Spiritual Fitness

When I was 16, I decided to get in shape. I began jogging every morning, building up slowly to a 40-minute workout. Since then, I have learned about stretching, nutrition, and weight training. At various times, I've added swimming, martial arts, walking, and bicycling to my routine. But what has remained consistent in the past 20-plus years is that I have woven regular exercise and good nutritional practices into the fabric of my life.

On the other hand, when I needed some kind of spiritual belief system, I tore through various religions as if I were sampling dishes at a smorgasbord. Having rejected the rationalistic Reform Judaism of my childhood on the grounds that I found it spiritually sterile, I was set adrift. With no direction of my own, I set out in all directions. I accepted invitations from friends to attend their churches and began reading about various religions. In the process, I sampled everything from Buddhism to Catholicism. I'd study, meditate, or pray for an afternoon, for weeks, or even months, then discard the religion du jour when the luster wore off and the work set in. If faith came in an easy-to-swallow pill, I'd have taken it.

I made time for prayer even when I didn't know who or what I was praying to.

That might have been the end of my spiritual quest, except that about 10 years ago, I looked around and saw that my life was in shambles. I was 27 years old, out of a job, picking up the pieces from a failed relationship, and losing custody of my daughter. I realized I had to take the same practical approach to becoming spiritually fit as I had to becoming physically fit. I couldn't wait for God to tap me on the shoulder in order to believe. I had to decide to have faith every day. I looked at the beliefs I already held and found that without question, I accepted scientists' claim that there are 300 trillion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Why was believing in a loving God any more of a stretch?

Defining God simply as Good, I began to consciously replace every negative, doubting thought with a positive one. I made time for prayer and meditation even when I didn't know who or what I was praying to.

It was an act of self-discipline, but that was nothing new. I know what it means to get out and jog even if the temperature is plunging outside. I know that it's the little choices I make every day that help me stay physically fit: ordering a baked potato rather than french fries at a restaurant, parking at the far end of the lot and walking the extra steps to get to the store, or choosing a bike ride with friends over a movie.

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