I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was a trend setter in late 1971.  I joined an elite group of men in an exercise club.

Health and fitness clubs can be found in any town of any size today.  They’re easy to see with their bright signage that lures you in and smiling attendants who entice you with their catchy mottos: “Expanding wellness and extending lives through health.”

When I joined my club in 1971, it wasn’t Genesis or the YMCA, it was called boot camp.  There were no smiling faces, just sneers.  Words of welcome were usually limited to 4 colorful letters that would have made grandmother blush; and, the mottos were tirades about the history of my family that I’d never heard before.

You may be using some of the latest technological gadgets to enhance your time in the gym. So many people are purchasing devices to monitor their activity that PC Magazine ran an article that compares the different features of Fitbit, Mio Fuse, Vivosmart, Jawbone, and others.

The Be Trendy-Live Trimly Fitness Craze has found its way through the doors of Oral Roberts University.  Freshmen students at ORU must wear a Fitbit, and they’re required to average 10,000 steps a day and 150 minutes of intense activity each week.

Exercise and sports are common analogies found in the bible, and Paul used them, in I Corinthians 9: “So I run—but not without a clear goal ahead of me. So I box—but not as if I were just shadow boxing.  Rather, I toughen my body with punches and make it my slave so that I will not be disqualified after I have spread the Good News to others.”

Paul was more concerned with a person’s spiritual health than he was their physical health.  Which one of the two is your greater focus? More importantly, how are you monitoring your spiritual activity?

What would a spiritual Fitbit say about you? Be Trendy, Live Trimly, and Think Theologically.