Move!

I saw the accompanying photo on my Facebook page not long ago.  It was accompanied by a note saying something to the effect of, “If you don’t move once in awhile, you become a permanent fixture.”

That’s true, of course.  Just as this old combine has become a permanent fixture in this grove of trees and undergrowth, we too can become permanent fixtures in places and ways we really don’t wish to become.  And when that happens, it takes something akin to a chain saw to get us loosened from the pickle we’ve gotten ourselves into.  (I know I ended with a preposition…it fits in the sentence.)

Movement needs to be physical, yes.  But movement also needs to be mental, emotional, and spiritual.  We are complex beings, made up of all of those parts.  All of those parts have to be exercised from time to time in order to not become sluggish or worse.

We need to read.  We need to be aware of the world around us.  We need to continue to learn, be inquisitive, to challenge our long-held beliefs, and marvel at the creation.  We also need to interact with others in positive ways, continue to develop those relationships, and be a productive part of society.  And we need to continue in our quest for not only knowledge of the God who made us, but to actually become more and more like the perfect example we find in the God-Man Jesus Christ.

It’s only because we keep our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual selves exercised and moving that we keep ourselves healthy.  Paul the great apostle said it well when he said, “I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Paul wasn’t content with where he was and who he was.  He wasn’t content being “good enough.”  He continued to “press on” even in his older age toward the goal.  And we should emulate him as we go through our own life’s time line.

We don’t know how much time we have left.  We do know that we need to make the most of the time that has been given to us, and “redeem the time” in ways that are productive and proper and appropriate.

To sit still is to become a permanent fixture, tied up in ways that we don’t like and can’t get away from on our own.  Life is movement.  Life is activity.  Life is energy.  Live it to the full.