As trainers we often measure progress by improved form, cardiovascular gains, strength and speed. There is another measure of progress that is grossly underused; agility.
I don’t mean the swift-footed leopard like agility. I speak of an inner fitness prowess that manifests in our emotions when our workouts don’t go the way we want them too, or in our perception when our progress looks more like regress.
Agility is “the ability to move quickly and easily” according to the dictionary. To react to the uncontrollable circumstances that face us with agility of mind and soul takes practice.
I recently went out for my regular trail run and discovered that I was feeling so tired that all I could do well, was walk. So walk I did. BUT, I didn’t just walk with a begrudging resentment, but I savored the magnificent purple and brilliant yellow wild flowers, celebrated the sun warming my skin and the two legs beneath me faithfully moving in synchronicity.
Fitness, like life doesn’t FIT perfectly into the order and structure we recovering type as want it to. It’s HOW we respond to the disappointments, the losses and the rerouted plans is what reveals our progress in agility. Do we honor the bigger plans of God, or do we push to get our way in a world that is far more complicated then our agenda. Do we swiftly find the purpose and beauty in the reality, or do we cling with a death grip to our unattainable plans allowing frustration to poisoning our soul.
Perhaps agility IS THE mark of TrU fitness we should be measuring our progress with? Because with out agility of soul, we are missing the purpose of why we are even living in a body in the first place.1 timothy 4:8 “…while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.