The Life of the Body E-Book

Valerie E. Hess

• Herausgeber: IVP Formatio
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Seitenzahl: 311

Beschreibung

What does exercise have to do with our souls?How do our sleeping habits relate to being conformed to the likeness of Christ?What do our bodies have to do with spiritual formation?Valerie Hess has taken up these questions with her spiritual formation graduate students. And Lane Arnold has processed them with others as a spiritual director. They have discovered that the life of our bodies has quite a bit to do with the life of our souls.Together they have written a book that helps readers explore - choices about what we eat - worshiping with our bodies - seasons of life for body and soul - caring for the planet - and moreEach chapter has reflection questions and creative exercises to help you engage body and soul with these themes. This is not just a book to read. It's an invitation to a new way of experiencing God.

Leseprobe

The Life of the Body

Physical Well-Being and Spiritual Formation

Valerie E. Hess Lane M. Arnold

www.IVPress.com/books

Formatio books from InterVarsity Press follow the rich tradition of the church in the journey of spiritual formation. These books are not merely about being informed, but about being transformed by Christ and conformed to his image. Formatio stands in InterVarsity Press’s evangelical publishing tradition by integrating God’s Word with spiritual practice and by prompting readers to move from inward change to outward witness. InterVarsity Press uses the chambered nautilus for Formatio, a symbol of spiritual formation because of its continual spiral journey outward as it moves from its center. We believe that each of us is made with a deep desire to be in God’s presence. Formatio books help us to fulfill our deepest desires and to become our true selves in light of God’s grace.

InterVarsity Press P.O. Box 1400 Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426 World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com E-mail: [email protected]

© 2012 by Valerie E. Hess and Lane M. Arnold

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at www.intervarsity.org.

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

While all stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information in this book have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.

Cover design: Cindy Kiple Interior design: Beth Hagenberg Images: A woman on beach: Fred Froese/iStockphoto orange slice: © Dimitris Stephanides/iStockphoto

Valerie’s Dedication

For John, Maggie and Lydia:

God’s great gifts and the source of

much of what is good in my life.

Lane’s Dedication

To the joys of my heart who journey

with me to the wild, inviting heart

of Jesus, the One ever for us,

bringing new freedoms:

Beloved Robert,

without whom second chances would be just

an old country love song, instead of

a daily serenade of joy

Susannah,

whose sass and risk-taking encourage my own

Nathan,

whose tales bring long laughter and longer talks

Jeremy,

whose steadfast heart steadies my own

Christina,

who is ever expectant with hope and good cheer

Jonathan,

Contents

Introduction: Here’s the Question

1. Jesus Has a Body

2. Bodies Within the Body

3. Our Body in Worship

4. Toward a Blanced Lifestyle

5. A Theology of Food

6. Questioning Cultural Messages

7. Extremes Examined

8. The Body Gone Awry

9. Seasoned Well

10. The Next Generation

11. Caring for the Planet

Conclusion

Going On from Here

Acknowledgments

Appendix A: Holy Habits for the Whole Body

Appendix B: The Bible and the Body

Appendix C: Resources

Appendix D: Small Group Study Guide

Notes

Other Books in This Series

Discovering Our Spiritual Identity: Practices for God's Beloved

Sanctuary of the Soul: Journey into Meditative Prayer

The Fire of the Word: Meeting God on Holy Ground

Longing For God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion

Renovaré

About the Authors

Valerie E. Hess

Lane M. Arnold

Endorsements

Introduction Here’s the Question

I(Valerie) teach a practicum in the spiritual disciplines for the Master of Arts in Spiritual Formation and Leadership (MSFL) program at Spring Arbor University. I require students to choose a way to discipline their bodies along with learning new tools to discipline their minds, emotions and spirits. This assignment springs from the idea that the definition of “wholeness” includes being fully integrated as a human being, body, mind and spirit; therefore, physical health and spiritual formation are closely related. Wanting to more fully explore the question “Is the physical body and its health relevant to spiritual formation, and if so, how?” I chose to test that theory on a wider group by making a bodily discipline a requirement of the class.

