When I was in 8th grade, I was 14. When I was 14, I ran a 5:20 mile. Then I became a Christian, and for some reason had no desire to do sports (don't read too much into that, it had nothing to do with any crazy idea that "sports are wrong"). I have probably run three miles since 8th grade. One in gym in 9th grade, one in gym in 12th grade, and one in Racquetball my freshman year of college.

About a month ago, I found out I was going to Nepal (this ended up falling through and I am going to Nigeria instead). Nepal is where Mt. Everest is. Needless to say, it is hilly. In addition to that, I was going to have to lug camera equipment all through out the Nepalis mountains. So I decided I should go running.

Well I found out I was going to Nigeria and put those plans on hold. But then today I saw my friend Lissa's MySpace page where she said she is working on a running 1.5 miles under 14:30. I thought this was particularly lame, so I commented on it. Then I was inspired to go run my own mile.

Well I made it .6 miles and it took me 5:36. Sheesh! I am exactly 60% the health I was when I was in 8th grade. And when you figure I used to be able to run 5 miles with out walking (or giving up), you could assume that I am actually 12% the health I was (let's split the difference and call it 36%).

I think our spiritual lives are like this as well sometimes. I am ashamed to say that while I was in my running peak in middle school, I was probably at my spiritual peak in high school. I was all the more convicted about that two weeks ago when I did a video interview of Lauren Finlay. I used to have such a fervor for God. I used to do devotions everyday. I used to pray for myself, my friends, and my family constantly. I used to worship at all hours of the day. It is not to say that I never do this stuff anymore, I do; but not like I used to.

Whether it is our physical lives or our spiritual lives, being in shape is important, and it isn't something that just comes from sitting around doing nothing. Today was a day I had to apologize to Lissa for making fun of her, and apologize to God for my own ineptitude.