Peace is the harvest of an honest life. Getting there requires examining oneself while acting on each subsequent self-evaluation with enlightenment. Obviously, it takes discipline to live this way. At the time, it can be excruciatingly painful, but if I follow through the stations of vulnerability, to an epiphany, to service, I become trained by the process and enjoy the resulting privileged benefits of reaping the peaceful harvest of an honest life.
Fads come and go, but none more so in our age of body glorification than forms of exercise. Currently, one regiment that touts itself as the all and in all answer to our woes is circuit training. The philosophy behind circuit training is that a person who engages in continual bursts of exercise, targeting different specific muscle groups, at warp speed, will have the promise of overall physical wellness.
Let’s make this into a spiritual comparison. For me, to be fit spiritually, I must be an active participant in God’s individualized circuit training of my heart. The goal of cyclical working out of an honest life is peace. The circuit stations are diligent self-examination, implementation of subsequent epiphanies, and acts of service for others and for my own soul.
What honest self-evaluation have you exercised lately?
Now all discipline seems painful at the time, not joyful. But later, it produces the fruit of peace and righteousness for those trained by it.