Last year I did my first ever Mini Triathlon. This event consisted of a little over a third of a mile swim, a 10 mile bike and a 3 mile run. You might recall that last year I also decided to run the entire event 24 hours before the official race.
That will go down in my personal history as one of the most bone-headed things ever!
My time was
Disappointing considering almost all my training times were better.
This year I was supposed to be out of town for the event, so I did not train at all.
Did you catch that? I did no training whatsoever.
Zip!
Zilch!
Nada!
My time was
Huh?!
How was that possible?! I’m a year older. The stress of pastoring a large and growing church has sapped more life out of me than a team of blood sucking aliens. I scarcely have a moment to myself. Yet…
I shaved 8 minutes off my time from the previous year!
Aside from the incredibly stupid move of doing 2 triathlons in 24 hours the year before—I do believe our team of scientific experts (consisting of me and my wife) have honed in on the actual cause.
I started eating healthier.
That’s it—pure and simple. I lost almost 20 pounds and even though I did not train, I didn’t have to drag around the extra LARD!
There’s a lot of good that regular working out can do for you, but lately my focus has been more on diet. I believe now that the right diet (consistently) is even more important than working out. They are both important, actually. And can you imagine what can be done if you actually focus on both?!
It’s similar in the Christian life. Those who only eat one meal a week (i.e. Church one hour on a Sunday morning) get emaciated and weak. They couldn’t even consider becoming a spiritual triathlete for God. Forget about it. They will end up being the equivalent of a spiritual invalid at best.
Sad, when this is entirely avoidable.
Spiritual exercise and regular consuming of God’s Word are vital for spiritual growth.
Have you got a spiritual growth plan in place?
I hope so. We can’t do much with a church full of spiritual Gilligans!
I’m doing my part and I even got this, “Thanks for coming” shirt for my efforts!
Oh well, maybe next year.