It is official! VCC now has a Triathlon Team

It is official! VCC has a triathlon team

Yes that is correct. As of this past week we now have nine guys registered to participate in the Wendy’s Utrafit Triathlon on June 14th. We have officially started our training with Saturday runs and Sunday bike rides. You are all invited to come along if you wish. We rode thirty miles yesterday and I am a bit sore today! But hey, that is what it is all about. Now some of you may be asking, why do this? Good question, to which I can only answer, just because it is there to do and I love challenges. Actually, though, I truly believe that we should all be doing something to keep ourselves healthy. Whatever that is for you, that is fine, but we should all be doing some kind of exercise if we intend to keep ourselves fully fit for God’s use.
People in general are living significantly below their health, performance, longevity and quality of life potential. As one physician stated it, “We die too long and live too short.” It is our choices much more than genetics, age or gender, that determine health and quality of life. Good health and wellness are not defined as the mere absence of disease, but rather refer to mind, body and spirit operating in harmony, with a full and balanced expression in every major area of life, physical, emotional, relational and especially spiritual. To make wellness-promoting life choices is to live as God intended and as God calls us to live.
A while back I took an online test on a website called “Livetwo100.com. It asked about 1,000 questions, what did I eat, if I worked out what kind of exercises, how many miles I drove a day, what kind of vitamins I took, how my relations were with my wife and children and with my extended family, how I handled stress, and so on, hundreds and hundreds of questions. When I was done I pressed a button and then it gave me an estimate of how old I would live to be and then it even offered some suggestions on things I could do to add some more years, like if I stopped drinking caffine that would add ½ year, if I stopped taking vitamins with iron in it that would add ¼ of a year and so on. So do you want to know how old I am supposed to live to? It said I would live to be 90 years old. But I am protesting that estimate, out of the 1,000 questions I was asked, not one of them asked me about my faith in God. I did a Google search on religious belief and long life. What I found confirmed what I already believed to be true, walking in faith towards God will add years to your life.
For instance; loving and serving others can help you live longer, according to a study from the University of Michigan of 423 older couples for five years. It found that older people who lend a hand to friends, neighbors or relatives, even if it is only helping around the house, reduce their risk of dying by nearly 60% compared to those who never offer help to anyone. The survey’s conclusion, “Our results strongly suggest that helping and loving others makes a difference in terms of health, and adds years to a person’s life.” Jesus said the second great commandment was, “love your neighbor as yourself.” So walking in obedience to Jesus’ command will add years to your life. But what was most astonishing was that one person in four said they had done nothing to help anyone else during the entire five years. They hadn't offered to feed anyone's goldfish, water someone else's plants while they were away, or help a friend or relative. Even a simple act like picking up their neighbor's newspaper would have allowed them to answer in the affirmative. Here is another one. If you regularly attend church you are 29% more likely to live longer. An analysis of dozens of previous studies that suggested longer lifespans for churchgoers was done by the National Institute for Healthcare Research. The studies covered nearly 126,000 people. The report said: “We think this analysis pretty much establishes that church attendance extends a person’s life. The correlation of religious involvement and mortality exists.”
Here is one more. Churchgoers live up to seven years longer than non-attenders, a University of Texas study has found. Researchers found that life expectancy rose when the number of church services attended increased. Those who attended every week had a life expectancy of 82 years. This dropped to 79 years for those who attended less than once a week, and for non-attenders it dropped to about 75 years. The research clearly shows church attendance extends a person’s life. So I am adding another ten years to my survey which means I should be living to be 100 years old!
Maybe you are thinking, “So what, who cares how long you live, what matters is what you do with the years you have.” That is very true, just living long is not enough, it is what we do that really matters. You’ll have to admit though, that you can do more for Kingdom of God if you live long and you live healthy. But I can assure you that God is interested in us living long and living healthy. He speaks about it in many places in His Word. In Exodus 20:12 we read, “Honor your parents and it will go well with you and you will live long.” He is promising us a long and healthy life if we would honor our parents. When we talk about living long it is with the assumption of a long and “healthy” life. One that is productive even into old age. In Psalm 92:14 we read, “They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.” This is God’s will for your life. That you live to an old age and that all your life you stay fresh and green! Psalm 91:16 “With long life (length of days) will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.” God is very interested in how we care for our bodies so that we live long healthy lives. “May God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I Thess 5:23-24.

Live long!
Ps. Dave