From The Editor: Sedentary Spirituality

I often find myself feeling stationary. I suddenly realize that as a whole person, not just physically, I’m not moving; I haven’t changed or improved or grown in any noticeable way, content to just stay where I am for a while.

This is not always a bad place to be. Sometimes I need a moment to catch my breath, find my footing, and feel a little bit comfortable for once. After periods in my life of uncertainty, upheaval, and frantic motion, finally sitting down can feel absolutely luxurious.

When you get home from work, what do you do? I like to trade my shoes for slippers, pull on a cozy sweater, and snuggle down into my cloud-soft recliner to either read a book or watch some TV. It feels heavenly to just have a moment of comfort and ease after a day of intense focus and hours of sitting in traffic.

But the more I sink into my chair, the less I want to get up and do the things that need to be done to keep my home and life functioning. My son needs dinner. The dishes need washing. The laundry needs to be changed over. And yet, I find it harder and harder to get up out of my chair and do the things that really need to be accomplished before I go to bed for the evening.

I think the same is true for my spiritual and emotional life. The more comfortable I get with where I am, the less inclined I am to do the work that needs to be done in order to move forward and grow. Maybe I stop reading my Bible every day. Maybe my prayers turn from conversations into simple tasks to check off my list for the day. Maybe I ignore the spiritual prodding to reach out to family or friends. After all, I’m so tired, and all of these things can wait until tomorrow.

But have you ever heard the saying, “A body in motion tends to stay in motion?” This comes originally from the realm of physics and Newton’s First Law of Motion, describing the principle of inertia, the natural tendency for things in motion to keep moving and for things at rest to stay at rest. Doctors like to use this phrase, and the similar, but more succinct, “Move it or lose it,” when encouraging people to exercise more, explaining that when we stop moving our bodies consistently, we begin to lose strength and range of motion. We may feel comfortable sitting on our sofas, but that inactivity could be slowly killing us.

If I keep putting my Bible reading, prayer, important conversations, and self-reflection off until tomorrow, I can’t move forward. In fact, I may begin to lose ground if I wait too long. We can’t allow ourselves to be spiritually sedentary for too long. Rest is important, yes, but we can’t get too comfortable sitting still — God is waiting, longing for us to call on Him and invest in our relationship with Him.