OK, so it's Thursday night last week. I'm running with the club and we have just conquered a particulary nasty hill. We get to the top and our wobbly legs force us to walk for a few moments. And as we do, the guy next to me (not a Christian) says to everyone and no one inparticular;

'Man, that was spiritual!'

I don't say anything, I am just trying to suck oxygen into my lungs.

Without wanting to be too harsh on the guy, my take on him is that he is a trendy coffee and book store kind of guy, opinionated and inner city-ish, but without the clout to back it up. He may be a bit of a poser.

So it is kind of a 'cool meets interllectual' thing to say, right?

I take it that he meant running up the hill was so bloody hard and painful that it took him to the transcedant (or at least that he was suggesting that it was the kind of experience that could do that sort of thing).

But as we ran down the other side I thought to myself that actually, he is spot on. It was spiritual, but not in the way he meant it.

"For everything God created is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is recieved with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer." 2 Tim 4:4-5

Even big, sweaty hills (at twilight on a summers evening).

It occured to me however that a few sentences later appears a verse that he really needed to hear;

"For physical training is of some value but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."

Scott