Some students find this a curious requirement. What could exercise, resting more or losing some weight have to do with the loftier goal of being conformed to the likeness of Christ? What do our bodies have to do with spiritual formation? In the course, students choose bodily disciplines, such as adding in exercise, giving up some onerous eating habit, like sugar or soda pop, or committing to more sleep each week.

After teaching several rounds of the course, a real connection became clear. My students and I noticed the relationship between what was happening in our bodies and what was happening in our souls. The most obvious connection came for all of us during the discipline of fasting unit, but surprisingly, it also started to make sense within other spiritual discipline practices such as prayer, worship and Bible study. In final papers, students often reflected on the connections between what they were doing to discipline their body and how they were seeking to discipline other aspects of their life. One student shared this in the final paper:

Where in life have you noticed an intersection between how your body feels and how your spirit responds to God?

Why a bodily discipline? How does this help my spiritual formation and the practice of the spiritual disciplines? When I take care of my body, with good food and an active lifestyle, I can tell the difference in other parts of my life. When I am more mentally alert, more joyful, and well rested, I can see the difference in so many other areas of my life. While I am reading a book, working on homework, or doing one of my many crazy job responsibilities, I feel more up to the task. This feeling of joy and productiveness only increases when I combine this bodily discipline with the spiritual disciplines. The combination of the two allows me to take on the world with a new kind of enthusiasm.[1]

Connecting the Dots Between Body and Soul

I (Lane) came to this topic from a different perspective, over the course of a lifetime. I grew up in the South, surrounded by comfort foods galore. Every meal contained sweets: sweet rolls or coffee cake for breakfast, cookies and ice cream at lunch, and some kind of delicious cake, cobbler or other confectionary for dessert at dinner. Sweet tea and cola were the beverages most likely served at any given meal. Unsurprisingly, I have a sweet tooth.

If it wasn’t sweet, it was usually fried or lightly breaded. Biscuits, cornbread and rolls topped with butter, jam, jelly or gravy were standard fare in the South when I grew up. Exercise for girls, however, was not standard fare.

Being a home economics major with a child development concentration, college work focused on how children developed, as well as nutrition and body care during prenatal, infant and childhood years. During one semester, when living in the home economics house as required, we integrated our daily life and daily learning. Budgeting, healthy eating, purchasing foods from the perimeter of the grocery store and meals together demonstrated integration of our book learning. A subtle shift began in what I ate and how I exercised.

My exploration of food and exercise continued while caring for my body during pregnancy and childbirth, then raising three children. Like most young seminary students’ families, the budget created the bottom line. I aimed for creating healthy baby food, alternative sweet treats, and meals that were nutritious and delicious, made from scratch. As you can imagine, however, with three children under three-and-a-half years old, some days I was just thankful to get any semblance of a meal on the table. Exercise, however, was woven into the fabric of life. Someone was always in motion, and so was I. Looking back, I see that it was rare to consider that what I ate or fed others or what happened in my body might somehow correlate with my heart’s relationship with Jesus.

After twenty years of marriage, profound loss in the form of divorce left a sour taste. The toll was not just on my heart or on my emotions, but also on my body. The raggedness of my heart showed up in frazzled ways, affecting my sleep, teeth, energy and weight. Raising three marvelous teenagers full time on my own while being an elementary school teacher stretched me every which way. Exercise and food became a jumble in the midst of just surviving each day. Being unaware of the impact that stress, grief, frustration and other assorted emotions can have, I didn’t really connect the dots between what my heart was saying to my body or what my body was saying to my heart.

