Christian Mystic: Discipline of body.

I started to write this a long time ago. It was interesting to see where I was then.

Christianity is training for spiritual battle. Every Christian should be aware of this. If soldiers are undisciplined winning a battle is very difficult. Though we know our general is superior to our enemy and he will win the war it does not excuse us from cooperating with him. I would hope to not be a casualty through lack of discipline, for that is the danger. Christ will win regardless of my activity but it would be far better for me if I cooperate now and become who he has assigned me to be.

Okay, I know I'm not very disciplined I tend to sit around when I shouldn't or ignore things that should be payed attention to (dirty dishes). But I do realize that I need some sort of discipline in my life. It's part of the maturing process.

The easiest way of going about this is to start with disciplining the body. There is a mind element to all this because everything begins as a thought. So in order to discipline the body some discipline of the mind must exist. Disciplining the body can't occur in a vacuum. I must think to go to the gym.

Another interesting thing about physical discipline is that there is a communal aspect to it. In order for me to succeed in a healthy way I need a community of people, a team if you will, to help me. Because on my own I tend to get lazy and on their own other people have overdone it. Also, I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to exercise. I've never seriously been able to figure out what would be best for me to do.

Why would it be important for a Christian to maintain a well disciplined body? Because in disciplining the body we train our minds to also be disciplined. This will lead to good/right thinking and help us with spiritual discipline which is harder to measure. We were not called to be undisciplined. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, the first one we have, stated more than once that we ought to be disciplined. "But I discipline my body and keep it under control lest, after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." (1cor9:27) "But we are judge by the lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world."(1cor11:32) The former is part of a life metaphor stating that life is like a foot race. I find it very interesting that Paul would mention that he disciplines his body.

I don't know Greek but I wonder if this was a supposition sort of statement or a "I actually do this" sort of thing. Because we know from studies that exercise and diet are important to having a good lifestyle. I don't see how Christians should argue against that.