  I think I am one of these.

I first learned of the intoxicating effects of exercise while running with the Woodside Striders, a competitive running club.  Running was the vehicle, and running with the Striders gave me a very strong dose of the drug!  It is one thing to do gentle exercise; to do a 20-minute brisk walk or easy jog.  There is no doubt that such exercise is good for the health and good for your general mood.  20 quarters (400 meters) at a hard running pace with only 100-200 meters JOG recovery is another thing altogether!  This is not all.  Imagine the workout began with a 1-mile warmup and will conclude with a 1-mile cooldown.  Imagine that after finishing the 20 quarters, you are informed (surprise!) you will complete 10 x 200 meters at a hard pace (nearly a sprint) with 100 meter JOG recoveries between each...THEN you will have your 1-mile cooldown jog.  Yes, that is a different kind of thing altogether.

The kinds of workouts I referred to in the preceding paragraph illustrate opposite ends of the spectrum.  At one end of the spectrum is the healthy feeling and slight buzz that often occurs as a result of mild and moderate exercise.  At the other end is the relative drunkenness which results from a very hard workout.  It really is intoxicating, and it really does free up the inhibitions.  I was a fairly shy and reserved teen, especially with those of the opposite sex.  Running was my alcohol.  If I wanted to be able to look a girl in the eye and feel confident - or speak to her and not feel uncomfortably self-conscious, a hard workout was my drink.  A race was good too.  These things gave me the confidence to be bold - or at least to THINK boldly...because the opportunity to say and do those things I felt so free to do were often not conveniently there.  Maybe that was a good thing.

As a teen it was about girls and the means to overcome my shyness and lack of confidence.  As an adult it is about much more.  Not every workout should be super-hard, but there needs to be some which are.  It is good for the soul.  It is good as a mirror to discover who you really are and who you really desire to be.  Can you overcome the natural wimpiness and timidity that urges you to stop short of self-realization and victory?  Each unwarranted abandonment of an otherwise good workout is like a surrender to timidity.  Each unwarranted surrender changes you into that person you really don't want to be - the timid and wimpy person who restrains himself not out of a real prudence and good sense, but instead out of shameful pain-avoidance and timidity.  Surely we don't want our self-realization to come that way - with self-defeat.

Rowing on my Concept 2 rowing machine has been a real truth-tester for me.  Do I really have the guts to slave away at sub 2:00/500m for 20 minutes - staring at a tree?  Running and cycling workouts are made easier by the fact that much of the time I am miles away from home; I have to at least get back home to experience creature comforts.  On the rowing machine I am 20 feet from the sliding glass door to the house; 20 feet from food, drink, toys, loving smiles, happy laughter, and all the comforts...well, all the comforts a hobbit (this is for you, Tolkien fans!) could want.  The mind battles itself during these trials.  The stiffer the pace is, the greater the internal struggle.

I'm off topic a little bit, but it's all related.  Enduring the struggle not only makes me progressively more and more the person I want to be, but it probably makes me more and more the person my family wants me to be...and maybe more the person I (in a cosmic sense) SHOULD be.  Aside from the struggle and victory components, there is the very real reward of the mind liberation I referred to earlier.  Problems and issues which felt so hazy, difficult, and unapproachable become surmountable.  If there was something bold and true I should have thought or should have said, this comes to the fore of the mind with crystal-clarity as an unavoidable must-do.  Indeed, the clarity is such that I wonder why I would have every thought otherwise.

Make no mistake, hard exercise is no substitute for God, prayer, or proper theological or other type of study.  I am not advocating some new exercise "religion."  I am convinced though that it (hard exercise) does help with these things.  In past centuries the exercise was much easier to come by; now many of us have to force it - find time for it.  I am convinced that it is indeed worth it.  It is the "good" alcohol.  It releases inhibitions not through muddying-up the mind, but by giving clarity and by both requiring, giving, and promoting a good and right boldness.

