WORKOUT:  1.  This week spend time thinking about what you think about.  2.  Thing about these things (Phil. 4:8)

For the past couple of months I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about — stuff.  House stuff, gardening stuff, work stuff, family stuff, ocean stuff.  Not too much spiritual stuff.  Not much of the stuff that strengthens my soul just a lot of lounging on the spiritual couch.  So, now it’s the start of a new year and nothing like that turn into January to get me thinking about spirituality and soul fitness again.

TOMA
I guess one of the good things about going to church every Sunday is that you’re reminded (gently or otherwise depending on your persuasion) about that soul part of you.  Since I haven’t been attending church (you should probably ask why so I have to explain it) that at-least-once-a-week-reminder hasn’t been in place and I’ve had to try to keep it TOMA on my own.  In the marketing/business world lingo TOMA stands for Top Of Mind Awareness and it’s what commercials are designed to get from you.  When you’re hungry, McDonald’s wants you to think of a Big Mac FIRST before any other hamburger, taco or pizza.  If you do, then Mikey D’s would be at your TOMA. My life TOMA recently has been filled with stuff non-spiritual.

You are What You Think About
Gluten-free, Fat-free, free-range, sugar-free, grass-fed — the adjectives that describe the quality of our food are now increasingly entering our awareness.  That old adage “you are what you eat” is more relevant than ever with the premise being if you want to be healthier eat better food.  I can follow that for the body but what about the soul?  How do I get soul healthy, soul fit? What do I need to eat?  What pill can I take?  What book series, sermon, church/pastor, cd, should I read, listen to attend??

I have a short answer for you:  whichever, whatever or whoever helps you to keep that spiritual part of you at the highest TOMA, the longest and most consistently.  For some people that means going to church on Sunday morning and evening and mid-week fellowship groups.  For others those exercises are more distracting than focusing.

One guy I talked to recently told me that he used to spend his Sundays looking for God at church.  He said that the politics and problems in that community were so frustrating for him that he gassed up his dirt bike and has been spending his Sundays looking for, and more often meeting with, God up in the mountains on the trails.

Others find that regularly reading the bible in the morning, spending quiet times with God, listening to certain types of music before they begin their day stays with them through their day.

Use it or Lose it
Normally, the soul, the spirit, almost by definition, is intangible, that which we cannot touch, see, hear with our normal senses.  There are physical things, though, tangible things like books, music, etc., that affect the spiritual part of me, some more than others.  Certain people even help me to keep my attention on spiritual things.  If I want to be stronger spiritually, if I want my soul to be fit, I must use it, exercise it, turn it on, more often and with increasing intensity.

Where Your Attention Goes, Your Energy Flows
So, what do we think about?  Think about it.  What touches your soul?  What reaches your spirit?  Paul the Apostle, in his letter to the church at Phillippi, says

“whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

This is the workout this week:  Focus our attention on such things for as long as we can, AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible). Post times and challenges and thoughts to comments.