Really Didn't Need That!

Have you ever been at a place in your life where you thought, "Okay, I'm finally getting a handle on this" and then something else happened? Something worse?! Where there is just no escaping the consequences of what has happened in your life. That happened to us last weekend as we were stopped at a red light. We were rear ended by a woman who was distracted by some means as she barely hit the breaks before impact. After the reality of being hit sunk in, I looked at Glenn and said, "I really didn't need that!"

I just finished the Graston technique treatments and my back was just headed into a beautiful healing pattern. There was definitely hope at the end of the tunnel! And then -- whiplash, shoulder and mid-back injury, and lower back injury/re-injury. Sigh. Glenn has mild whiplash. I must confess that I had a conversation with God about why He didn't prevent this accident. He could have! Maybe He tried to -- maybe He spoke to her and she didn't listen (she said she was on her way to church!); or maybe our being there prevented her son from being killed as they would have been T-boned if she had sailed through the intersection. Or maybe it was just natural and logical consequences from someone's behaviour/choices -- God allowing free will to be worked out. No matter what the divine reason was, I don't like the consequences! Just saying!

I received an e-mail with a quote from Gary Smalley - 'Great faith is the confidence even during a trial that it will one day turn out for our benefit.' I like that! That is how I choose to live -- believing God to once again, take what was meant for evil and bring good out of it...just like He did for Joseph! Romans 8:18 says, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Then it goes on to some of my favourite verses in 8:35, 37-39 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

I really didn't need that accident last weekend! My body attests to that! (I would truly appreciate your prayers for healing). But what I do know for certain is that NOTHING separates me from the love of God and He will bring something out of this for our benefit! 

Age of Adonis

Are you familiar with Adonis? He is a figure from Greek mythology that symbolized 'handsome youth.' Interestingly, the name Adonis is a variation of the semitic word Adonai which means, "Lord." There is a new classification in eating disorders called "The Adonis Complex." It all has to do with fixation on the physical body and essentially, worship of the body.  One of my biggest frustrations in working with eating disorders is hearing how people HATE their bodies.  They don't just dislike little things like a muffin top or aging skin with a sag, they despise the very bodies which God has given them as a carrying case for their soul while living out physical life here on earth.

How many conversations have you had this week that included talk about dieting, exercising, or changing one's physical appearance in some way -- possibly even through extreme measures like surgery? Why have we become so focused on the physical body when it is only 1/4 of our being? Body, mind, soul and spirit.  Our culture is beyond obsession with physical beauty and cultural standards that we have assigned to what is beautiful and acceptable.  If you have not yet seen it, I encourage you to watch the movie, "America the Beautiful; America's Obsession with Beauty."  This cultural obsession with the body is destroying our society in so many ways!  Eating disorders, addiction, exercise addiction, etc.  All of which lead to a spiritual cancer called idolatry.

Idolatry is giving worship and adoration to something other than God.  Idolatry sounds so sinful!  Yet idolatry of the body is rampant in today's society.  Looking to something other than God for identity is never a good idea.  "But I just want to be healthy" is a common cry and defence.  What's wrong with being healthy?  Nothing! Providing your search for health is moderate and in balance, and does not consume you or become obsessional.

Accepting your body's natural weight range is the key, even if you don't like your body's 'plumb line.'    To the left is the best scale I've ever seen! It was at the International Association of Eating Disorder's Professionals Conference this year. Why do we let our weight define us?!  A number ought not to be God! God ought to be God!  The Bible does not spend reams of verses telling us how to care for the body.  Most references re: the body are that it is perishing, fading and that we get a new one in the next life (II Cor. 5:1)!  It is the housing for the Holy Spirit -- the temple of the Holy Spirit (I Cor, 6:19).

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for appropriate care of the body, revolving around moderate eating and moderate activity/exercise.  But we are not to hate/despise the body that God has given us and attempt to make it into something it is not naturally supposed to be (eating disordered, forced below its weight range, neglected through obesity and forced far beyond it's weight range, etc.)  We are not to be mastered by food and exercise but are to be the master's of our physical body and focused far more on the things of God than the things of the body.

The Scriptures tells us to be focused on the things of the heart and the spirit, not the body and external appearance (John 7:24, II Cor. 10:7, I Peter 3:3-4).  These scriptures help us to bring correction -- to give us a mindset that leads to freedom! Freedom from obsession. Freedom from idolatry. Freedom to know the truth of who we are in Christ, without the bondage of trying to make our bodies the ruling force in our lives.  Rather than Adonis, let's pursue Adonai and ask Him to help us accept our bodies and cherish them for the gift they are.