Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19).
One day it hit me: This verse has a very practical side. In addition to all else that Paul is saying, I was thunderstruck by the idea that I am called to be physically fit. I, who have access to clean water, to healthy food grown with few or no chemicals, to meat that is raised and slaughtered humanely, to good medical care and no physical reason to not exercise regularly.
When I make choices that are not in the category of “good stewardship” of my body, what is my witness? Many small, bad choices over a number of years left me, at middle age, a bit overweight and with resulting joint problems.
I’m well aware of the conditions many of my brothers and sisters in Christ around the world live in: walking miles to access water that often isn’t clean; starving because of ineffective distribution practices by their government; seeing their children die from preventable or treatable diseases; living with mental and physical disabilities because of lack of sanitation or adequate nutrition; existing on “junk” food because they can’t afford or don’t have access to better options.
The question that day became for me: What was my physical health and appearance saying about what I believed to be the good news of Jesus Christ? Francis of Assisi said: “Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words.”
This is a most personal issue. We dare not access others’ faith commitments based on how they look or what they eat. But if becoming physically fit for all the health reasons we hear so much about isn’t enough motivation, how about doing it from a sense of humble gratitude for our bodies—the temple we each have from God? We’re called to be fit so we, who “are not our own,” can be fit to serve one another, especially the poor.
This week's front page features:
Celebrity babies: Abby & Belle. Carlsen twins connect a congregation and community with the country. (Photo at right.)
Today we kick off a two-week discussion about congregational Web sites, their development, content and design.
Andrea Pohlmann (right) blogs about the bombing of the homes of three staff members of the Contact and Resource Center in Beirut, which she visited on a 1995 trip to Lebanon.
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