Why Christians Should Care About Fitness and Diet

Sometimes it seems that the only Christians who care about diet and fitness are our Adventist brothers and sisters. The rest of the body of Christ ignores stuff like vegetables, exercise and rest.

This is why I was so happy to read a recent article by Heather Moffitt. She nailed it when she said that mainstream Christianity's weak relationship with the body is a form of modern Gnosticism.

I'm not sure why. Sure some of it is just bad theology. THIS world doesn't matter. The material world doesn't matter. So abuse what you have while you have it. Take care of your soul. Who cares about the body. These are all statements or variations of statements that are familiar.

I think they are theological justifications for what we already want to do anyway.

I've come to believe that the real problem is we are addicted to junk food. And because of our addiction to junk food, it is extremely hard for us to exercise. And one result of that is most of us don't sleep that well.

I preach here as a fellow sinner in need of conversion. Change is hard. But evidently God DOES care about our bodies.

First, our bodies are part of the good creation of God. God has declared the creation to be “very good” (Gen. 1:31), and we are instructed to exercise stewardship over it by caring for and nurturing it (Gen. 1:28–30). This stewardship extends to the care and nurture of our own bodies.

This notion of stewardship provides us with a model of balance in the practical matter of caring for our bodies. We are not given the task to achieve some notion of perfection (Pelagianism), nor are we instructed to give up the earth to the chaos from the fall and the ravages of time (Gnosticism). We are to care for God’s creation in order that it may bear fruit. In the case of our bodies, this might rightly be understood as taking steps to care for them so that we might be able to serve God.

 So how do we change? It's hard even when we want to. I've been on a quest for two years to cut Coke out of my drinking diet. I've cut from about 5 or 6 12 ounce cans a day to 3 or 4 a week. That's a major change. My health is better for it. But I can still feel the urge. I can still binge.

I talked with a guy Monday who quit smoking 20 years ago but said he still dreams about cigs.

Change is hard. Here are a few things you can do to get moving in a better direction.

1. Decide you want to change. Write down the reasons you want to change.
2. Identify behaviors that cause problems. For example: I noticed that I often stop at 7-11 for a coke on my way home if I'm walking from the Skytrain in the middle of a hot afternoon. Now I don't walk home. I jump a motorbike taxi. I lose a 50 calorie 1 kilometer walk. But I save 200 calories for not having a soda.
3. Enlist social support to change those crucial behavior outcomes.
4. Practice good behaviors when you are feeling strong. Motivated to workout after watching an infomercial at 10:30pm before bed. Great. Do some situps right then and there. You don't have to do the full workout, just do something.