I was sick a couple of days ago.

I even fell asleep in the gravel driveway on one of my cold sweat, long after midnight trips to the porta potty.

That’s a first for me.

I don’t fall asleep in the driveway very often….but, you know, I don’t usually have to go out to a porta potty to use the ….potty, either.

I guess that desperate times call for something different and desperate.

Yesterday, I was driving around and, for a short amount of the mail route, was thinking about how much of a difference it makes (for me) to be exercising.

I was thinking about how much of a difference it makes in my spiritual life to be exercising.

I guess that you could go to the extreme where your exercise becomes your spiritual side, too…..worshiping at the church of long distance and heavy steel…but, at least for me, feeling good physically helps me concentrate on things outside of the physical.

That’s kind of strange….a weird way to try to put it.

The spiritual is contained in the physical….but bigger than the physical.

I guess that’s the way it works.

That’s probably how it works.

I’ve known people whose “spiritual” seemed to be spilling over the top of their vessel.

Maybe that’s what we call “being charismatic”?

Maybe what I was thinking was just another example of the “wastebasket in the middle of the room” thing….when you move the thing that you trip over, you can see things in a new way.

The journey is a lot easier when you aren’t tripping all the time. (Tell that to a Grateful Dead fan, though…they’d probably disagree….)

If feeling “bad” (or, even, “not fantastic”) is a focus….even in a small way….could I move towards feeling better?

I’m not in discomfort….everything still works….but I know that I can feel pretty great when I’m exercising.

“Pretty great” is a lot better than “OK”.

But….feeling great isn’t a prerequisite for spiritual growth, either.

That kind of shoots down any thoughts about exercise and spiritual well-being, doesn’t it?

I’ve seen people in horrible physical discomfort who transcended or something….who rose up out of the discomfort….who spilled over the top of their broken vessel.

Maybe that’s what I was thinking when I thought that spirit was always bigger than the container?

The body is a temple.

We don’t worship the temple.

The “church” carries us….and holds the spirit.

The church can be whatever holds the spirit.

So….take care of the temple….but remember what you’re worshiping.

It’s not the facility that we worship….but a well-swept floor is a lot less distracting on your way to the pew.

Anyway, how much am I going to figure out in half an hour….before I’ve had any coffee…when I’m thinking about getting ready for work?

I need to get my temple into the kind of shape where I don’t think about it.

That’s what I was thinking.

I think.