Get Fit!! A Makoever "Fit for Heaven"

      In church the day after Christmas, we were singing hymns as usual.  One of my favorites because of the soft music and the sweet  lyrics, has always been "Away in a Manger."  Singing like I always do, with tears in my eyes, I got to the last verse, and the words hit me.  ".....Be near me Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay, close by me forever and love me I pray.  Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care, and fit us for Heaven to live with Thee there." 
      The part that got to me was the "Fit us for Heaven part."  How do you get fit for Heaven?  Every time I turn on the TV these days, there is an info-mercial for some sort of exercise equipment, diet program, or excercise DVD.  I recently had gastric bypass surgery and have lost a good deal of weight and needed to shape up.  A lot of my friends are going to Zumba classes, the newest Latin dance exercise craze. They claim that it is so much fun, it doesn't seem like exercise and they miss it when they don't go.  Since I am very clumsy due to a leg injury several years ago, I didn't think I needed to embarass myself by trying to "Zumba" in public.  So I fell victim to a Zumba informercial and bought the DVD.  It comes with arm weights that look a lot like those shaker exercise things that are advertised in a different infomercial, and "guarantees" that you will lose two dress sizes in two weeks or something like that.  I don't really believe that, but I figure it IS exercise, and I need to exercise.  So I am now the proud owner of a Zumba DVD, and so far, it has been fun...I've just got to learn the dances....in the privacy of my own home!
      One article I read said that Americans as a whole spend 46 billion dollars on diets and fitness in a given year.  I sell Avon and know how much women spend on beauty products, and I know how much I spend myself, trying to slow dow the mid-life aging issues that have hit me lately.  Now that I can wear them, I have spent a lot of money lately on new clothes, more stylish clothes than I could wear 100 pounds ago.  So I guess I am trying to get fit, and the rest of the world is right there with me.
      But what about Jesus?  What about the baby in the manger that we are asking to "fit us for Heaven?"  How do you get fit for Heaven?  Do we spend as much time trying to get for Heaven as we do getting fit for this world?  If we truly admit it, most of us want to get fit in order to look better, not for health reasons.  But I for one know I need to work on my spiritual fitness.  I am a Chistian, I try to live my life the way I should, but I mess up a lot.  Being fit for Heaven?  Would I be fit; would I pass the fitness test?  Endurance, repititions, strength.  The Lord is going to give us a new body, a glorious body.  1 Corinthians tells us that our spiritual bodies will be glorious, impersihable, powerful and spiritual.  But what about the inside?
    I need to do a complete "extreme makeover" on myself.  I have a beauty routine, and selling Avon has made me more aware of what is there to help me along. I use cleanser to get the dirt and the old used elements off of my face.  When we are clean, we feel better, we feel new.  Jesus has come to cleanse us,to make us feel new.  I have been frustrated about several things lately, and have reacted in anger and bitterness toward the rest of the world.  I have got to work on cleansing an purifying my heart, the way the Lord wants it.
  After my face is clean, I use a moisturizer and several other products to try to fend off the aging process.  Got to get rid of the spots, the wrinkles, the other imperfections.  But if I really think about it, those lines are there because of the way I live my life.  If I smile, I get smile lines; if I frown, I get frown lines.  My attitude and outlook will go a long way toward getting rid of the imperfections, both inside and out. 
    Makeup.  First the concealer...I don't even like to think about what all I need to hide with the concealer.  I try to cover it up, but I also realize that they are going to come back.  No cover up will take away what is really wrong.  My heart has got to be pure and clean and free of anything that needs to be concealed.  Then comes the foundation.  The basis for all the other makeup.  Jesus will be my foundation...the base, the rock I have under everything else to hold it all in place.
  Then the extras...the eyes, the cheeks, the lips.  Eyeshadow is supposed to make my eyes look more open, more noticable. If I had to pick a feature that I thought was my best feature, it would be my eyes.  The Lord has given us eyes to see, and ears to hear what he has to tell us.  So instead of trying to make the workd notice my eyes, I have to use those eyes to watch, and to read and to help me to know the Lord in every way.  I like bright colors on my lips, and usually use the "stay on all day" lip color.  But instead of worrying so much about if they are showing, I need to work on what they are saying.  Speaking love for all, using language that reflects that I am a Christian instead of of ths world...that is all the beauty I need for my lips.
    Clothing myself in "righteousness, splendor and majesty."  Those are the words used in the Bible.  While I am enjoying wearing cuter, more stylish clothes these days, I do need to make sure that my main garments are those of the Lord, reflecting His glory and not mine.
      When it all gets put together, I hope that I  look better....I have often joked that if I go out without my makeup, the world would think it was Halloween.  But more importantly, to be fit for heaven, I have got to work on my inner fitness.  I will be judged not on how tight my abs are, how many pushups I can do, or by the fashions of this world.  I will be fit for Heaven according to the fitness test that will be given by my Lord, and I just hope I am fit enough to pass it!!