CityView Magazine

14 | January/February 2019 I F A I T H Spiritual Fitness BY REV. SCOT MCCOSH I n a conversation, lamenting the rapid pace of life that allows only for a mere, "Fine, thanks" as the answer to all questions concerning one's health and wellness, a colleague suggested I change the question I put forth to others. He suggested that I must be ready to stop, listen and be ready for utter silence if I were to use his suggested change. e question: "How's your soul?" I've tried it a few times and the reactions are quite fascinating. Silence is the most immediate response, oen followed by, "Wow! at's a good question." Many times I receive a confession of fatigue and frustration as well as the ever popular "OK." So reader, I ask you, as you dive into 2019, "How's your soul?" Many of us express our deepest spiritual, soul-level sentiments in song. We have our joy-filled music, our sad songs, our love songs, our crazy get-up-and-dance songs, and those in the ancient world were no different. In fact, prayer has most oen been expressed through poetry and song. e most widely read song book of all time is the book of Psalms, right in the middle of the Bible. It is full of answers to the "How's your soul?" question and offers us some great models and answers to discover. Jesus himself quotes the words of the Psalms, in his final hours on earth. Facing his imminent death, he cries out the first line of the famous 22nd Psalm, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" at Psalm continues, "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me." For some of you, this may be your answer to the soul question at some point in your journey. What's fascinating is what's on the very next page. e next song in the sequence begins, "e Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul." I love the diversity of sentiment, the raw emotion of pain and lament beside the placid contentment and confident faith. So oen in life I've encountered seasons of each of these Psalms. I recall one year of combat, and one as a pastor, in which I felt as if I was just moving from one funeral to the next. I struggled to find the words of strength and hope to provide. Yet, it was in these same years in which I most felt God's presence alongside me, restoring my soul in the moments it was completely emptied. Learning to navigate from Psalm 22 to Psalm 23, and back and forth through the highs and lows of life, is what spiritual fitness is all about. It's not found in a simple program or practice, but instead is built over a lifetime of experience, struggle, growth, death, faith, hope and love. e fact that such diverse songs are included in the book of Psalms gives us permission to cry out honestly to God, to wrestle with our doubts and disappointments and still to cling to the hope that God walks with us even in such times. So I ask again, "How's your soul?" As you develop your goals for the New Year I challenge you to keep this verse in mind, "…train yourselves to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." (1 Timothy 4:8) Much like physical training, spiritual training is not a one-size-fits-all process. However, there are a few time-tested practices that transcend our individual distinctiveness: prayer, meditation, contemplation,

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