The Romans 12:2 Change

"And fashion not yourselves like unto this world, but be ye changed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God is." (Romans 12:2, GNV)

Some thoughts on the passage:

This command for the follower of Christ is so simple - yet very radical at the same time.  It is "simple" in the sense that a renewed mind will automatically think differently than a not-renewed mind...so this should work to guide the actions.  However, it is "radical" in the sense that actions coming from a renewed mind, will necessarily clash and conflict with the thinking and actions of the "world" (i.e. the thinking and actions of those people whose minds are not renewed).  So, to "this world" the thinking and actions of the follower of Christ will be radical and strange.  No, not because of different clothes, hairstyle, or speech pattern. These things may indeed change with the new birth - but in many cases they won't and don't need to.  Instead, "...be ye changed" has to refer to the fact that the true follower of Christ will be characterized by trustworthiness, integrity, and unflinching adherence to truth - even when it would seem to not be in his best interest.  A Christian however must be committed to such changes - and indeed make it a lifestyle - because his Master is the very definition and embodiment of Truth (John 14.6) - and Satan conversely is described as "the father of lies." (John 8:44)

Don't misunderstand me.  Christians are not universally trustworthy, full-of-integrity, and honest.  There is not one of us who is! However, this is what we should strive for (by God's grace) and it is what our lives should be characterized by.  May God grant both me and you the renewed mind and the boldness to be different - to be not conformed to the world.

The Polygamy Question

Recent court cases in Utah as well as the "slippery-slope" argument many Christians make based on current mostly-secular attempts to re-define marriage (e.g. "same-sex" or "gay" marriage) made me think about polygamy.  No, it didn't cause me to consider polygamy for myself...but it caused me to think about the history of the institution and whether it might be employed or accepted again in the church as well as outside of the church.  For the record, I am NOT an advocate of polygamy nor do I believe the Bible approves in it in the same way it does man+woman marriage.  However, I think there are several issues that we need to be aware of - especially Christians who either will lump polygamy in the same Biblical category as same-sex marriage or who will caution that it (polygamy) is just the next step in the slippery slope down from acceptance of same-sex marriage.  Below you will some thoughts of mine, lifted and edited from (as usual) some Facebook comments I made to a post. 

One would expect that the Scripture would have a stronger condemnation against heterosexual polygamy - akin to the indisputable and obvious condemnation (death sentence for example) it offers against homosexual activity.  Since a marriage implies sexual activity, it stands to reason that a homosexual "marriage" would be equally condemned by God even though the Bible itself is silent concerning the prohibition of same-sex/homosexual marriage - but this is because marriage is already defined in Scripture by Jesus in Matthew 19 and Genesis 2 as a union between a man and a woman.  Therefore, the Bible simply does not consider same-sex "marriage" to be marriage, so it doesn't talk about it.  However, even though Scripture defines marriage as a union between TWO of the opposite sex, we often find instances of one man + multiple wives which are not condemned outright.  In fact, often these same men are praised by God - albeit for things other than their plural marriage.  To make a thought comparison, one would not expect a homosexual Jacob or other patriarch, or a homosexual King David (No, don't even try and suggest he and Jonathan had a homosexual relationship) to receive like praise and blessing from God as the Biblical polygamous Jacob and David do.  I believe one could even envision a church or churches, otherwise orthodox, and especially those strongly advocating "patriarchy" (father-rule) becoming either tacitly or boldly accepting of polygamous marriages in the near-future provided that the husbands in such marriages do not seek church office - (since there is explicit Biblical instruction regarding that those seeking and keeping church office be husbands of ONE wife.)

If the Church is faced with polygamous families and men seeking church membership, I think families and men should be welcomed.  Divorcing or "putting away" wives who are probably significantly dependent on the husband's financial provision - not to mention the damage caused by severance of children/mother ties that would necessarily ensue, would be cruel and sinful in God's eyes unless it were a direct command coming from Him. However, those in such marriages should not seek church office and should also be confirmed to acknowledge that the God-given design of marriage is 1 man + + 1 woman.  Traditional, Biblical, Jesus-defined 1 man + 1 woman marriages should continue to be promoted by the Church as God's preferred arrangement.   

What about polygamous marriage and the secular culture?  What about polygamous marriages and theologically liberal churches?  I think the modern mainstream/liberal "Church" will be loathe to accept polygamy even though they are quick to accept and embrace homosexuality and same-sex "marriage." In other words, though acceptance may be a logical slippery slope, the logical slippery slope would not necessarily result in acceptance. Why? Homosexuality and same-sex marriage is acceptable to the secular culture of the West - and the churches who follow the "world" rather than the WORD (or who follow the WORD only when it agrees with the "world") object to polygamy not because it doesn't conform to Scripture's definition of marriage, but because they believe it subordinates women. In other words, it goes completely against the Feminist agenda and would move womens' rights (as they see it) backward more than Biblical man-woman marriage.  Therefore, polygamy and polygamous marriage would be abhorrent to them.  For them (these churches) polygamy would always be extreme and unacceptable; homosexuality and same-sex marriage loving and acceptable.

