My wife and I used to own a CrossFit affiliate. We’re still pretty fit (even though I’m pushing 50) but we’ve both been into fitness for a long time. Anyways, one of the things I’ve learned over the years is that nutrition is critical for us to achieve the fitness goals we set for ourselves. Fitness is critical for us to live healthy lives. I think we’ve all seen this during this “pandemic.” The number one comorbidity that, combined with Covid-19, caused death was obesity. As we used to say to our clients all the time, “You can’t out-train your fork.”
Garbage in, garbage out. When I first began to get serious about my faith, I spent a lot of time reading the Bible. Duh, right? If you’re going to learn something, you have to go to the source. At the time, what I did not know was that there were other sources. Now, lest you think me a heretic, I’m talking about the Church and her Tradition. What I learned (it wasn’t said out loud but the practice of it taught me this) in seminary and just after was that knowledge was the key. The more Bible you had memorized or the more you understood the better. There was very little, at least in my experience, of a notion of living the “right way.” Not that the people who called themselves Christians all lived like pagans but… Not that it was never talked about, but a lot of Protestants shy away from talking about how we live because they don’t want you to think they’re talking about “works based righteousness.” The focus was almost exclusively on what you believed, not on what you do. As the years have gone by, I have become increasingly disenchanted with a notion of Christianity that is almost exclusively focused on knowledge rather than a faithful life. I look at the earliest Christians and see a group of mostly simple people who believed, and that belief then led them to live in a certain way. In other words, their faith and their lives were mutually part of one another. Faith and “works” were not separated. As I have progressed over the years, I have become less interested in theology and more interested in a lived faith. The way we live our lives matters. The things we consume matter. The media we ingest influences our heart. Anyone who says otherwise is, frankly, an idiot. It is not possible for us to continually consume certain kinds of media and not be affected by it. It is not possible for us to continually listen to certain kinds of music and not be affected by it. Our hearts are already hardened against the things of God anyway. In fact, the prophet Jeremiah, relaying the words of God, in chapter 17:5-10 says this, “Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. Blessed in the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according the to the fruit of his doings.” (emphasis mine) Out of the heart comes the things we do. Our Saviour said this. We find, in Mark 7:20-23, “And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” Aside from the innate disease of sin which affects our fallen flesh, where do you think these things come from? Have you watched TV recently? Been to see a movie? Turn on most of the shows or even the news these days and all you see is evil, adultery, fornication, violence, wickedness, lewdness, blasphemy, pride and foolishness. Garbage in, garbage out. Let’s try putting good things in. The Apostle Paul reminds us of this in Ephesians 5:1-21. I’ll put some excerpts here, “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.” (vs. 1) “But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints.” (vs. 3) “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” (vs. 8-11) “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (vs. 15-17) What we do with our bodies matters. What we take in with our eyes and hear with our ears and do with our bodies matters. Rather than ingest the things of the world that are spiritually dangerous for us, let us spend our time in prayer and fasting and reading and spending time with family and things that are good and holy. Again, the Apostle Paul, in Romans 13:11-14, says, “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” Lotta action words here. St. Paul says to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. In other words, flee from the things which are against the things of God. Fill your life with things that lead you to our Lord. Most importantly, as St. Paul says, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” If we have been baptized into Christ, we have put on Christ. We have now literally begun to participate in the divine life. The divine and the perverse cannot co-exist. If you have put on Christ, live like it! Put on the things that are holy and cast off the things that would stand in your way! Cling to Christ. He will not leave us, but we can certainly turn away from Him. There is no halfway, there is no compartmentalizing Christ. If you are in Christ, you have literally been brought from death to life. Christ has changed what it means to be human, He has restored humanity and so you have changed as a human. Don’t turn away from this staggering gift! Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters! Glory to Jesus Christ!
2 Comments
Josh Porter
7/21/2021 23:27:18
“I have become less interested in theology and more interested in a lived faith.”
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Scott Garrison
7/22/2021 12:30:15
Be my guest brother!
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