A Gym Rat’s Proposed Amendment to the Ten Commandments
I’ll begin this post with an apology to those readers who may be offended by my comments. But, as many people have shared their beliefs with me over the years, I hope you’ll just see this as one personal trainer, not a preacher by any stretch, taking a few moments to share his. And even if parts make you smile, as I hope they do, I’m not mocking anything or anyone, because although presented light heartedly, I’m dead serious about my conclusions.
OK, here we go….
For many of us in our beliefs, God handed down to us, in sometimes painfully clear language, ten rules (or commandments) to let us know exactly what is expected of us. Why did He do this? Because He created us, He knows us well, and he knows our propensity to break them. It’s human nature to break the commandments. We never have to tell our kids “Don’t you dare eat the rest of that broccoli, leave some for the rest of us.” But those brownies? Oh yeah! So, because I am very interested in human nature, I’d like to look at the commandments with human nature in mind.
And it struck me that one of these just doesn’t belong with the other nine, because following it is right in line with human nature. You’ll see. So at the end, as a personal trainer, I will propose another commandment to take the place of the questionable one.
Let’s take a brief look at each of them, in a slightly non-traditional order.
You shall have no other gods before Me. You know, these other gods are all the little voices in our heads that Freud told us about. The voices that can’t deal with the fact that we are bad and hurt someone, so they convince us “It’s OK in this case, because…” – To break this commandment is Human Nature.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image–any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Not so much totem poles and dashboard statues… but the material things in our real lives. Cars. TV’s. Bigger houses. And of course…Money! - To break this is Human Nature.
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain. My father swore a lot when I was little, and so I thought this commandment was going to get nail him come judgment day. But now I see it differently. I see it as us claiming that God is on our side against their fellow man/woman. I smile when baseball players look and point upward in a thank you gesture after a home run. We need to know that the ultimate Dude is cheering for us to beat other bastard. - To break this is Human Nature.
Honor your father and your mother. Have you ever been a teenager? Do you have one now? Oh, once we young ‘uns find ma and pa’s hot buttons, “honoring” doesn’t always rule the day. – To break this is Human Nature.
You shall not murder. All I’ll say here is look at human history. – To break this is Human Nature.
You shall not commit adultery. - Waaayyy too often – the old grass is greener theory… – To break this is Human Nature.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s. My hunch is that this is why so many people are unhappy and frustrated all the time. This “covet” thing is like high blood pressure — it’s a silent killer. We always want more, it’s rule number one in economics and behavioral psychology, and the people around us are constant reminders of what we DON’T have. This one is SO Human Nature that I think our species could reasonably be named Homo Sapiens Covetus. – To break this is Human Nature.
You shall not steal. Not a real big leap from “covet” to “steal”, huh? – To break this is Human Nature.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. ”Hi neighbor. Listen, adulterating with your wife was great. And you know that hundred dollar bill that’s missing from your wallet? At first I just coveted…but then I figured since I already broke THAT commandment, I just went ahead and took it.” So, when you break another commandment, this one kind of becomes the lime after the tequila. – To break this is Human Nature.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. If everybody at birth was told by God “You only have to choose and follow ONE commandment”, could you imagine the line at this booth? It’s a commandment that says relax, take it easy, enjoy the day, put your butt on the couch and whatever you do… DON’T work.” Sure, we break this one from time to time, but usually because we HAVE to, not WANT to. We LIKE relaxing. So it makes me wonder, how did this one get in there? Human nature tells us to conserve energy, right in line with this commandment. So it doesn’t belong. – To break this commandment is NOT Human Nature.
THEREFORE, I propose taking the Sabbath commandment and attaching it to the first one, resulting in “You shall have no gods before me, and you shall remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
This frees us up for a new tenth commandment. As a personal trainer and gym rat, I propose:
“You shall show your appreciation to God by honoring your body, which was a gift from Him.” It is written that we were created directly by His hands, in His own image. If the body is entrusted to accompany the soul during its stay in this material world, and to carry out His will…then I have to believe that we’re supposed to honor it and take great care of it. And to do otherwise would be wrong.
Eat healthy, stop your unhealthy addictions, manage your stress, and exercise regularly.
The late Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine said “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” Now, he didn’t offend anybody with this quote, because he didn’t say this should be one of the ten commandments. I went ahead and made that my job.
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Reach me at thinwizzyfit@gmail.com, and feel welcome to link up with me through Facebook (Mark Wierzbinski).