Here's another thought: Even though the The LDS "Church" is known historically for its past practice of polygamy, the LDS church (now) actually has better grounds to militate against polygamy than traditional Bible-believing Christians - especially Sola Scriptura Reformation-minded Protestant Christians. Why? They (Mormons) don't have a closed canon. They always have a living "apostle" to steer the ship - doctrinally and otherwise. So, when their then-living prophet said that polygamy was to be no more, they were internally consistent when they subsequently abandoned it and forbade it.  The Roman Catholic Church also will have an easier time being internally consistent regarding prohibition of polygamy; they have the Magisterium and the pope.  Biblical Protestant Christians on the other hand don't have that handy "thus saith the Lord" type of condemnation ready to issue.  It will be interesting to see history unfold.  For as for me and my house, we're staying non-polygamous!  

A Father's Prayer For Race-Day Success

Friends,

I thought I'd compose a prayer for the running and race-day success of both myself and that of my two children (Brenna and Liam) who will be running in the Modesto Turkey Trot this Thanksgiving.  Feel free to modify it for your own situation if you like it.  The only thing I ask is that it be sincere.  I am convinced that our Lord is not pleased by empty prayers and numb rote recitations.  It is my hope that this prayer if of help to you in some way.

Here it is - in blue:

Father, you are Infinite, Eternal, and Unchangeable.  You are All-Wise, All-Powerful, and Holy, Holy, Holy.  Your Justice is Perfect and You are All-Good.  You are Truth Itself, and there is no shadow of turning in You.  You hate a lying tongue and you hate a lie.  You are good to Your children.  You are good to these same children who have often made idols of things which do not last - and of themselves.  You are Gracious, Forgiving, and You dwell in the Light.  You, Three Persons in One Godhead - Father, Son, Holy Spirit, are Light and Life itself.  You are King of the Universe and Lord of everything in it.  You are a Mighty Warrior and a Gentle Shepherd.  Praise be to Your Name! 

I have sinned.  My children have sinned.  We have made idols of those things which cannot save.  We have made idols of ourselves, our accomplishments, and those things we hope to accomplish.  I have been guilty of claiming the name of a disciple of Christ, yet have sought my own glory.  I have thought heady thoughts, and embraced the allure and false beauty and false virtue of the Renaissance spirit. I have took hold of the Humanistic lie "homo mensura" instead of accepting my own creatureliness - and Your Lordship over me as the Potter over the clay. Though I have wanted to serve you and have endeavored to run for Your Glory, my pious thoughts and intentions have been mixed with pride and self-interested ambition - seeking my own glory and relishing the defeat of others.  I have sinfully been energized by the desire to be dominant for the sake of dominance.  I have sinfully made sacrifices - but sacrifices for the wrong reasons - sacrifices for my own glory and success rather than for Your Glory.  I have been spiritually lazy.  Father, you know my thoughts.  There is much more.  My best thoughts and efforts are still tainted with sin.

But I trust in You.  You have been Faithful.  You have given this vain man success and happiness he does not deserve.  You have given this undeserving man the ability to withstand pain.  You have given me the gift of endurance, stamina, and the ability to find a strange kind of joy in physical exertion, suffering, and fatigue.  You have given me patience and perseverance.  You have even given me a measure of wisdom and know-how in regards to the discipline of running.  You have given me general good health. You have, at times, given me victory over my competitors and over my own self-doubt.  By Your Providence, You gave me a dad who cared enough to cultivate my latent and undiscovered gifts when I was a shy, physically lazy,  non-athletic kid.  You gave him patience with me - and you provided an outlet and opportunity for strengthening our relationship through running.  Through this outlet, you also showed me that though I may lack ball-handling skills, some social skills, and lack general sports know-how - I can suffer like no one's business.  I can endure - and many times gain the victory over those who have more natural speed and talent.  You have blessed my wife and me with children as well.  You have blessed me with children who trust in you as I do.  They even seem to have these same gifts - and seemingly without much of the sin baggage that my gifts are accompanied with - though I know they still have sin baggage too. Thank you for their love for You and their love for me.  Thank you for their patient character, their energy, their love of movement, and their desire to do a good job.  Thank you for their love of running and how this unites us even closer together.

