Colorado Fit

My daughter and her boyfriend took me mountain biking near Nederland the other day.  She promised she would pick the easiest trail.  Unfortunately, the easiest trail was rated moderate.  Turns out that I am definitely not a moderate.  Shortly into the trail, we hit a major climb.  No way I could ride a bike up this climb.  I barely could push the bike up this climb.  By the time I reached the top, my lungs were burning and I was gasping for air. I do a lot of gasping for air when I am in Colorado.

Tammy was telling me about a recent trip to Crested Butte.  CB is a mountain biking paradise.  When it comes to physical fitness and mountain biking, Tammy informed me that there are people who are not physically fit and then there are those who are fit -- then there are those who are Colorado fit -- and then there are those who are Crested Butte fit!  Colorado fit means that you are physically fit and don't have to gasp for air all the time in the mountains.  Crested Butte fit means that body fat is a rumor!

So evidently there are stages or levels of physical fitness.  People who think they are fit may not be Colorado fit and even Colorado fit has to work at being CB fit! 

So, that got me thinking about another kind of fitness.  What levels of spiritual fitness are you in these days?  Fit or not fit?  Colorado fit or CB fit?  There is a spiritual fitness needed to serve... to lead...  When people sign up for a missions trip we engage in a form of spiritual fitness training.  In many ways, this training is simply an intentional use of disciplines that ought to be part of our daily spiritual lives.  People who are Colorado fit or CB fit do things and don't do things that allow them to mountain bike up climbs that guys like me are not prepared to tackle.  Same goes with spiritual fitness!

The realtiy about life is that we don't always get to pick the trail we are going to hike or bike.  Circumstances come at us and we are either prepared to climb or we are not prepared.  We are either spiritually fit to handle the trials and tempations or we are not.  Life trials are way more important than bike trails.  When it comes to mountain biking, it's no big deal that I am not Colorado fit or CB fit.  But when it comes to my life and the trials life brings, my spiritual fitness matters a great deal.  Invest whatever you have to invest to take your spiritual fitness to a higher level.