Life with Fitness
Women are sometimes mocked due to their concern each April and May for getting into “swim-suit” shape for the summer. But as a forty-something man, I can tell you that many of my male-peers have the same concern. As summer drew near this year, I heard more and more of my male friends complaining about how hard it is just to maintain the somewhat pudgy figures we have. Each year in my forties it’s taken increasing effort to just to keep my weight and shape constant. It’s getting next to impossible to even think about improving that weight and shape.
As a result, I’m in the midst of a slow paradigm shift. For much of my life, I’ve pursued a life with fitness. Life was the big circle I lived in most of the time. Fitness was the smaller circle I visited for small pieces of time. In my twenties and thirties, the Fitness circle was fairly small. I could visit it thirty minutes at a time for a few days a week and keep the shape and weight I desired.
But in my late thirties and forties, I’ve had to increase the size of that Fitness circle. I’ve had to visit it more days of the week for longer periods of time. On an ideal week, I’m working out five days a week for at least an hour a day. How about you? In what ways have you tried to increase that Fitness circle?
But I can see that there is a limit to this approach. In my current paradigm, the Fitness circle can only reach a certain size. I still have a job I must perform, responsibilities at home, children to raise, a wife to love, etc. I can only spend a limited amount of time at the gym. There are a limited number of hours I can give to the Fitness circle.
Life of Fitness
Thus I am shifting from pursuing a life with fitness to a life of fitness. Rather than fitness only being something I do for an hour or so each morning, fitness is slowly becoming something I’m doing all day long. It’s not just a part of my life. It’s slowly becoming a lifestyle.
I’m parking farther away from the entrance of my office so I’m forced to walk more. I use the stairs when I visit my doctor’s fourth floor office rather than the elevator. I’m trying to be more conscientious about what I’m eating at every meal. By minuscule increments, the Life circle and the Fitness circle are merging. Fitness is less something I pause Life for and more something I’m doing with my whole Life.
How about you? What are some lifestyle choices/actions you’ve made that make fitness a larger part of your daily life?
Life with Prayer
For several years I’ve also been experiencing this transition in my prayer life. Like many Christians, I want to pray more. Last Sunday while visiting a congregation (I was on vacation), the preacher told his flock, “I’m focusing on increasing my prayer time this year. I really want to learn to pray more each day.” I think many of us share that desire. We’d like to be more “fit” when it comes to prayer.
And many of us, including myself, approach that goal using a life-with-prayer paradigm. Life is the circle we live in most of the time. But at certain times we exit the life circle and spend time in the Prayer circle. We might have a morning or evening prayer time when Life is put on “pause” and we spend that time in communion with God.
And, to pray more, we focus solely on increasing the size of that Prayer circle. We lengthen the duration of our Quiet Time. Or we add additional Quiet Times into our daily routine. We might adopt the habit of praying 3 to 4 times each day. The prayer circle becomes larger and larger. How about you? In what ways have you tried to increase the size of your Prayer circle?
Life of Prayer
But we can all probably see that there is a limit to this approach. We have jobs to perform, responsibilities at home, children to raise, spouses to love etc. There is a limit to the number of times we can pause Life to enter the Prayer circle. We can’t quit our jobs, leave our families, or drop out of school and just pray all day long. In this paradigm, the Prayer circle can only reach a certain size.
This paradigm needs to be supplemented with another paradigm. To our life-with-prayer approach, we need to add a life-of-prayer approach. Rather than prayer being something we do a few minutes each morning, or several minutes several times during the day, prayer can become something we are engaged in all day long. Prayer can become not merely a part of our lives but a lifestyle. Prayer and life can become one and the same.
Scripture points to this possibility.
- Paul writes, “Never stop praying” (1 Thess. 5:17 NLT).
- He further states, “Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying” (Rom. 12:12 NLT).
- He urges us to “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion” (Eph. 6:18 NLT).