Father, may it be that You would cause us to use our gifts to Your Glory!  Cause us to understand that we would be nothing without You and any perceived greatness we had, have, or will have is only through Your Power!  Cause us to run well and to run swiftly!  Cause us to endure physical pain and suffering!  If we feel like quitting - or the voice inside our heads tells us to "take it easy" when we start to feel the burning in the legs and in the lungs, shut that voice down!  Give us the victory over our nagging spirit of laziness and half-hearted efforts!  May it please You to work through us - as examples of perseverance, strength, swiftness, and grace!  May Brenna more fully discover and experience her God-given gifts!  May you give her the victory over doubt and fear! May Liam discover his unique gifts as well as taste the warrior spirit you give to your sons!  May they both praise Your Name in victory as well as in defeat!  Give us the heart and compassion to value others' efforts and seek their good as well as our own!  Lord, help us balance the desires that so often seem at odds with one another!  I pray that though we may not win this race or other races - that we would have a victory over all slothfulness, faithlessness, and those things which would cause us to falter and not to do our very best!  Give us the victory over self-pride!  May we dedicate our running efforts to You - and that we would run our races as living sacrifices of praise to You our Lord and our God!  

Changing Focus: Fitness to Health

I've been so negligent when it comes to keeping up this blog that it's laughable.  I hope to have composed something of worth. This unplanned trip into blog-composing mode owes itself to recent ruminations on my not-so-invincible body, the persistence of aging, and considerations into the things that actually matter - and what I should and shouldn't spend my time doing.

Note: Even for this "Grammar Nazi"(Yours Truly) I'm not even going to worry about proper paragraph division.  I might have a big lump of several subjects smooshed together in one big blob of words or I may hyper-fracture something that should be just one paragraph.  I'm not going to worry about it - and that's it.  I may overuse the dash and/or the hyphen and it doesn't matter much to me.  I'm going to go "stream of consciousness" as much as I can.

Sometimes I feel great.  I feel like a very fit 37-year-old.  I feel boastful.  I sometimes boast to my patient and tolerant wife about my abdominal definition and other things that really should be left to adolescent males to boast about.  I'm glad I have such a patient and tolerant wife.  Those on the outside still see my humble side - I hope.  It's really the better side.

I've changed focus from fitness to health over the last several years.  Sometimes the health mistakes I made in my 20's and early 30's are enough to trigger a little depression...but I attempt to quickly squelch that.  After all, you can't change the past.  In my 20's didn't take sleep seriously.  I swallowed hook line and sinker the sentiment that sleep is for the weak - and that the strong can adapt.  It's really fits well with a USMC-type mentality.  Yes, I spent time in the USMC (Reserve) where I was further indoctrinated with this idea.  Adaptation only goes so far - and no further.  Five hours or less of sleep per day was pretty much the norm for me.  If I heard of someone who thrived on 3 hours per night I would think I could do it too.  I was even consistently advised by my dad that I needed to get more sleep.  I ignored it because of my conviction that I was different - others may, but certainly not me.  Ignored were the signs of falling asleep on the couch while reading to the kids, falling asleep for a split-second while drinking coffee - and then spilling it on myself, and needing to do "stay awake" tricks while driving.

What did I spend that extra time doing in which I could have been sleeping?  Well, for several years I worked two jobs - and really couldn't afford to sleep much...but at other times I could.  Believe it or not, I had (and still have to some degree) an insecurity about my perceived knowledge and intelligence.  Well, I also have a genuine thirst for knowledge.  One (the first) is something not to be proud of - It's a fault.  The other is a laudable thing - It's good.  However, sacrificing needed sleep to get more time reading Tolkien, or a "classic" that every "educated" person should be conversant with, or studying my Latin just may mean that the time I spend doing those things may be nearly wasted.  Have you ever noticed that you don't retain information as well when you're tired?  This leads to more self-imposed fatigued studying, more frustration, and little gain - except you can boast you read this or you read that.  Oh, you can also boast you only sleep x number of hours per day.  It would have been worth it if it were spent saving lives or doing something else which made a definite contribution to the well being of others - but  it wasn't.  For me much of it was for prideful vanity.  This is not a good reason.

Is it a good time for a new paragraph?  Ok.  Let's have at it!  Diet.  In my 20's and early 30's I ate a great deal of saturated fat, sugar, and calories.  The calories I may have needed - but the other stuff I could have done without.  My focus then was on fitness.  If I had abdominal definition and could run a 5-minute mile (or sub 5-minute mile) I was golden.  I didn't have to worry about globs of cheese, HUGE desserts, and a paucity of fresh fruits and vegetables.  I was invincible.  I was different.  Well, that's what I would tell myself!  Wow.  My focus in my mid and late 30's is much different - health first, fitness 2nd.  I wish I could go back in time - but I can't.  A fit body can be an unhealthy body, and in the end, the lack of true health may be the total undoing of the fit body.  I limit my desserts and limit my saturated fat now.  Blood sugar level, blood pressure, cholesterol level, and other things I used to not even think about because I could do well in races - yes, these things matter.

