I listen to sermons while exercising.
I know that sounds so Christian it probably makes your teeth hurt, but it’s true. For the last month, whenever I’ve gone jogging, I’ve listened to a sermon on my iPod.
Prior to that, my exercise playlist was a grab bag of songs like this:
Freedom – Rage Against the Machine
B.O.B. – Outkast
Big Casino – Jimmy Eat World
Clubbed to Death – (Kurayamino Variation) – Rob Dougan
Big in Japan – Alphaville
When Doves Cry – Prince
But a few weeks ago my good friend Brannon told me that listening to sermons helps distract him from the distance limits his mind tries to put on his jogging. He can go for longer runs when he’s engaged in listening to a sermon. And it pours truth into him while he exercises. It sounded weird at first, but I downloaded a few podcasts from Erwin McManus, Craig Groeschel and Francis Chan and tried it.
I love it now. It’s turned my evening exercise into this unexpected moment of teaching. Don’t get me wrong, songs like Clubbed to Death and Hysteria by Muse are still the jam, but it’s hard to argue that I’m not getting more out of listening to a sermon than I am the Armand Van Helden remix of “Toxic” by Britney Spears. (I know, I know, not only am I a horrible Christian for having that song on my iPod but I’ve got ridiculously mediocre taste in music as well. Both things are issues. God’s working on the first one but I think He’s given up on my taste in music.)
The other reason I dig the sermons is that I’ve always felt that Christian music is not the greatest exercise music. When I first posted that idea a few months ago, people came up with some suggestions like Family Force 5 and Skillet but I don’t think we ended up with a definitive exercise playlist though.
So what’s on yours?
What Christian music is good to exercise to?
