Straight up honest

Rev. Matt Rawle

This is a difficult post for me. I know that the body is to be a temple, but it’s a temple in which I’ve never been fully comfortable. It started in my formative years of middle school. My “friends” nicknamed me “The Manatee.” I thought it was because I was a nice guy who rarely got upset about anything, but it was because on a field trip we went to the beach and I looked like a manatee swimming through the waves. Since then I’ve always been self-conscious of my weight. I never wear t-shirts. I rarely wear shorts. I would have fit right in with the Puritan dress code of the early colonies. I joke about how I love winter because my clothes are finally in season.

Humor is often the way in which I cope with my unhappiness, especially about the skin I’m in. I have more chins and less hair than I want. I order salads in public to hide my sinful eating habits at home. Now, I will say that I went to Weight Watchers two years ago and lost 68 pounds. It was the best I’ve felt in years, but slowly I’m reverting back to bad habits. I’ve gained 25 pounds since I left the accountability of a public scale, and it’s straight-up depressing.

What am I supposed to say about the body, other than it matters. The body matters. It matters what we put into it. It matters what comes out of it. The body is so powerful that a single touch of another human being can bring healing, or create a damaging scar which lingers for a life time. Our bodies are so important that God chose one as the vehicle through which we find salvation.

If we pause for a moment and reflect on the incarnation, we may take issue with Paul’s strict dichotomy of works of the flesh and fruit of the Spirit. Matter matters. The Church is the body of Christ. Yes we are to have the mind of Christ. It is mind-blowing that the spirit of Christ lives within us, yet we are one body. Being a communal body means that we are to care for our personal bodies, but also the bodies of others. We are called to intervene when we see bodies being objectified. We are to feed the bodies that lack nourishment due to economic hardship. We are to care for the bodies which are ravaged with illness.

But who am I to preach about the body? It seems I’m more comfortable in the body of Christ than I am in my own. So, if anything, this is a post for my own eyes to read, that my daily struggle with health will bleed over into my concern for the health of the body of Christ.