Over my week-long hiatus, I read an interesting parable that inspired me and thought I'd share it with you. Eastern in its origin, the parable involves a carriage which represents the human body, a horse which represents human emotions, and the driver which represents the human mind.
We can all assume that along the journey there will be bumps and obstacles in the road. But if there is a malfunction along our own drive, the common sense thing to do is to check out the carriage first. Has it been maintained? Are its joints rusty? Has it been used often or has it been sitting around idle? For safe and efficient travel, certainly the driver (mind) must be alert and the horse (emotions) properly trained...but if the carriage (body) itself is in bad shape, the journey will still be messy.
I am convinced that the times in my life when I am most effective, emotionally stable, and mentally alert are when I am intentional about taking care of my body: eating right, exercising, and getting real rest. This doesn't mean that physical fitness automatically leads to spiritual maturity, or that striving for fitness should become an idolatrous replacement for godliness. But the bottom line is, in the biblical view of humanity there is no split between body and spirit; we humans are united beings, and what we do with our bodies WILL have spiritual, mental, and emotional consequences.
As a person in full-time ministry, it is natural for me to focus on the driver and the horse in the story. But sadly, far too often do I neglect the maintenance of the carriage. There are only so many hours in the day, I realize, but if this thing currently occupying my seat is truly a temple of the Holy Spirit, then I need to treat it with the same reverence and care as I do the sanctuary at Bakerstown United Methodist Church.
I hope this challenges you guys as well, but here are three things I think we all need to commit to in order to be effective ministers: We need to make sure that our bodies are properly relaxed, nourished and exercised, so that our carriages can make the journey of faith more effectively!
And in the words of the old Nike commercial: JUST DO IT!
3 comments:
Excellent post!
Jeff...
I promise that I'm not attempting to make a really bad joke when I say what I'm about to say.
But your post reminds me of how frequently I get the cart (or the carriage) ahead of the horse.
By that I mean that I am all too often guilty of putting my body into forms of ministry and activity long before I have had a chance to process those forms through my emotions and thoughts.
For example, I am currently in the process of planning what looks to be an enormously busy fall season. I am going to be teaching here and preaching there and facilitating this and overseeing that...blah, blah, blah. In the process, I am committing my body--my physical presence--to a schedule that I have not yet weighed on my emotional and intellectual scales.
Thanks for sharing the parable. You've inspired me to remember that a calendar is not our only resource when it comes to planning.
Eric,
Excellent! And how often do I make decisions with my mind, before my body and emotions get to put their two cents in?
I guess that's why Scripture tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God with our whole person...not just with the part that is easiest for us to manage!
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