- Jesus taught his disciples that they should always pray and never give up” (Lk. 18:1 NLT).
Jesus and those who followed him pointed to a life in which prayer could be unceasing, constant, and as much a companion as breathing. In his book Prayer, Richard Foster calls this type of prayer “the best, the finest, the fullest way of living” (119).
Breath Prayer
But how do we move in this direction? Foster writes that over the centuries Christians have developed two ways of striving for what he calls “Unceasing Prayer.” The first method is known as “Breath Prayer” (122). Breath Prayer is a short prayer which is quietly uttered while breathing. The goal is to utter the prayer with each breath, thus filling the day with prayer just as you fill your lungs with air.
The most famous Breath Prayer is known as the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The prayer came to its present form in the sixth century (122). As you inhale, you quietly say “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God.” Then as you exhale, you quietly say, “have mercy on me, a sinner.”
Stop right now and try it.
- Inhale: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God.”
- Exhale, “have mercy on me, a sinner.”
There are other forms of Breath Prayer. In fact, it may be most beneficial to write out your own. Breath Prayer can change to reflect your own needs and the state of your spiritual life. Foster makes these recommendations for writing your own Breath Prayer (123).
- First, in a time of quiet, allow this question to surface: “What do you want?” Imagine God asking you this question.
- Second, answer this question simply and directly. Perhaps a single word will do: peace, strength, help. Perhaps a phrase will come to mind: to feel your love, to gain wisdom.
- Third, connect that word or phrase with the most comfortable way you have of addressing God: Blessed Savior, Abba, Immanuel, Holy Father, Gracious Lord.
- Finally, write out the prayer, keeping it short enough to say in one breath.
Stop right now and try this.
- What do you want? _____________________
- What’s your favorite way of addressing God? ________________
- Write the prayer out: _____________________________________________________________________.
Practicing the Presence of God
Foster writes that a second method for Unceasing Prayer is known as “Practicing the Presence of God” (124). This practice is associated with three individuals: Brother Lawrence, Thomas Kelly, and Frank Laubach. Essentially the practice is this: go through all the activities of the day “in joyful awareness of God’s presence with whispered prayers of praise and adoration flowing continuously from our hearts” (124). Foster quotes Kelly: “There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of the external affairs. But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship…” (125).
You might picture this as a running conversation with God. Has there been a time when you had a good friend with you in your home, and even while you were finishing the dinner preparation or cleaning up after the dinner you chatted with each other? Have you ever been involved in a home repair project with a close companion and you shared in conversation during the entire project? Practicing the Presence of God is doing the same thing with God. We quietly carry on our conversation with him as we go about our daily activities.
You might also picture this as something similar to having (good) tune stuck in your head that you just can’t shake. The tune is a song of praise. It’s words of gratitude and gratefulness. And all day long you quietly sing that song to God, giving thanks and praising him as you perform your daily duties.
As we practice these types of Unceasing Prayer, Foster says we will experience a progression (126).
- First, we experience the prayer as just an outward discipline. We have to think about it. We have to make ourselves do it. We are aware of doing it each time.
- Second, the prayer moves into the subconscious mind. At times we pray and we are not even aware of praying. The prayer becomes more and more of a habit.
- Third, the prayer moves into the heart. The prayer becomes less work and mental effort and more tender, loving, and spontaneous.
- Finally, the prayer permeates our entire personality. Like breath or blood it moves through the entire person and changes us.
Unable to Stop
As a closing encouragement to pick up these habits and try them on, consider Foster’s quote of Isaac the Syrian (119): “When the Spirit has come to reside in someone, that person cannot stop praying; for the Spirit prays without ceasing in him. No matter if he is asleep or awake, prayer is going on in his heart all the time. He may be eating or drinking, he may be resting or working–the incense of prayer will ascend spontaneously from his heart. The slightest stirring of his heart is like a voice which sings in silence and in secret to the Invisible.”
