Even though I have made many valiant attempts, I have come to accept that I am not very good at sports.
As a youth, I was “active” in sports, though I never considered myself athletic. I played junior league football from first grade through eighth. I was what, back then, was described as “husky,” which didn’t reflect the attributes of the keen sleekness and agility of a kinesthetic canine, but more that of a portly, cumbersome kid. In fact, it was the size description of the jeans my mom would order for me from the Sears catalog. So the football coaches always put me on the offensive line, which is really more like putting me in the way of a defender than actually doing anything athletic.
I once joined a junior basketball league that had a policy that everyone, no matter the ability, played. To say I wasn’t very good at playing basketball is an understatement. My own teammates would play keep-away from me. When one of our team members had the ball stolen, I overheard one teammate say to another, “At least Dean didn’t get the ball.”
This happened even on the playground. I wouldn’t say I was always the last one picked when teams were chosen – more like I ended up on a team by default, often pursuant to a rock-paper-scissors match to see what team would end up with me.
And yet, there were always those coaches, community volunteers, who keep pushing.
I remember football practices, when the coach would yell for us to take an extra lap or to go through plays again and again and again. I also had coaches who would spend more time with me at batting practice, or fielding grounders, layup drills free throw reps. Looking back, I can truly appreciate their patience and empathize with their frustration.
To me, however, all that extra work, all that pushing, felt less like exercise and more like a bother.
I’ve realized that as I get older and wiser(?), I do want to keep some semblance of health, and I genuinely enjoy sports. So I press on, trying to keep to a regular exercise regimen. I often find it difficult, however, and on some days, even a bother.
In this, I know that I’m not alone.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guidelines say that adults should devote at least 150 minutes per week to aerobic exercises, and at minimum, two days a week doing a muscle-strengthening activity. However, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, only a little over a quarter of Americans are doing so.
Interestingly similar, a 2025 Pew Research Center study found that about that same number (29%) of American Catholics attend Mass regularly.
They also share many of the excuses of inactivity as well: limited time, lack of motivation, and a perception of a great amount of effort over limited results, so many – a majority according to statistics – cannot be bothered.
The Holy Spirit, however, can sometimes feel like a bother because he is constantly pushing us, constantly strengthening us, getting us to flex our spiritual muscles.
Pope Francis once said that the Holy Spirit bothers us. He bothers us, the pope said, “because he moves us, he makes us walk, he pushes the Church to go forward. He is the power of God, he is the one who gives us consolation and strength to move forward. And this bothers us.”
So, we can work to maintain both our physical as well as our spiritual health by embracing the bother. One way to start is to connect our physical struggles with exercise to our struggles with spiritual growth. Consider that exercising is not just for you, but for the stewardship of God’s creation. Saint Francis de Sales said, “Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever; and take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow.”
Offer a physical workout as a spiritual prayer. Saint Ignatius of Loyola said, “Remember that bodily exercise, when it is well ordered … is also prayer by means of which you can please God our Lord.”
Focus on breathing during exercise as a continuous prayer to the Holy Spirit. The Hebrew word “ruach” means wind or breath, a term used for the Holy Spirit. Saint Augustine said, “As our body lives by breathing, so our soul lives by the Holy Spirit.”
While progress may be slow, both physical and spiritual, it is still progress. As Saint Francis de Sales reminds us, “Have patience with all things, but first of all with yourself.”
Deacon Dean Johnson serves at Church of the Holy Family, Sewell.
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