Hi folks, i hope you are well, this week we meet at the Crescent Club at 7.30, we hope to see you there! This weeks blog is written by Sue.
Over the past few weeks we have looked at how we might connect with God in the ordinary tasks of waking in the morning and making the bed. This week our theme is ‘brushing our teeth’, one of the ordinary daily tasks of caring for our body.
I want to be open and honest to say that this topic comes with a health warning!
Our bodies are unique to each of us, our bodies that do and don’t do things as we would like, our bodies are part or our identify as human beings whether we have a positive or negative outlook upon them.
Brushing our teeth is such an ordinary activity but yet it speaks so powerfully about our relationship with our bodies. It’s so ingrained into us to clean our teeth.
Society and business has built on the necessary need to care for our bodies, and at the same time persuaded us to want, if not need, to stay forever young, slim, muscled, toned, wearing the latest fashion, while posting filtered photos of how we look on social media 24/7.
There are four major industries at play here, each with a net worth as follows:
• Beauty industry – £27 billion 2021
• Fitness industry – £1.62 billion 2020 (this had fallen due to covid)
• Fashion industry – £62.2 billion 2021
- Health and Wellbeing industry – £532 billion in 2016 (and rising over the last five years).
Now these industries provide us with clothes too wear, food to eat and ways to keep our bodies, mind, emotions, and yes even our spiritual being healthy.
But like our bodies one size does not fit all, something might work for one person but not another. The negative side to this is how the body is portrayed when advertising these industries and it relies on the insecurity and vulnerability we all have about our bodies.
Christianity’s history with the body is littered with difficulty, in some cases it has led to the body being seen as dirty, evil and only the spirit within as good and whole, as the author of the book writes. She continues, “within different communities in times past these accusations may have been legitimate. But the Christianity we find in scripture values and honours the body.”
In 13 weeks we will be celebrating Christmas. A time when we remember Jesus’ birth, the incarnation. As a baby grows so did Jesus, he continued to grow and develop, in fact we are told very little about Jesus’ life as a baby, child, or teenager; it’s not until Jesus begins his ministry that we know more about the man he would become.
And then within three to four months after Christmas we will prepare and remember Jesus’ death, how his physical body endured the pain and torture that lead him to die on the cross. 1 Corinthians 6:20 (Amplified bible) reads, “You were bought with a price [you were actually purchased with the precious blood of Jesus and made His own]. So then, honour and glorify God with your body.” It’s not Jesus spirit that paid the price but his actual physical body.
My favourite passage in the Bible is Psalm 139. It speaks of both God knowing me physically, about how I live day to day, and that God saw me before I was born, even in my mother’s womb! This Psalm became a comfort to me as my body was a source for torment to me from others as I grew up. I would often think about running away, but the only person I was really trying to get away from was myself, away from my physical body.
As a grown women my body continues to cause me pain. I have a condition called PCOS and this effects fertility. The desire to be a mum myself seems impossible (I know and believe all things are possible in God – Sarah, Hannah and Rachel to name a few). Yet over the years God has shown me how to love me, how he has created me in his image and how to love all of me, mind, soul/spirit and body . Now don’t get me wrong, there are days when I need reminding of this and there is still lots of work to be done. But my body as it is, is not just my body but it is me, it’s part of my whole being.
Our bodies are amazing, in the book ‘What our bodies know about God’ Rob Moll writes about the physical effects that spiritual practices such as prayer have on the brain that has been studied by neuroscience. Rob describes how different parts of the brain react when in prayer and the significant impact of practicing prayer on a daily basis has on the overall mental, emotional and physical wellbeing of an individual.
The book is written in three parts, 1. Bodies are spiritual, 2. How we change during spiritual practices and 3. What does it mean when our bodies malfunction? How do we think of God as creator when creation is broken?
Brushing our teeth is a reminder to us to care for our bodies, they are precious things that we inhabit – that is amazing in and of itself! It is in the daily care of our bodies, that we can continue to be all that God wants for us.
In closing I want to share 3 John 2 “Beloved, I pray that in every way you may succeed and prosper in good health (physically) Just as (I know) your soul prospers (spiritually).”
Questions:
What toothpaste do you use? And what colour is your toothbrush?
What’s your worst dentist story?
What’s your favourite part of your body (keep it clean)?
The church has sometimes handled the body in a negative way, what is your experience of this?
What bible stories do you like that talk to us about the body?
What does the incarnation (God taking human form) tell us about the body?
How could we use our bodies to connect spiritually?
Peace, Rob
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.