Thursday, March 3, 2011

BOOK REVIEW: Where Fitness Meets Faith by Kimberley J. Payne

Kimberley Payne, a former personal fitness trainer, used her knowledge of the human body to develop devotionals to strengthen one's faith in God. Educated in kinesiology, she learned about muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments, and she knows how one affects the other and how to exercise them properly. In addition to exercise, the author also uses examples of caring for our bodies and spiritual minds. For example:

When I am mindful of what I eat I truly enjoy it. I look to it as a source of pleasure and nourishment. When I treat food with respect I treat my body with respect. It is the same with my Christian behaviour. Some days, I tend to get lazy with my worship of God and just go through the motions. I may attend church but my mind is tending to other matters. When I am not mindful of my prayers and just pay lip service to them, they come only from my mind but not my heart. It is not enough just to practice spiritual rituals. I must worship God with my heart as well as my mouth.

As a writer, Kimberley describes how daily devotions helps her with her craft:

Generally after my morning walk, I return home to hot coffee and my pen and paper. I spend one hour writing. I record any enlightenment God has shown me and I reflect on the prayers I had offered up. It’s a time for me to not only talk with God, but to listen for a response.

The author recommends finding a quiet space, reading, walking, and writing. One way to start the writing process, she says, is to list five new things each day for which you are grateful.

Where Fitness Meets Faith is a collection of Kimberley’s Today’s Faith devotional columns that relate pursuing a healthy lifestyle to building a relationship with God. It is short, but packed with useful information you can read over and over again. These sixteen devotions were first published as “Today’s Faith” column in the Millbrook Times and Cornwall Seaway News between 2003-2007.

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