Making This Temple Worthy

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy spirit, who is in you, who you have received from God? You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your body."

I am out of shape. I mean, really. I avoid a lot of things that make me uncomfortable (both emotionally and physically) but I have a real love of outdoors and this pushes me outside, immersing myself in God's creation. My parents liked camping and took us kids out into the 'wilderness' on a regular basis. Most of the vacations in my childhood were camping vacations and we loved it. All of my siblings are nature nuts and frequently escape into the great outdoors.

With my sister's encouragement, I took my first backpacking trip last summer. I was quite overweight, but somewhat in shape because of all the walking I had done in the months leading up to the hike. When the time came for our hike, I was sick with a cold and allergies, complicated by asthma, and honestly, the hike was extremely hard for me. My sister offered to let me drop my pack and she would come back for it later, but I was determined to finish and to finish with everything I had brought, so I stubbornly persisted. It took everything I had to make it to our campsite. I remember wondering how I would make it back to the beginning the next day. I was so surprised that after a decent sleep, I was ready to go again in the morning for the trek back.

So it was with that memory in mind that we started off on a backpacking trip a couple weeks ago. I had planned to get into better shape before hand, but with my sedentary job and virtually no will-power, I am currently at the heaviest I've ever been (hard to admit, but there ya go) and very out of shape. I haven't exactly been careful of the temple I've been bestowed, if you know what I mean. I debated postponing or calling off the hike, but decided to go for my son's sake.

The first day was not too bad. Admittedly, I developed a blister only 3 kilometers into the hike, and I was slower than my fellow hikers, but I had fairly decent energy and kept up the pace all the way to our destination. I felt pretty good that evening and realized how hard being sick made the hike last year. But I was tired and a bit sore and was counting on feeling good to go in the morning after a night's sleep.

I shouldn't have counted on that. I didn't sleep well. I was cold. I was stiff and sore when I woke up and it didn't get better. I was walking funny because of the pain of my blister, and that made my legs tired and sore. I developed a new blister on my other heel and I was slow. The walk back was miserable and I felt bad for slowing everyone down (we had to stick together because we were in bear country and we saw signs). With frequent rest breaks for me, we made it back and I was filled with not only the desire to work harder on getting into shape, but also with amazement at the miracle of my body.

I know, right? It surprised me too.

I haven't been taking care of my body at all, and I gave it a real beating on that mountain hike. We had to slog through muck, navigate puddles, trip over wet roots, climb over and crawl under fallen trees, all with heavy packs on our backs and often while singing to keep the bears away, and I made it. After one of our rest breaks, my son noticed I was trembling. My muscles had almost given up, but I kept pushing and my body forgave me and worked continuously until I could gratefully relax. It kept going like the energizer bunny and it truly amazed me. My sister said something that stuck with me. "Our bodies are made for work." Imagine what this body could be capable of with a little bit of work?

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know this full well."