There is no particular virtue in physical fitness.
There is virtue in obeying your calling, whatever that includes. The Lord has burdened me with the duty to maximize my physical fitness; it’s a virtue for me. There’s no denying my fitness efforts would contribute to a longer life, but that’s hardly my interest. If anything, my only interest is in keeping myself free to chase that calling so long as I live. Long life itself is overrated.
Fitness is just a tool in my obedience. I will continue to report on that commitment because I professed it publicly here on this blog. More important than the diet and exercise regimen is the obedience factor. Nothing does more to set your soul free from this world than obeying the call to another world. When you belong to the realm above, you are free to view this one with greater clarity. You are free to recognize that the single greatest factor in sane living here below is moral development. If you are obedient to the call, everything else takes care of itself. There is no need to chase every commendable issue you might learn from others; chase the ones central to your mission.
The same could be said for all the other things I recommend here, such as Open Source software. Today, after struggling with some Windows stuff that requires satisfying the DRM and activation baloney, I am ever more committed to using Open Source. Not as a religious commitment, but simply for my own sanity. Don’t switch to Debian just because I suggest it. Do so because something in it calls your name.
To the degree we all act as shepherds in some area of life, this is where it matters most. Herding sheep is not about prodding and chasing them, but persuading them to follow you — that’s the ancient image we use from Scripture. If they don’t sense your leadership is for them, there is not a thing you can do except exercise force and that would be a mistake. In moral concerns, force is used only when God says you have to defend something. It’s never used to control others and confine them, but to keep them from interfering in your assigned mission. The substance of shepherding starts with voluntary compliance of the sheep.
When I select a particular thing, such as Open Source software, it’s only because something in that choice optimizes the freedom of the sheep. I’ll defend them with all I can muster. Eventually it will kill me, but death is just a circumstance. I’d rather die justly than live selfishly. That’s moral clarity. It’s not the various flavors and manifestations that matter, but both I and the sheep will gain the most by that sort of priority. Even the perception of what is valuable is shaped by that higher calling.
God gives to us so we can give in turn to others. Take care of your sheep or you really don’t have any reason to keep breathing.
