Gordon Santee can do some incredible things. He has broken many records and earned man titles in weightlifting.
The conspicuous aspect of his success though, is his age. He has accomplished this and much more in his later years. Now 65, he still bench presses, he still dead lifts, he still trains four times a week.
He spends thirty minutes every day planning his meals for the following day. If he injures a hand, he keeps pressing on. He has undergone three surgeries, some of which he opted into following prolonged delay.
He spends much of his time preparing his body. He has pressed past the mindset which dictates that older men should slow down and take up shuffle board.
Yet for all of this time and energy spent on a body, what does it really profit?
Paul did not disdain the human body, but he clearly wrote that this is not a body that we should get used to:
"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." (1 Corinthians 15:53)
Paul later wrote to Timothy, his beloved son in the faith:
"For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." (1 Timothy 4:8)
Godliness is not something that we work for, but rather something that we receive:
"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
"According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." (2 Peter 1: 2-4)
We grow in godliness to the extend that our understanding of His grace and knowledge abounds in us. Instead of building our bodies and earning trophies, Peter advised his readers thus:
"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 3:18)
Mr. Santee works hard to maintain a body that he will not have forever. He spends more time doing the basic things, like eating and drinking, when Jesus told us to:
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)
Paul pointed out that the Kingdom of God is more than body:
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Romans 14:!7)
I hope that Mr. Santee discovers that the body does not deserve nearly as much attention as our soul:
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36)
As for the body, Paul writes:
"Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body." (1 Corinthians 6:13)
Our body is to serve the Lord, not ourselves, and our body will perish. We will receive a new body, we will be like Christ, those who believe on Him.
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
"And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (1 John 3:2-3)
Every believer looks forward to not only having a new body, but becoming like the One who saved them!
As for the resurrection that awaits all believers:
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
"Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)
These glories outshine any effort by man to build his own fleshly body! Why worry about your fitness on earth if you have a renewed spirit within you that will work out into a renewed body made one with Christ?
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