The Snoozy Sluggard & The First Feet on Everest

🔎 In This Fit Tip Friday 

 Inside you'll find:

• Tip: The snoozy sluggard

• Finds: This peanut butter Greek yogurt + dark chocolate chip recipe (and more)

• Story: The first feet on Mount Everest

• Quote: The attitude in the altitude

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🦥 The Snoozy Sluggard

The sluggard is a ridiculous yet tragic character in the book of Proverbs.

• He is observed sleeping when he should be working (Proverbs 6:9, 19:15, 24:33, 26:14)

• He is an unreliable team member (Proverbs 10:26)

• He is enslaved to his own desires (Proverbs 13:4, 21:25)

• His field that he should be stewarding and managing lies overgrown and infested (Proverbs 24:31)

• He makes laughable and ridiculous excuses (Proverbs 22:13, 26:13)

• He considers himself wiser than all (Proverbs 26:16)

The sluggard is illustrative of how not to approach work. And he can give us a lens by which we can think about exercise biblically, especially when we consider the result of the sluggard’s lack of work.

What happens to the sluggard’s field?

This is exactly what happens to our bodies when we characteristically don’t use our strength.

Our bodies become like that field overgrown with thorns. Our bones weaken, our waistlines expand, our strength diminishes, and our heart health declines.

But there is hope!

The sluggard is given instruction… which is to go on a field trip and watch the ant at work, to consider her ways, and to be wise (Proverbs 6:6).

The ant uses her strength with diligence. She plans ahead, she works her field ahead of time, and she enjoys the fruits of her labor (Proverbs 6:6-8).

This is what happens when we use our strength. Our bodies turn into a cultivated field. Our bones strengthen, our waistline shrinks, our strength increases, and our heart health improves.

We all have sluggard tendencies. And it’s by God’s grace that we can learn from the ant… we can roll up our sleeves, not neglect our strength nor our field, and work in and unto Christ.

Click here to read the full article I wrote on this

🔎 Finds This Week

Here are some of my favorite finds this week:

• This peanut butter Greek Yogurt + dark chocolate chip recipe (more)

• This simple video explains the basic concepts behind TDEE (more)

• C.S. Lewis’ target daily routine, including an almost 2-hour walk (more)

• The three kettlebell exercises a doctor recommends to start with (more)

• 7 upper back stretches for pain relief (more)

• Why back pain can be aggravated by sitting (more)

• What are ultra-processed foods and are they bad for our health? (more)

🏔️ The First Feet on Mount Everest

You can read the following post on my website if that’s preferable for you.

Stories of strength, heroes, risk takers, and bravery inspire us to get off the couch and get into action. This is one of the reasons I share a story in every newsletter.

This week’s story is about the first men on the summit of Mount Everest.

Mount Everest is an imposing mountain. Located in Nepal, it’s summit is a whopping 29,031 feet over sea level.

To put that height in perspective, a two story house is typically ~20 feet tall… which means that you would have to stack over 1,400 houses on top of each other to reach Everest’ summit.

Amazing. And our God made that.

In 1953, Great Britain put forward two teams of two men that would both attempt to summit Everest. The first team was Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans, and the second team was Edmund Hillary and Tenzing.

Here’s what it took for the first summit of Everest:

• An expedition party with with 400 people, including 362 porters and 20 Sherpas.

• 10,000 pounds of baggage.

• One failed attempt. On May 26th, Bourdillon and Evans made the first attempt to summit the mountain, but had to turn back when they were 300 feet from the top due to bad weather and oxygen system failure.

On May 28th, Hillary and Tenzing made their attempt to summit Everest.

But this was not any easier for them.

During the climb, Hillary’s boots had frozen solid. He had to spend 2 hours warming them over a stove before he was ready to continue.

When they were 28,000 feet above sea level, the two men had to ascend a 40-foot rock face.

But the two men made it to the top, climbing into the history books as the first men to summit Everest.

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I’ll see you next week.

Be strong,

Don

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