Now before I completely bash health
and exercise let me tell you how I actually feel about it. Health is extremely
important and we owe it to God and ourselves as His children to take care of
the body He has blessed us with. Furthermore, to me it makes sense that weight
management has completely taken over the United States considering the rate of
obesity and diabetes these days. I am glad that we try to keep our citizens
healthy but marketing can push things a bit too far. Everything needs to be in
moderation. I like to think of health as a virtue. Virtues are the happy medium
between two extremes. Take temperance for example. Now when it comes to eating
we are neither practicing temperance if we starve ourselves nor are we being
temperate if we are being gluttonous. Working out to lose weight or get “a
better body” when you are healthy makes you victim to marketing’s ploys and a
nice little vice called vanity. Society has sold you their poison. This doesn’t
mean that you shouldn’t eat healthy and you should become a couch potato until
you’re out of shape enough to hit the track again. We all know that like
virtues we must daily choose to be healthy and active. It is good to stay in
shape and exercise so that our bodies are strong and able to do what the Lord
calls us to do. And it is important to eat healthy food – not food to deprive
your body of nutrients and simply satisfy your tummy growling – but food that
will fuel your body to give it strength. Just as we must practice virtues to
strengthen our souls we must practice health in order to strengthen our bodies.
Here is where the two
collide…Virtue and health: Charity. We are called to love. In Mark 12:31 Christ
gives us the second greatest commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I
found that when I was living an anorexic lifestyle I did not love myself.
Actually I would go as far to say that I hated a lot about myself. When I was
going through healing, I came to realize that I could not love anyone, not God,
not my family, or friends if I did not first love myself. I really needed to
accept myself as worth God’s love – worth a savior who would become man and die
for me. When I was so obsessed about my image and how others viewed me, I was
blind to God’s love for me. I will admit, it is very humbling to accept
ourselves in our littleness and surrender to God’s love. It’s also extremely
invigorating. We don’t have to be someone great, do great things, or have great
things. We are just simply loved. We really are priceless even though we are
nothing in comparison to God. That’s why His love is amazing (more than!). We
are called to be Christ-like and to love – ourselves, others, and God.
So folks, I’d like to expand on
that thought: We are just simply loved. This summer I read an absolutely incredible
book by Jacques Philippe titled, Interior Freedom. (Buy it, read it. It changed
my life.) He talks a lot about accepting ourselves as we are and others for
that matter. Toward the end of the book he writes, “Human beings are more than
the sum of the good they can accomplish. They are the children of God, whether
they do good or cannot yet manage to do anything, Our Father in heaven does not
love us because of the good we do. He loves us for ourselves, because he has
adopted us as his children forever.” He further explains in a footnote in
reference to mid-life crisis: “People find…that they have a great inner
emptiness, because they wanted to live by doing, while forgetting their true,
inalienable identity as children of God, loved not for what they do but what
they are.” We don’t have to be supermodels, we don’t have to have a talent;
which God has so graciously blessed all of us with whether you realize it or
not; and we don’t have to be perfect. Society lies, it really does. It’s not
about how beautiful we are, how skinny or muscular we are, how much sex appeal
we have, or how much money we have. That wont fulfill us, we’ll never love
ourselves or feel loved. Only when we recognize our worth lies in God’s undying
love for us will we feel beautiful, accepted and loved.
I’m going to conclude with a
challenge, before my traditional "food for thought" of course. Every morning when
you’re brushing your teeth in front of the bathroom mirror, look at yourself.
Look at the absolutely beautiful human being God created – no matter if you’re
short, tall, skinny, chubby, hairy, bald, have acne, flawless skin, have a big
nose or sparkling eyes, regardless if you’ve made terrible mistakes or are as
close to the Lord as you could possibly imagine - recognize your unique beauty
as His creation and your priceless worth simply because you are the child of
God. And ask the Lord, “Show me my true beauty and worth.”
Thanks for reading, people! May God's love conquer your fears and set you free.
Food for thought:
“Humility is truth. I am what I am in God’s eyes: a poor child who possesses
absolutely nothing, who receives everything, infinitely loved and totally
free.” Interior Freedom by Jacques
Philippe
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