A couple of weeks ago I reconnected with my friend Brian, as he had recommended the book, “Outlive” by Peter Attia. The book describes a more aggressive approach to preventive medical care in the hopes of delaying what Attia calls the 4 horsemen: cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and cardiovascular disease. Since we’re both science nerds, Brian and I excitedly discussed what we had learned. We talked about our daily protein and leucine intake, what our Zone 2 workouts looked like and our current V02 max. We even discussed the merits of toe yoga (it’s a thing)! I looked at how much time I spent exercising in a week and calculated a little over 180 minutes a week, roughly 3 hours.
Three hours! Three hours is a lot of time. There are only a few things I do every week for 3 hours or more. There are a multitude of benefits to exercising, and I have no plans to decrease my time exercising but it did make me ponder how much time I spent on my spiritual life. I attempted calculating that time. Of course, I quickly knocked out an hour with Sunday mass, and then I paused, and had to really think about what time I spent on my faith. Obviously, there are no guidelines or recommendations on the amount of time to spend on our spiritual lives, but it did make me wonder how I prioritize my time. Tony Robbins is quoted as saying, “Who you spend time with is who you become.” That’s quite an endorsement if you hope to become more Christ-like.
Today we hear about Jesus healing a leper and changing the man’s physical appearance, but more importantly also his soul. I imagine the healed man is overjoyed that he can now rejoin his family and re-enter his community, but his life has been transformed beyond the physical. While most of us aren’t running into Jesus during our daily routine, we can be like the man in today’s reading and pursue Jesus and ask for his help. If you’ve ever pursued anything worthwhile you know it takes time and commitment. Am I as committed to my pursuit of Christ as I am to my workouts? Am I putting in the time towards my spiritual life as I am towards all the other aspects of my life? It’s certainly something to ponder.
As my dad died, he confessed this to me (he was was a pastor and teacher). “I put God first, my family second, and myself last. I was mistaken.
It’s all one.”