Hi, my name is Mitchell Smith and I am an athlete.  I have always been an athlete.  I remember being four and having the training wheels taken off of my bike; swimming at age five against eight-year-olds; and I remember with fondness my time as a state champion swimmer, baseball player, and multiple time All-American.  To say that health, fitness, and sport is a large part of my life and the life of my family is an understatement.  But there are also other pieces of my life.  I am a husband to an awesome wife (also an athlete), and a father to two beautiful children.  Along with these things, I am a religious and spiritual person who is an Episcopal priest in Waterloo, IA.

In college, church represented an escape from the team. Training twice a day 6 days a week was a lot.  Church on Sunday was a way for me to decompress.  It offered me a sense of quiet and calm that I feel like I lacked in other weekly activities.  In a career that ended with injury and burnout prayer offered me a sense of relief from the emotional and physical knowledge that my goals were slipping from my grasp.

In seminary the role of sport in my life switched.  Athletics were an escape from campus life.  While others were in chapel for morning or evening prayer, I was at the Y or on a run with my wife.  When others were studying in their carols at the library, I was often coaching swimming, running, or biking.  At a time when my wife and I were broke sport and training offered together time that didn’t cost much and it was a release from tension that came with theological study.  In both instances, the escape worked, but like any escape it had a cost.  In college, I believe that I often missed or dodged opportunities to share my faith with others, while I witnessed others taking friends/teammates to church I refrained choosing to attend services alone. In seminary, I never shared to the full potential my athletic experience and how it had formed me. 

As a young adult, new father and a young rector replacing a beloved retiring priest, my time became limited and my self-compartmentalized lines crumbled. Keeping work and family life separate while maintaining time for sport was impossible.  The long hours of work that came from being new in a career that I longed to be good at sapped my energy, time, and in some ways my identity.  While I managed to dodge the “freshman 15” in college, I put on 25 pounds in my first year of ministry and I found my self in an unhappy place.  First my time for sport dwindled, than my family time, then my prayer time.  Over weight and unhealthy I realized that I was not the priest, husband, father or athlete that I wanted to be.  My work had consumed my loves and my life was out of balance.  In some absolutely pitiful races, which I thought I could do based on a self-image that had ceased to represent reality; I realized that I was not being a good husband, father, priest, or athlete.  I needed to change. 

I had to understand and embrace that as a person I am an athlete.  It’s who I am, it’s who my wife married and it is who to some extent I hope that I always will be.  I am happy when I run, when I ride, or when I swim.  I am also happy and fulfilled when I pray, when I preach, and when I teach.  Instead of keeping these pieces separate, I had to make a decision for my own wellbeing to embrace a new identity.  I believe passions are gifts from God.  My passions are my wife and children, my sports, and my church.  I believe that mission happens when the service of God and our neighbor is combined with our passions.  Sports could in many ways be infused with my ministry and exercise could be a form of prayer.  When I am alone on a run and I settle into my breathing and can hear the rhythm of my footsteps on the pavement, or the subtle whoosh of the wind through the wheels of my bike, I often find myself praying. I pray for people in my congregation; I pray for my family; I pray for the world and the church.  I pray and breathe and run and I am. It is not flashy like a player pointing to heaven after a touchdown, rather it is a simple part of the routine.  Sport for me is still a safe haven but instead of keeping it to myself I share it when I am asked or it seems appropriate because it is who I am.

I encourage everyone to exercise and eat right.  If you have loved sport but have fallen away I encourage you to play/compete.  No one can deny the physical benefits that are clearly a part of healthy physical activity and healthy eating, but in terms of overall health I encourage a holistic approach.  Be healthy in your relationships with God, your neighbors, and your passions.  Be balanced in your day and allow your relationship with God to be celebrated in the activities that bring you joy.  Be authentic to yourself and pick activities and patterns that help you be a complete person.  For now I feel most healthy and whole as a person when I do sports and embrace athletics.  My prayer in writing this is that your definition of health may include the physical, the spiritual, and the passionate (what ever that passion may be).

The Rev. Mitchell Smith serves as Rector to Trinity Episcopal Church in Waterloo, Iowa.

Body, Mind, and Spirit
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Prior to becoming an Episcopal priest, I had the privilege to spend a collective 20 years teaching and coaching on the recreational and collegiate level, as well as compete as an undergraduate student athlete.  Exercise and training was indeed necessary for the demands of competition, but more importantly, it became clear to me that maintaining a reasonably active life physically beyond the confines of an athletic or professional career was essential to my health, well-being, balance... >>>

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A Few Resources

Not sure where to start in incorporating a healthy emphasis on exercise, activity and play into your ministry or life? Start with some of these sites and resources... >>>