The Challenge

I am in the middle of reading When the Game is Over It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg. I like his style of writing. Lots of humor. 

This is a quote from the book (p. 52). 

"Mickey Mantle always expected to die very young. When he turned sixty, he commented, "if I had known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself." You --- your inner being ---- will live for eternity. Now is the time to start taking better care of the inner you. We have already read that Paul claimed he was being renewed every day. How? He prayed. He sang. He gave. He fellowshiped. He worshiped. He hoped. And God renewed him. Right there in prison, his inner being was strengthened in faith, hope, love, poise, wisdom, patience, gratitude and joy. It can happen wherever the outer you happens to be. Live in such a way that you prepare yourself for eternity. Here's a concrete place to start: spend as much time caring for the inner you as you spend on the outer you." 

I got to thinking about this as it also tied into the sermon at church this evening which was on spiritual growth. I spend time taking care of the outer me - washing clothes to wear, taking time to dress, showering, brushing teeth, putting make-up on, etc. It takes time out of every day. But do I put as much time into my inner self - developing that and growing spiritually? I think in comparison this gets the short end of the stick. I know I would like to find time to exercise but I also need to find more time to exercise my mind and grow spiritually. While I know I do spend time on this, it was the comparison that really got me to thinking. John Ortberg's challenge is to spend as much time caring for the inner me as I spend on the outer me. This is quite a challenge. I will ponder this and see what ideas I come up with.