The utter insanity of being a personal trainer and fitness instructor while living with the delusion of health invincibility.  I know, it's not a complete sentence.  You know what I mean.  Probably the funnest time I had while making good money was when I was teaching bootcamp-style exercise classes and holding some personal training sessions.  I'm sure there are some young trainers/instructors out there who had and have the same problem as I did...they thought the rules didn't apply to them!  Hey, I thought the rules didn't apply to me in regards to health...just read my previous paragraphs!  Some participants would speak wisdom to me concerning sleep or diet and I wouldn't really take it to heart because I thought I was different - better.  I know now that adaptation only goes so far.  It's not normal to fall asleep at the drop of a hat or to catch every cold that goes around.  The type of pride that makes one muscle through things like that without thought of lifestyle changes is a stupid kind of pride.  I would be a much better and more well-rounded fitness instructor now than I was back then - and also much more empathetic.

Dental health.  I didn't take it seriously comparatively recently.  This was a mistake.  With age and experience as the Teacher, I'm trying to make up for lost time and rectify past mistakes.  However, it's easier to keep good health in this area if you take it seriously from the very beginning.  Probably one of the most stupid things I did was back in my teens when I would eat alot of dried fruit (in the interest of health) but ignored how the dried fruit, most of the time raisins, would stick to my teeth.  Stupid.  I might as well have been eating actual candy - and I would have at least enjoyed it more.  Lack of flossing was another thing I wish I could go back in time and correct.

Currently, with my focus on health, I pay more attention to sleep, eat healthfully, and take meticulous care of my teeth and gums.  I'm more alert and get fewer colds.  I try and take the wide-angle-lens approach and recognize that what's done is done - I cannot go back in time and correct the past.  I really don't know the extent of the damage I've done.  The good news is that I never smoked or did drugs.  I've also never been drunk - though I still enjoy a few beers a week.  Still, it's amazing the amount of damage that can be done even if the usual health culprits are avoided!  The best way to take things now is to focus on the present and the future - because the past cannot be changed.   I'm enjoying my alertness and lack of colds.  I view keeping my teeth and my own oral health a challenge - and it's best to make it into a "challenge" rather than a self-pity party.

Nagging clicks and very minor pains of the body and joints.  Could these have been prevented? Maybe.  No sense worrying about the past.  For the present, I don't make mega mileage and "MUST do-it" a god when it comes to workout schedule.  Sure, I'm driven - but I'm acknowledging that I'm not invincible...and I may never run high-mileage weeks again.  It's much better to have a balance - and to be healthy.

Cold weather.  It turns out I suffer from a condition in which blood flow is markedly limited to the extremities during cold weather or extreme stress - and fingers and toes become colder than they would for the average person.  It might be hereditary - as there are two family members I know who suffer from the same thing.  When I finally realized that my extremities really did become colder than most around me, it solved the puzzle as to why I had difficulty tying my boots and shoes during cold weather times during military training.  It solved the puzzle as to why I had problems with normal operation and usage of my service rifle during military training and my 9mm gun in police academy when the weather got colder.  It wasn't because I was lazy or stupid...it was because my hands were colder and number than than those peoples' hands around me.  There will be no moving to North Dakota for us, thank you very much!

The acknowledgment of real health issues reset my focus from fitness to health.  Health is primary, fitness is secondary.  What's more, it is not just for me.  It is for my family.  It doesn't solve the whole problem though.  Even in the best conditions, I will grow old and eventually die.  This prompts increased recognition of the importance of peace with God.  This is the culmination and necessary component of true health. I've had a faith in Jesus Christ for as long as I can remember, but in the face of inevitable physical decline and eventual bodily death, Jesus really is ultimately my only hope.  It brings me peace to think about this.  Really, more people need to think about the inevitability of death in this world.  I still suffer from pride and fitness-pride.  I'm working on it.  In the end, Jesus is my only hope for not only an indestructible resurrected body - but much more importantly he is my only hope for peace with God the Father.  He is not only my only hope, but he is the only hope of anyone. The whole lesson - that of the salvation of physical health as well as ultimate salvation (which is ultimately more important) is one I hope to live by and one I hope to teach my children and anyone who will listen.  By the way, this is not some smug Sunday-School lesson...this is what I'm really convinced of and am endeavoring by God's grace to do.