Bodies

I saw this blurb (below) by Jesse Ellison in a recent edition of Newsweek and it struck a chord. 

There was a time, believe it or not, when our bodies worked for us, instead of the other way around. In her new book, "Bodies," British author and psychologist Susie Orbach examines how science, culture and globalization have upended our relationships to our corporeal selves, turning us from master into slave. Good looks and peak fitness are no longer a happy biological gift, she argues, but a ceaseless pursuit.

The idea: People around the world—men included—now treat their bodies as vanity projects: every pore, curve and feature is an opportunity for self-improvement. Instead of a tool for production, the body is a production in itself. In our culture, beauty is an ambition like any other metric of success, and body hatred is the West's silent export.

The evidence: How much do you need? When Orbach penned her first book 31 years ago, the bestseller "Fat Is a Feminist Issue," bulimia and anorexia were barely on the radar. Now parents digitally enhance their kids' baby pictures, the cosmetic-surgery industry is growing by $1 billion a year, we can genetically screen our embryos, and scientists grow bioengineered organs in labs.

The conclusion: As nips and tucks and tweaks become more acceptable, we may no longer treat the human body as a God-given accident of biology, but Orbach implores us to take some pleasure in our bodies as they are—to take them, she writes repeatedly, "for granted."

The writings that Christians hold sacred tell us that our bodies are "a temple of the Holy Spirit" (I Cor. 6)--a place where the very presence of God is pleased to dwell. In other words, our bodies are holy, sacred, set apart.

Practically I take this to mean that I should be a good steward of that temple: monitor what I consume mentally as well as physically, and make sure I'm getting spiritual exercise as well as physical and mental.

But I agree completely with this author that we have had our view of the body terribly warped. The body is not a temple for God but often an idol for ourselves--something that we are more likely to worship than to steward and reverence. 

Some questions to ask ourselves in relation to all of this:

- Why am I working out. physically? Is it to be a good steward of the body God has given me or so that I can "look good" in a swimsuit this summer? 

- Where does our sense of worth and identity come from? Is it from being a child of God, knowing we're loved like a used car, "as is" by our Creator? Or is it based on whether or not we can fit into a certain size of jeans?

- Is anyone concerned with being spiritually flabby? We worry a lot about the fat that collects on our guts and our butts, but what about the cellulite on our souls?

This book sounds like a fascinating read to discover how we got to this point. Maybe I'll take a run to my local library to pick it up--you know, so I can stay in shape and look good when I'm reading it.