Core-Strengthening Exercises

The Lovely Joanne and I sometimes exercise together. One of the types of exercise we do is to strengthen "the core" which means those muscles that hold you up, and the ones that hold your innards where they belong. That's supposed to help you sit, stand and move in a more balanced way. There's also a spiritual side to that idea of core-strengthening, that has to do with
your inner self. If our inmost person is strong, then what we do and how we do it will be balanced and healthy, right? So, what are some of those spiritual exercises we should practice regularly?

Obviously, prayer, as one way of contact with God, is huge. The Holy Spirit living in us helps us know how to pray: "And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will." So, rather than trying to bring our list of needs and worries to God, attempting to keep our thoughts coherent and to keep talking all the time, we can also spend some of our prayer time reflecting and listening. Stopping our chatter would help us hear the Spirit's prompting about what to pray and how, wouldn't it?

Reading and meditating on the Bible would be another good one, wouldn't it? Since the written words tell us about the living Word, Jesus -- who shows us who the Father is, and gives us the Spirit -- those written words need to be in our heads, day by day. Whether we do a reading plan, or try to absorb a chapter a day, or meditate more deeply on a shorter passage using lectio divina, or discuss it with a small group, all of those are helpful.

Let me suggest a few more core-strengthening exercises that seem neglected today:

• Silence and solitude -- getting away from the routine for an afternoon, or even several days, to stop the noise of daily life and catch up with God. 
• Simplicity -- looking at life to find the complications and distractions, and eliminate them, and living without so much stuff and fuss and activity.  
• Detachment -- replacing the attachment to physical things, success, power, money and other false idols, with wholehearted trust in and desire for God alone. 
• Control of the tongue -- paying more attention to the labels I put on people, and turning destructive speech patterns into loving, blessing and healing speech. 
• Stewardship -- to live in full awareness that everything around me is God's, not mine, and to learn to glorify him in how I care for everything in my life.

When you can't move around well and get sore with the least bit of exercise, it's time to get strong again. When life as you live it is causing misery and chaos, it's time for these core-strengthening exercises, or others (there are many more) to get back some spiritual focus. If you need help, let me know.