Stewarding the Body God Gave You
The morning started like most mornings do. My alarm went off at 5:47, and before my feet hit the floor I had already mentally catalogued everything demanding my attention. Emails. A sermon to finish. Three meetings. A family in crisis that needed a call. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, stood up, and felt it before I even made it to the kitchen: my lower back, stiff and tight, an old complaint from years of sitting too long and moving too little.
I told myself what I always told myself: “I’ll get to it this week.”
That morning a friend texted me a simple question: “You want to walk?”
I almost said no. I had too much to do. But something in me knew that saying yes to that walk was not a detour from my calling. It was part of it.
We walked for forty minutes. We talked about our families, our fears, our faith. By the time I got back to my desk, my back felt better, my head was clearer, and I had said more of consequence in that walk than in the three meetings that followed.
That morning reset something in me. And it began to raise a question I could not shake: What if moving my body was never meant to be optional?
Designed to Move
We were not made to sit still. Go all the way back to the beginning and you see it immediately. God placed Adam in a garden and gave him work to do. There was planting and tending, walking and naming, building and creating. The human body was woven into the fabric of God’s purposes from the very first chapter of the story.
Jesus, fully God and fully human, did ministry in a body. He walked everywhere. Miles of dusty roads to reach one woman, one leper, one tax collector. He carried wood. He fished. He cooked breakfast on a beach. He knelt in the dirt to heal. The incarnation is God’s permanent statement on the dignity and purpose of the physical body. He did not come to dismiss the body. He came to redeem it.
That is why the apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” And in Romans 12:1 he goes further: “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
Read that again. Presenting your body is described as spiritual worship.
This is not the language of optional. This is the language of calling.
The Body You Have Is the Body You Were Given
Here is what no one in the gym culture will tell you, and what the Christian life has always known: your body does not belong to you. You are a steward of it. God designed it, formed it, breathed life into it, and entrusted it to you for the duration of this life and the mission He has called you to carry.
That changes everything about why we move.
You do not move to chase a certain look. You do not train to impress anyone or to earn a better version of yourself. You move because the body God gave you is meant to be available, present, and ready for the life He has called you to live. As the Fitness section of Made For This puts it: “Your body doesn’t have to be impressive. It just has to be available.”
Think about what that means practically. Can you go where God calls you to go? Can you carry what He has asked you to carry? Can you keep up with the people you are supposed to walk beside? Those are stewardship questions, not vanity questions.
What Movement Actually Is
Movement is not a punishment for the food you ate. It is not a performance for anyone to witness. Movement is the act of honoring the instrument God gave you so you can show up fully for the people and purposes He has placed in front of you.
Movement builds endurance so you can sustain your sacrifice, not just sprint through a season.
Movement clears your mind so you can think with clarity about the decisions that matter.
Movement trains your will so that showing up even when you do not feel like it becomes a practiced discipline rather than an occasional accident.
And movement, done in rhythm rather than reaction, is actually one of the most tangible ways to practice trust. When you stop long enough to walk, to stretch, to breathe, to rest, you are declaring to your own soul: I am not God. He holds it together when I slow down.
That is not weakness. That is faith in motion.
What It Can Look Like
Movement does not require a gym membership, a training plan, or two hours a day. It requires intention and consistency. If you want a framework to build from, chadspriggs.com/fitness lays out what a sustainable, purposeful approach to physical stewardship can look like. It is not the only way, but it is a great place to start.
The principle underneath any good approach is this: rhythms beat routines. Routines are rigid. Rhythms are sustainable. A morning walk. A stretch before you pray. A bike ride with your kids after dinner. A committed day of rest built into your week. These simple, repeatable actions done consistently do more to steward your body than the most intense program you can only maintain for three weeks.
Made For This offers a picture of this: “You don’t need a personal record. You don’t need a beach body. You need to be able to love your family, lead your church, carry the load of everyday life, and not fall apart while doing it.”
That is a standard everyone reading this can work toward.
Movement Is Ministry
There is something else about movement that rarely gets said in fitness culture but is at the heart of the Christian life: your physical presence is a ministry tool.
Think of the people in your life who showed up in their bodies when you needed them. The friend who drove three hours just to sit with you. The mentor who walked with you every Tuesday morning for a year. The pastor who showed up at the hospital at 2 a.m. Your capacity to be present, available, and physically there for people is connected to how well you are stewarding your body.
Jesus used His body to bring people close. We are called to do the same.
When you are strong, you can serve. When you are rested, you can listen. When you have built margin into your physical life, you have more of yourself to give to the people who need you.
Your body is how you get to the people God has called you to love.
Two Questions Worth Sitting With
Before you move on with your day, take a moment with these:
When was the last time you genuinely asked yourself whether your physical life is prepared for the mission God has placed in front of you, and what did you find when you answered honestly?
If you treated the stewardship of your body with the same intentionality you give your spiritual disciplines, what would change this week?
Those are not questions designed to produce guilt. They are questions designed to produce movement.
Join the Thursday Athlein Challenge
If you are ready to take a step and want a community to do it with, the Thursday Athlein Challenge is a great place to begin. It is a weekly opportunity to commit to movement alongside others who understand that physical stewardship is part of faithful living. Show up, move your body, and do it as an act of worship.
You do not have to be in perfect shape. You just have to be willing to start.
Go Deeper with Made For This
If this conversation is stirring something in you, I want to invite you to pick up a copy of Made For This: Living Fully in Christ Through What Matters Most. It is not just a fitness book. It is a whole-life framework for following Jesus well across four essential areas: Faith, Family, Fitness, and Finance.
You will find a biblical perspective on movement and physical stewardship, but also on building a marriage that reflects Christ, raising disciples instead of just children, and handling money in ways that reflect the generosity and contentment of the gospel. Each section is practical, honest, and grounded in Scripture.
You were made for more than getting through each day. You were made to live fully, to love deeply, and to leave something worth leaving behind.
Pick up the book. Take the walk. Show up in your body for the life God has given you.
You were made for this.
Chad Spriggs is a life coach, pastor, and author based at chadspriggs.com. His C4 Coaching Model helps individuals, ministry leaders, and families move from stuck to momentum through gospel-centered clarity.