All the while, a sweetness of another kind was developing, a deeper-than-ever intimacy with Jesus. In the stress and loneliness that ensued after divorce, Jesus came as a Lover, wooing me to joy. One day, in talking with Jesus, I wondered if I’d ever again have any reason to create a romantic meal for anyone, one full of love and beauty. Jesus gently persuaded me to shift my thinking. Why not create every meal as an act of love and beauty, a way of showing my love for my forever Lover? From there forward, my heart shifted. Times of fun and fellowship with family and friends were always laced with simple touches that one sweetheart might do for another. It no longer mattered that I didn’t have a physical sweetheart; I delighted in being the Beloved of Christ and, in turn, offered that love to others. Meals became life-giving delights, times of joy savored with my own teenagers and their friends alongside other single and married friends of mine. Rather than entertaining to impress, hospitality invited others to know the wonder of a heart being restored by my Lover Jesus.

As my children finished up college, transitioning to grad school or new careers, I mirrored their youthful enthusiasms. Retired by then from teaching elementary school, I returned to Colorado, a place I had once called home, and entered seminary, a new adventure for my healing heart. Yet, unexpectedly, my delightful single life took another turn. Aging parents suddenly required my full-time care back in Georgia. Not versed in geriatrics, I garnered medical, nutritional and exercise information on the mental and physical needs of my mother and dad, while also aiming to eat wisely and exercise when I could. I knew that if I didn’t take good care of my own health, I would be fairly worthless as a caregiver for two 80-plus-year-olds. The relationship between my body and my heart began to emerge in fresh ways. When I was wise in caring for both my body and my heart, I was more attuned to Christ, thus better able to offer care for my parents. The converse was also true.

Back in seminary in Colorado after those caregiving times, I started connecting the dots. Reading Christian classics and contemporary journals on soul care, spiritual formation, spiritual disciplines and spiritual direction, pictures began to form. Entering into a spiritual direction relationship as a directee, I noticed the ways my body influenced my heart. Being a spiritual director for others, the same similarities began to surface within my own directees. The body speaks to the heart. The heart speaks to the body. All of this connects deeply to the heart of Jesus. Would I pay attention to those connections?

Some of my directees, though, were resistant to pondering such a connection. They uncomfortably felt that perhaps this body-heart connection was somehow associated with “New Age” thought. “Is it really Christ-centered to notice one’s body, rather than just one’s heart?” a directee would ask. “Places of resistance are worth taking note of, aren’t they?” would be my response.

A plethora of questions popped up for my directees, and for me as well. What did wisdom look like when it came to caring for my body through exercise and nutrition? What was clean eating? What did a holy rhythm of life for body and heart look like? Did any of this have anything to do with intimacy with Christ? Did inner healing of emotions and wounds from my past translate to exterior healing and bodily care?

Desiring an integrated body and heart, new crossroads appeared for pondering, as Jeremiah 6:16 states. I discovered surprising places of resistance to the good ways, because the comfortable ways were easier, and much more familiar. What might move me forward from my stuck places? For me, the prayer of examen led to a more courageously examined, intentional life of both body and heart.

Another unexpected season arrived, one of great joy. My high school and college sweetheart found me. After a thirty-four-year absence of communication, God gave us back to one another. Four years ago, we married and merged two hearts and two bodies who approached fitness and food with entirely differing perspectives. Shortly thereafter I began the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, where I noticed the interplay of body and heart in new ways. Within the Ignatian Exercises, the retreatant journeys through the life of Christ, while noticing how God is present in one’s own life. Watching Jesus, I also watched myself. Noticing Christ, I noticed changes in both the exterior and interior places of my life. Changes brought questions; questions brought changes.

So, here I am, a long way from all the comfort foods of the South, finding delicious comfort in seeing how God invites me to connect my heart and my body, how Christ feeds me with food for my heart that nourishes both body and soul. Do I still have disconnects between my heart and my body, between the words I say and the life I live? Of course. I struggle with being consistent about eating wisely and exercising regularly. My body is not where I’d like it to be. It is soft where I’d like it to be firm, and firmly entrenched where I’d love to see more fluidity. But, so is my heart. I’d like to tell you that I have it all figured out. I’d like to tell you that I write to tell you all the answers about the body-heart connection. But if you took one glance at my body and took the time to know my heart, you’d know that is not the case. I am in process toward integrating body and heart into whole and holy living with Jesus, by connecting the dots to form a picture of wholeness and holiness. All that Jesus is involves all that I am, body, heart, soul, spirit and mind.

