Exercise

You can hardly drive down the street anymore without seeing it. People dressed in sweats and t-shirts, usually with ear buds and an i-pod on, running, biking, or speed walking. It's called exercise, and most people don't do it because they enjoy it, they do it because they're supposed to. It's an important part of staying healthy, being fit and skinny (which is essential for our culture's definition of beauty) and to live a longer life. As if running every day will keep death at bay.
There are hundreds more you don't see, who exercise inside their homes or in fancy gyms with all sort of equipment and trainers who help them get the most out of their twenty-thirty minutes of activity.
The thing is, we only need to exercise because our lives are too sedentary. The exercise craze began when activity halted. People started working at desks all day instead of out in the field. Someone who is on their feet for eight hours a day doesn't need to go spend half an hour specifically burning calories the same way someone who sits in a cubicle does. Our bodies were made to be active, and we only have to schedule activity, plan exercise, go out of our way to maintain healthy muscles and bones because our lifestyle no longer naturally gives it to us. If we would get up, get out, and live active lives like we used to, the gym would become obsolete. Kids are obese because they sit in front of video games instead of playing outside.
Sometimes I think the same is true of our spiritual life. People compare Bible study to spiritual exercise. We need to get our twenty-minutes a day in, or else we will loose focus, become more worldly. We have to try hard to work it into our schedule and stay disciplined, or else we'll fall off and not get closer to God.
But the only reason we have to work Bible study into our schedule, the only reason we are in need of spiritual exercise is because we don't live spiritually engaging lives. If we were truly setting out to serve God every day, we would be spiritually healthy. If we served him, we would pray for strength and help in our work. If we walked with him, we wouldn't have to schedule a daily devotional time because we'd be immersed in the Bible already.
When living a spiritual, Christ-centered life becomes something that you have to schedule, have to find time for, it is not Chrsit-centered at all. We shouldn't need to exercise if we would life healthy, active lives. We shouldn't have to worry about our spiritual health if we would actually step up and live spritiual lives. Put God first. Because reading your Bible and praying isn't just your twenty minutes of spritual exercise. It should be the service of your life.