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Forgive Me for Loving My Body

Forgive me for loving my body
I love it even more so
because of God.
When I look up in the sky and I see the millions of stars,
the galaxies,
I am in awe of God.
Likewise when I see a beautiful person possessing the FULL package
a beautiful body,
a mind that reflects Christ,
an inner beauty that is transparent of Christ,
I am wowed even more.
He made it all!

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The Rebirth

How many of us know of babies who were born doing the right things? They did not put things in their mouths. They did not mark on the walls; they colored only in their books. They did not throw any food on the floor. As they formed their first words, two words they automatically said “Thank you”. Learning a new lifestyle is quite similar to a rebirth experience. For those who follow the path of Christ, this new way of living is physical, mental and spiritual. Learning the path of Christ is a whole new way of living.

This life involves choosing life even in areas concerning our diet. How many babies grow up loving vegetables and hating sweets? How many children can we think of who love their veggies? Even as adults we neglect to eat these products of nature. Instead our diets consist mainly of dead foods called processed or refined rather than the natural food from the garden. We are more comfortable with the taste of chemically engineered foods in our mouths or foods that have chemically changed.

In this rebirth experience, our taste buds must adjust. Some say our taste buds must acquire the taste for real food again. We have to learn to love it—experience its texture and natural flavor. What would these foods taste like with less sodium, or without any sauces? Some of us cannot imagine our foods without sugar. We load ketchup on our eggs, rice or anything for that matter. We kill the salad with the dressing. We didn’t even taste the ripe juicy cherry tomatoes, or crisp fresh lettuce. Learning to eat the right way consistently is a lifestyle not moments in time.

Learning to walk again is also a lifestyle. It’s called exercise which should naturally be a part of our life. Initially, when learning to move the limbs, the tasks seem laborious and hard. But as the energy of the Creator begins to flow throughout the body, we feel the magnificent hormones of pleasure called endorphins. He created them, so that we can enjoy the feel of His oxygen flowing throughout our bodies—His bodies. It is His breath we breathe.

We have to also learn to breathe again. As babies we once knew how, but as we became so-called strong and independent we learned to breathe on our own. However, we became shallow breathers as we became consumed with the day to days stresses of life, depending upon ourselves rather than our Maker.

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Embodying Christ

What is it to love God and to serve him with our whole being (Deuteronomy 11:13)? In other words, how do we worship God with all of our mind, soul and spirit when we live fragmented lives? For the most part, I remembered growing up when “spiritual things” were separated from the work place and, perhaps, continue to be. Recreation was outside of the church. We went to school to pursue so to speak “secular” careers—to use our faculties for the world not for the kingdom of God. However, every Sunday we paid homage to our sanctuaries or places of worship. And some were even called “Sunday” Christians as a result.

To love God with our whole being—heart, soul and mind, seems naturally to mean to embody Christ. In essence, such a statement would infer that in everything we do we should encounter God if we have purposefully included him in every area of our lives. Why can’t we find God at the kitchen table as we enjoy a good cup of coffee or in the kitchen while preparing a meal? Imagine how we can stir the love of God in other people’s lives as we share Christ in this big pot of stew called life. Or imagine going through a car wash? Have you ever imagined the Holy Spirit washing us like that gigantic looking mop slapping across the car windshield as it cleans? Well, maybe not “slapping” though some people may have experienced similar jolts in their lives that can be likened to spiritual awakenings or epiphanies. Or imagine after a good cardio run being so cognizant of the Holy Spirit breath in each movement of inhalation and exhalation.

To embody Christ is, indeed, personal and an experience that is personalized. As God uniquely created us with special gifts, talents and skills and desires, he also allows us to be of service to him in different ways. I remembered years ago watching the movie Chariots of Fire and hearing Eric Liddell say “When I run I feel God’s pleasure”. Then most recently, watching with delight to see Allyson Felix run and declare she runs for God’s glory. To run to feel God’s pleasure or to run for God’s glory is a desire that can only be motivated by love involving the whole being. What a way to celebrate Christ and to embrace him. Christ, for many such individuals, is an extension of their Sunday lives and becomes also a complete fusion of the persons’ body, mind, and spirit.

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I Found God in Bodybuilding

A unified perception of body, soul, spirit, and mind creates a spirituality that includes the body” (Fasting by Scot McKnight).

I found God in bodybuilding. How sacrilegious these words seemed. But it was true. Yes, God, had saved my soul, but, one day as I was dieting down and for what would be my last bodybuilding competition, I purposed in my heart that this arduous diet would not be about food fantasies but God. My evenings consisted of one chicken breast, a sweet potato the size of my palm and a cup and half of broccoli. Each meal left me not just still hungry but unsatisfied. A cup of herbal tea helped assuage the hunger, but it was really the Word of God that began to satisfy me. My favorite scriptures became Psalm 139: 13-15:

You made my whole being;
you formed me in my mother’s body.
I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way.
What you have done is wonderful.
I know this very well.
You saw my bones being formed
as I took shape in my mother’s body.
When I was put together there,
you saw my body as it was formed.
(New Century Version)

I had memorized the scriptures by heart. As I flexed in front of the mirror, I lathered the Words over my body like oil. In the past, I would have criticized my shrunken body, but instead I found in these words a precious truth that went beyond what I saw staring back at me in the mirror.

God had made my whole being, and I was “wonderful”. I found in these words my Creator, my validation—that I was significant, and it would not be a win that would define me. And that this body of His would literally praise Him always for He had made me in an “amazing and wonderful way!”

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The Body is Listening

“What you say can mean life or death. Those who speak with care will be rewarded” (Proverbs 18:21 New Century Version). The body can hear; it listens and sets out on a path to bring to fruition what it hears when you speak. As a babe knows the voice of its mother, so your body knows your voice.

Science, too, has confirmed that the body listens to its own voice. Research has shown that “vocalizing sounds change the vibration of the body” (Stockdale, Brenda. You Can Beat the Odds, Sentient Publications, 2009).

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3 Biblical Health & Fitness Lessons

The Bible is an amazing book filled with ordinary individuals who become extraordinary or normal people who have had extraordinary things happen to them. Yet we seem to overlook still the reality of these individuals to exist as normal human beings whom God uses supernaturally.

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The Body Inherently Evil

For years the body has been viewed as inherently evil—a vessel we had to live in until it returned from whence it came. Yet, this is the same body in which the Holy Spirit of God lives. The Apostle Paul calls it the “temple” which we were to honor because of its purpose. A minister once told me that Jesus died for our souls not our bodies. Such thinking clearly opposes Paul’s view who claims that our bodies were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20). The price for our bodies was Christ’s crucifixion. He redeemed not only our souls but won back our bodies as well. Because we were designed to be one entity– body, mind and spirit, Christ’s death and resurrection meant redemption for our entire being.