What About You?

How aware are you of this connection between what happens to your body and what happens to your soul? Is your morning “quiet time” different when you are not feeling well than when you are rested and feeling strong? Similarly, when struggling with a problem or having a “dark” day, have you noticed a feeling of “weightiness” in your body that is not there when you are happy? Perhaps you even slouch a bit on those kinds of days.

Since God created us to be whole, integrated beings, spiritual formation happens in all seasons of life, for good or for ill. The training or discipline in one part of our life is directly affected by the training, or lack thereof, going on in another part of our life. For example, engaging in a weight-loss program with a large component of public accountability, I (Valerie) also had success in changing other areas of my life, such as negative thoughts and spending habits. Discipline in one area of life can carry over into other areas of life in significant ways, easily crossing between that which impacts the body and that which impacts the soul.

Our physical bodies play an important role in following Christ. However, we are not always aware of that fact. Plato heavily influences Western Christians. He taught that the body and soul are irreconcilable enemies. Plato conceded that we need a body to carry the soul around but believed the body to be a lower entity than the soul. He taught that our energies are best directed to matters of the soul alone and that the things of the material world are not worth bothering with.

That, however, is not the message of the Bible, which integrates body and soul in a whole and holy way. The Bible says that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and promises that it will be raised at Jesus’ second coming. Likewise, the earth and all of creation will be part of that final resurrection at the last day.[2] God’s pronouncement of creation as “good” in Genesis 1–2 has not been rescinded; neither has the charge to humanity to be a steward of that creation. The material world, though fallen, is still redeemable. Otherwise, Jesus would not have been born a man, died on the cross and then been resurrected with a new body that could eat fish.

Because of Jesus, the stewardship of our bodies and the care of creation have a “spiritual formation” side to them. Is exercising equally as important as Bible reading? If time is limited, isn’t it a better choice to have prayer time and neglect the exercise? Scripture actually invites us to embrace both. Plato’s insidious, subtle and pervasive notion may be why many of us have never considered the close connection between physical health and spiritual formation.

How do you currently preach the gospel without using words?

“Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” These words attributed to St. Francis of Assisi sum up one theme of this book: our physical presence may compel people toward or away from Christ. With our physical bodies, we bear a message of what we believe about God, the world and ourselves. Additionally, the material world is a witness to God (Psalm 19) and is worthy of care. Creation in all of its vast diversity awaits the redemption of humanity, its pinnacle (Romans 8:19-23). Just as St. Francis called the sun “brother” and the moon “sister,” so Christ-followers also show the world the real reason for living in environmentally friendly ways. We live as children of God, the Creator of the universe, loving and caring for the world in ways similar to how God does.

Why We Wrote the Book

The two of us have been mulling over these body and heart connections for some time. This book is our attempt to strengthen the connection between the two parts that comprise human beings: the physical and the spiritual. These two entities are not ultimately divisible from each other, though some try to sever that connection. In profound ways, the unity of the body with the soul influences our walk with Christ, a concept that can be difficult to grasp at times. It is often an uncomfortable “elephant in the room”: something people don’t want to speak of yet strongly suspect is very important. Perhaps you, too, have had this experience: someone in your circle of friends asks regularly for prayers of physical healing, yet they continue to indulge in poor health habits, which contribute significantly to their disease/dis-ease. How do we speak in love toward those people about their choices? Should we even bring up the choices and habits? Was Plato correct when he taught that the body is less important than one’s soul? These are unsettling issues to wrestle with, aren’t they? We believe these issues are worth bringing to the table for honest reflection and open discussion.

