In The Four Chaplains: Sacrifice at Sea, Academy Award winning director and producer, James Moll, retells the horrific story of the sinking of the USAT Dorchester on Feb. 3, 1943 by a German U-boat and the heroic efforts of four religiously diverse chaplains who laid aside their differences for the common cause of love for their Soldiers.

These immortal chaplains, as they've come to be known, who sacrificed their lives for their Soldiers remind us all that life is precious and that our commitments to Family, friends and faith truly matter most.

When everything and everyone else is vying for our attention, we are best served to return to our center, the very anchor of our soul, and seek the refreshment and strength that the Lord alone can bring.

So how do we best find this refreshment and strength: the kind of strength that empowered the four chaplains to embody the eternal truth that the greatest love is to lay ones life down for their friend? How do we even begin an exercise plan for spiritual fitness that remotely approaches this level of discipline?

First, we start with where we are and admit honestly that we are lacking or not genuinely in shape.

Physically, it sounds something like this: "I'm not a runner, but I play one in the Army." Religiously speaking, that's hypocrisy. Spiritually speaking, that's soulless. So where are you spiritually? Honestly. How do you measure up?

We know that running builds physical fitness and can be measured, as in an Army physical fitness test, by time over distance traveled. But what of spiritual fitness? How do we measure ourselves against this spiritual discipline of self-sacrifice that the four chaplains embodied?

This kind of fitness is not measured with medical instruments or physical assessment tools, but rather it is discovered in the midst of life's trials and challenges. Nor is this kind of fitness exercised in the gym or on a track, but rather it is strengthened through the rituals of faith, hope and love.

It is through God's goodness and grace that we are provided the means to grow in our spiritual stature: the height of our character, the strength of our resolve, the breadth of our spiritual fitness.

In the letter to the Church at Corinth, the apostle Paul writes: "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified" (I Corinthians 9:24-27).

One of the best phrases that I've ever heard, and often remind myself, was told to me by a seminary professor. He reminded us: "to preach the Gospel to yourself first." This isn't simply a truth for a bunch of preacher-wanna-be's, but especially true for all of us who serve in the Army.

Ours is a business of high demands with lethal consequences and the often-frustrating pressure to do more with less when logic tells us we should only be able to do less with less.

Can you imagine what that morning of Feb. 3, 1943, must have felt like for those Soldiers and their chaplains? When "more" was life itself and "less" was a yellow flotation device. Their physical freedom would be found not by the strength of the mighty Army or their sheer will, but rather by the amazing grace divinely bestowed upon their chaplains who had the spiritual fitness to set aside the chains of prejudice, pride and sin in order to give their very lives to save those who were perishing.

As Christians celebrate the death and resurrection of their Lord Jesus Christ this Easter season, may we be reminded of these words from the author of Hebrews: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:1-2).

My hope and prayer for all who celebrate Easter is that we would not put our trust in our own strength or the heroes of the past, but in the one who has earned a perfect score on God's spiritual fitness test and has credited that score to all who trust in Him.

This is the amazing grace of God who breaks us free of the chain of selfishness, sin and death and offers us everlasting life in His Son, Jesus Christ.

May this Easter be the Easter that you begin anew your journey of spiritual fitness and can genuinely sing, "Amazing grace, my chains are gone."