When someone doesn’t like a word or phrase he or she tends to replace it with another word or phrase more suitable for their hearing. The Christian church has done this with the word “Evangelism.” They hear this term and it immediately conjures up Bible thumpers knocking from door to door asking if you know Jesus as your Lord and personal Savior. While for others it conjures up the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others who knock on doors for religious purposes. At one point, in an attempt to rally church-goers to participate in the Great Commission, Christians stopped using this word and called it Serving. Then, when that became unpopular in church culture, we changed the name again to Community Service - all to make the term sound better. Whatever you or I call it in Christendom it’s still Evangelism: the sharing of the Good News of Christ Jesus. In the fitness and health industry, we have exchanged the big “E” (Exercise) for “Movement.” Sometimes, when people get tired of this term we switch to “Activity.”
Terms Change But Mean The Same
Terms themselves may change, but the meaning remains the same no matter how many times you change it. In Bible college, I remember when the professor in my Hermeneutics class used the illustration of the word “babe.” Babe could mean a great deal of things depending on your context. Babe could be used to speak of a “hot girl” or the word could be used to describe a “little pig.” Also, a newborn baby can be referred to as a babe. You can easily understand that depending on the context, the meaning of a term can change. However, with the big “E” (Exercise) we are still talking about matters of life, health, and fitness.
I Detest The Term
A majority of my life I’ve detested (actually, downright hated) the term Exercise. For me, the pictures this term conjures up is me as a fat guy on a treadmill breathing hard, sweating profusely, and giving off a funky body odor coming from my body and clothes, as my fat rubs. I also see huge bodybuilders that look larger than a 747 airplane who eat steel and spit out nails of speech screaming in my face to “move that fat a$$ you girly-man” because I was not able to lift heavy weights.
My Thot: is that the truth which finally gripped my heart was the term Exercise is not a bad thing. It shouldn’t matter to you/me/we how the term is changed, it still will be referring to our life, health, and fitness journey. So, I say embrace the terms interchangeably and enjoy the journey. What are you waiting on? MOVE… LOL Comment below, and don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to receive blog updates in your inbox.
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