The two of us became acquainted through Renovaré conferences and mutual friends. We found ourselves discussing the impact of the physical body and its health on a person’s spiritual formation, comparing notes about the subject. Appropriately, while lunching at a local café, the idea of a shared writing project began. Sometimes the book you write is the one you couldn’t find to read. Though there certainly are a plethora of books with tidbits here and chapters there about the physical body and its relation to the interior life, we couldn’t find one that addressed the variety of issues we were mulling over. Conversations led to inquisitive chapters, a natural progression for people like the two of us who process best while writing. We soon realized that each topic could easily be a book in itself. Our goal with this book is to introduce the issues and questions surrounding the topic of the body, the heart and our life with Christ, trusting that readers will pursue further topics that interest them.

A word of caution: the two of us do not always agree on what the issues, or the questions within those issues, are. Our readers will also find plenty of places to diverge from our ideas. That is to be expected; we want to begin a lively discussion within broad circles about these topics.

Also, know that we are not nutritionists, although we both enjoy eating and cooking nutritional meals. Neither of us is a personal trainer, gym teacher, coach or professional athlete, though both of us enjoy being outside and active. Neither of us has a perfect body, though both of us are perfectly thankful for the body we inhabit each day. Both of us struggle with issues involving physical health and spiritual formation, even as we are more convinced than ever that the intersection of the two is important.

This book is the result of our ponderings. It is our attempt to look at issues that surround the question “Is the physical body and its health related to spiritual formation?” We will share some ideas of how each person might choose to answer that. We will look at what it means to be a wise steward of the body in a culture where obesity rates, due to junk food and lack of exercise, are epidemic. We will talk about extreme body worship as evidenced in popular culture. We invite you to join us in discovering areas of life where the notion of preaching the gospel without using words is lived out.

Body Issues Within the Body

Often defensiveness and discomfort surround this subject of the life of the body. Deformity or chronic illnesses are mentioned as reasons why it is “wrong” or “inappropriate” to ask if the body has anything to do with one’s spiritual formation. Faced with a Christ-follower who is struggling with a physical challenge of some kind, we often feel we have no right to say anything to them about choices they are making. We struggle to discern where the line is between offending someone and speaking truth in love. This is difficult to do at times. Yet, even deformity or chronic illnesses must be looked at in terms of how those hardships impact a person’s spiritual formation. And within chronic physical challenges, there are still choices to be made daily that strengthen what health we have or diminish it.

Poor lifestyle choices that lead to illness are another category. These, too, call for special care and sensitivity. How do we walk with those who have diabetes or heart disease, which came about as a result of a lifetime of poor eating habits and/or little to no exercise? How can we bear with another’s affliction in love while encouraging a change in habits?

Suffering, until recently, was an assumed part of a life of faith for Christ’s followers. Today, we do all we can to ensure that we do not have to suffer. Does this spring from the subtle heresy that the disciples also struggled with: if you are blessed with health and wealth, God loves you more (Mark 10:23-27)? How can the larger body of Christ help us wisely care for our individual bodies in God-pleasing ways? Or should it?

What do you believe the role of suffering is in the life of a Christ-follower?

Plato’s ideas separate the “lower” material world from the “higher” realities of the soul. When we live with that idea, consciously or unconsciously, we shift from God’s view. The Bible views the body and soul as an integrated whole. Jesus modeled wholeness and holiness when he came to earth as a human being. Plato’s notion, however, allows us to more easily buy the lie that “my body is my own,” instead of seeing it as a gift from God. While our bodies are the vehicles through which our souls interact with the world, Scripture tells us that they are also the temple of the Holy Spirit. Yet, many of us function out of the belief that what we do to our bodies really doesn’t matter, as these bodies will be discarded at death. We live as if we haven’t fully understood that our bodies will also be resurrected at Jesus’ second coming.

Perhaps we, as members of the body of Christ, have done ourselves a disservice here. Without a godly view of the material world, we lack the language and tools to integrate our physical bodies as part of our spiritual formation. By talking about a person’s soul to the exclusion of their physical being, we dishonor the wholeness of the individual bodies of Christ that make up the corporate body of Christ. We hope people will begin to reconnect their body’s welfare to the heart’s, and vice versa. Our passion is to introduce a more integrated view of wholeness and holiness of the life of the body within the body of Christ.

