Fitbit 747 Badge = Climbing 4,000 Flights of Stairs
For many folks, a new year starts with a resolution to lose weight. I remember my winter fitness routine in Melville. I would head to the arena every other day to the walking track. Around the track, I trekked a certain number of times each workout, along with trudging up and down the stairs several times for more exercise.
Recently I read that with a Fitbit bracelet, you receive a 747 Badge for the milestone of climbing 4,000 flights of stairs. This number is considered a lifetime achievement. I would like to know how many flights of stairs I climbed at the arena each winter through my years in Melville. Four thousand flights of stairs rise to roughly the altitude that 747 planes fly. My fitness now involves sweeping with my broom to keep up with and ahead of a curling rock speeding on flat ice.
My physical fitness each year is my efforts to keep me from adding on extra pounds while shedding some of the ones I have stockpiled. I find it easy to gain weight and hard to get rid of it. Maintaining a healthy level of weight for me is a continuous challenge, and so is keeping a vigorous life of faith each year before God and others.
Any year it is easy to slip into a lifestyle that lacks energy and vitality. Often, we settle for what is most accessible or comfortable to us concerning our physical and spiritual health. If January suggests renewed eagerness for a new year, we may be weary and burdened with barely enough enthusiasm for another day by May or September. Our best intentions get entangled in situations beyond our control.
We cannot know what or when our circumstances will change, but they will change, and often with the ability to make our plans go up in smoke. Any year Christians may fall into going through the motions when it comes to their church attendance and worship. We may honor God by what we say or sing at church, but our hearts may be distracted and far from understanding and practicing God’s word in our lives.
There is an interesting story concerning Francois Fenelon. He was the court preacher for King Louis XIV of France in the 17th century. One Sunday, when the King and his attendants arrived for the regular service, no one was there but the preacher Fenelon. The King demanded of him, “What does this mean?” Fenelon replied, “I had published that you would not come to church today. I did it so your Majesty might see who serves God in truth and who flatters the King.”
King Louis of France held great authority and people wanted to be seen by him at church. The King was powerful, wealthy, and influential in the eyes of the people. They were there at church to flatter him and to further their own interests. Flattery may be sincere or insincere. It seemed clear the people were phony towards God. They did not see God as powerful, wealthy, or influential as the King.
The Christian challenge is knowing that God sees the intentions of our hearts towards Him. God responds in unconditional love to both our sincere and insincere attitudes toward Him. God is love.
