What Are We Doing?

Sometimes I am struck by the silliness of human activity.

Yesterday, I was at the gym and thought to myself, "What are we all doing on these machines? How did we get to the point that this is how we humans spend our time?" Part of this is driven by the fact that the Riverbank Run is over and I haven't settled on another training goal. This means that my exercise is being done just for...health? weight loss? fun? routine? to deal with stress? I looked around at everyone else at the gym I wondered about their reasons.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about minimalism, and one of the blog posts that has stuck with me talks about making exercise part of your time with your family: walk, play, wrestle, chase, throw, anything that can break a sweat. I think there is something to this and now that the weather is getting warmer it is something that I'm working on. It seems to place exercise in it's proper place: we exercise to build relationships. I stay fit for my kids.

I like running. I like working out at a gym if it helps my running or helps me de-stress (and thus be a better dad/husband). But I don't like exercising because it is recommended by a panel of researchers that I get 30 minutes of cardio three times each week. That doesn't feel like a good way to live a life. So many people take vitamins and medicines when they really need eat more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Similarly many people view exercise as a pill they need to take to compensate for an unhealthy lifestyle.

To draw out this metaphor even further, I feel similarly about attending church. Church is seen like spiritual exercise. Something to be done once a week to keep yourself healthy. But what is really needed is to live a healthy spiritual life all the time: give, pray, thank, help, see, hear, touch, smile, laugh, rejoice, sing, cry, read, breath. This is not something that should be segmented into certain times of our week, just like we can't segment times of exercise as the only times we "work on our health." We are always living, choosing, thinking creatures and so many times our actions are at cross purposes with each other.

We are silly, silly people sometimes.