How to Use This Book

At the end of each chapter, there are three exercises provided for the reader to actively experience some of the chapter’s concepts. They are an important part of the core message of this book. Change occurs through actively engaging with an idea, not just reading about it. Though you may be tempted to skip over them, experiencing some of these exercises will give you a deeper grasp of the concepts in each chapter. In addition, feel free to create your own exercises if the ones suggested simply do not engage you right now.

Appendix A looks at holy habits, the spiritual disciplines, from a physical perspective. Appendix B provides Scripture passages that refer to the physical body. Appendix C offers additional resources for more fully exploring the chapters’ themes. Appendix D is the small group guide. Using these appendices, individuals and small groups can delve deeper into the book’s topics.

May this volume help all of us preach the good news of Jesus Christ more fully, with or without words.

Closing Prayer

Lord, I confess I don’t connect the dots often enough about the idea that what goes on with my body affects what goes on with my heart and soul. My body hasn’t always seemed all that important to my Christian growth. But here, in this reading of this book, I’d like to reconsider my body and how it relates to your body, the church.

Would you keep me attentive? I ask that I might be mindful of my body, to notice that just as the stars in the heavens, the flowers of the fields and the birds of the air show me something of you, so does my body, which you made.

I admit that it would be easier to ignore the flaws and struggles of this body I live in, or to stay focused only on the flaws and struggles. It would be easier to just wait to trade it in for a new model, one that is redeemed after I leave earth, but I suppose ease isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Besides, I am noticing that sometimes this body, which is my vehicle for travel here on earth, needs a bit of renovation, just as my heart does each day.

So, I come to you, Jesus. I ponder your body. I ponder mine. I ponder what you are up to in the invitation of this book’s premise: a body that matters to the ways my spiritual formation occurs. You call me your Bride, your Beloved. May I see the beauty in me that is there because of your invitation to life: body, heart, soul, mind and spirit. Amen. 

Reflection Exercises

1.

In Valerie’s practicum class on the spiritual disciplines, students chose a body discipline as one way of seeking to integrate their interior and exterior life. What, if any, bodily health disciplines are you currently engaged in? Are there any you are avoiding? Is there one you might consider trying out today, and for the next week? Why or why not?

2.

What do you think of your body? Is it a source of joy or a burden? Do you feel completely detached from the physical world or like an integral part of the physical world? Spend some time journaling about where you stand on the continuum. Ask God to show you areas where you need healing concerning images you have of your body, maybe even forgiving those who instilled those negative images in you.

3.

Explore what you think God says about the human body. Here are a few Scripture passages to start with: Genesis 1–2; Psalm 139; Luke 11:33-36; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 and 1 Peter 4:1-6. Appendix B lists some more. Take some time to reflect on your body. Where did those beliefs about your body originate? Did you inherit them from your family of origin, the media around you, your peers or from those that are recorded in Scripture?

1 Jesus Has a Body

Jesus came to earth as a human being through Mary’s womb. That event affirms us in our own bodies. He ate. He slept. He walked. He laughed. He cried. He touched. The concrete reality of the Incarnation is its uniqueness: God as a person, here in a body, like us, on a physical earth, with us.

Yet, as Christ-followers, we believe that Jesus continues to have a body, a mystery that says Jesus is fully God and fully human, body and soul. That mystery continues as we confess his body being resurrected and then ascended into heaven. Jesus is alive today and has a body, though different from the one he had on earth, as ours will be someday. In this chapter, though, we will be focusing on Jesus’ earthly body.

Immanuel, God-with-us, is the historical reality of God among us, not just in spirit but also in the physicalness of an earthly body. This Incarnation, where Jesus the fully divine God lived for a while among us in his physical body as fully man, is both a vital Christian doctrine and a wondrous reality. While it is true that the Incarnation has profound theological implications, it also has pragmatic implications for how we live our life in a physical body. For thirty-three years Jesus offered a physical glimpse of the spiritual life with God, modeling for us how to live a fully integrated exterior and interior life.

