We’re continuing our blog journey through the book inSPIRE®–Faith for a “Whole” Life – (coming very soon). Chapter four begins by once again turning to Jesus, who invites us to consider the “P” of the SPIRE– our unique and sacred bodies—and the limitations that come along with them.
Entering the World in Bodies
We entered this world in bodies. Astoundingly, even God assumed a human nature as the Son of God and Son of Man. He too entered the world in a human body. Jesus, you, and I all came with specific physical traits, characteristics, and limitations when we were born.
Did I say limitations? Even for the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity?
Yes. Humanity implies limitations that even the incarnated Jesus submitted to in his willingness to walk amongst us. Jesus was a Jewish boy with dark hair, olive skin, and Middle Eastern features. Like you and me, he had a specific body that reflected his specific earthly heritage.
What Culture Tells Us
Culture tells us that we can be whatever and whoever we want to be. That message is not only untrue, but harmful.
A beautiful young woman thinks that she must be thin. She deprives herself of nutrition to lose the weight she perceives to be excess, all while her body is screaming for fuel. She’s on a destructive path that will impact not only her body, but every area of her SPIRE. Her physical depletion comes with huge emotional and relational costs for herself and her loved ones.
My friend is in a wheelchair as the result of an injury sustained while playing hockey. Barring a miraculous healing (which I pray for), he will not walk or skate again. He will never be a professional hockey player. If his identity was based solely on an athletic career, he would have reason to be depressed. But his hope in Christ now empowers him to serve, with his injury, and with gratefulness and joy, from his wheelchair.
What God Tells Us
This leads us to the amazing news that we cannot be whatever we want to be, but we can be everything we were made to be! We can fulfill every purpose God has for us in the bodies God knit together in the wombs that carried us.
Because of God’s love for ys, we don’t have to take harmful cues from media or culture that tell us we need to be someone else and then modify our healthy bodies in harmful ways. We don’t need to follow social trends or unholy cultural messages off a proverbial cliff. Rather, within God-given limitations and freedoms, we can celebrate our uniqueness and particularity as we embrace the lifelong responsibility to steward our bodies.
No Mistake
Regardless of how you came into this world, you are not God’s “oops.”
God doesn’t make mistakes.
Rather, God carefully knit you together in the womb and crafted your innermost being and identity.
Our Bodies–Sacred Gifts
We are all God’s handiwork. The Bible tells us that even the hairs on our heads are numbered. We can receive the gift of our bodies as unique and sacred gifts from the One who formed our frames and breathed his breath into our lungs.
2 Responses
I’m grateful for messages like this that run counter to what I see everywhere else about how I should look. I know God wants me to care for my body as the temple of the Holy Spirit but that doesn’t mean I need to look like a runway model or ensure I never age.
I feel so comforted knowing that God saw me in my earliest days in the womb and that Jesus understands what it feels like to walk around in an earthly body. I can bring any of my concerns about my Physical area of the SPIRE to God in prayer.
I’m so grateful too! I know I need to be reminded of God’s goodness in creation, right down to how he formed me. That’s where freedom lies.