God thought enough of the human body to send Jesus forth in bodily form. Watch how Jesus treated his own body while also encouraging the disciples and others that he encountered over those earthly years. We begin to see the immense value God has for the physical body as we behold Jesus. Psalm 139:13-14 reminds us:

For it was you who formed my inward parts;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

that I know very well.

Fearfully and wonderfully made. That’s what the God who created us has to say about us. This body we inhabit is fearfully and wonderfully made, yet we don’t fully live as if that were true. Fearfully and wonderfully made, yet often this body is viewed as not all that important to the formation of my heart and my life with God.

We choose our attitude and perspective about our body based on our theology, our culture, our past upbringing and our emotions of the moment. Three basic attitudes exist: we are contented and connected to our body as a holy dwelling place of the Living God; we dismiss our body as irrelevant to our walk with God; we revere our body at the expense of our worship of God. Because we often do not have a sound theology of what our body is to God, how we are to treat our body, and what our body has to do with our spiritual life and growth, we are often tempted to simply dismiss our body as not all that important, at least as compared to spiritual things.

The reality is that we are given a body by God, our Creator, to inhabit for the years we live on this earth. This body is indeed fearfully and wonderfully made by our God who quite unashamedly adores each of us, from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. So, if God so loves us, including our very physical body which he deemed important enough to create, perhaps our perspective, like a pair of old glasses, needs a readjustment of vision.

Jesus Is Our Model

Perhaps it is in looking at Jesus and his relationship to us with his own physical body that we can clarify our vision of this life in the body. The whole of the Incarnation occurred within the framework of a physical body integrated in whole and holy manners with Christ’s spiritual life. He did not just appear as a disembodied spirit, though he could have. He didn’t float through the years with superhuman powers, though he could have. He didn’t show up fully grown up, though he could have. Part of the full surrender of Christ in coming to live among us on earth involved becoming fully human, fully of a physical body, just as we are.

Like other people, Jesus grew from infant to toddler to boy to teenager to man. He lived and breathed as we do. When he died, just as we will one day, his body ceased to live and breathe. The difference, of course, is that after three days, he came to life again, resurrected in a physical body. As with Jesus’ body, our bodies will be resurrected from the dead. That alone, aside from the vast theological impact, says something about the body. Something that is going to be redeemed is worth caring for; something that is going to be discarded at death isn’t worth bothering with.

Too often, we emphasize the death of the body and the ongoing life of the heart, to the point that we forget this fact: in the final resurrection, our body will be raised up and reunited with our heart in a new form. God raised Jesus with a body that could be seen and touched. While the early disciples at times feared he was a ghost, Jesus ate fish and let them touch his nail scars to show them that his body was real. Jesus’ resurrection shows us what will happen to us after our death. It is a mystery, but we can await new bodies for ourselves. Our attention to physical health here and now is a statement that we believe in that coming redemption.

A Silent Witness

One way to worship God without ceasing is to live the life God created you to live, as Jesus did. Each of us can be a witness to God’s love and goodness by living joyfully and creatively. We seek to be healthy and full of life because our Savior was. Being as healthy and joyful as possible, as individuals as well as the members of the larger body of Christ, we are powerful testimonies: physically, relationally, spiritually, creatively, emotionally and mentally. Physical life supports our spiritual formation that in turn nurtures our physicality.

What would the “best possible version” of yourself look like?

 Even though Jesus was also God during his time on earth as a man, there are many life circumstances he never experienced. Jesus, as a human male, could not experience everything that can possibly happen in life, like menopause, labor contractions or losing a limb in combat. He didn’t struggle to live with integrity in vast wealth or drive a car. He didn’t watch TV or have to respond to emails for his job. Still, Jesus, as a man, showed us how to live our lives now by living one human life well in a specific place in time and history. He gave us a universal template, based on love and service. The way he treated others is a model for us. His taking a break from earthly needs to spend time in prayer gives us permission to do the same. His life had balance, brought into being by the rhythms of rest and work, prayer and playfulness, solitude and togetherness. His desire to be a healing presence in all circumstances is something we can share.