Is our body really the enemy?
If Jesus came embodied, then there must be something good and holy about this encasement of skin and fat around the brittle bones and tight muscles that hold me together...
They tell you to “write what you know”, and while I do recommend that as it seems to be the easier route, I find greater joy and knowledge at the end of a writing project where I shared what I don’t fully know. So, welcome to the in-between of my thoughts and wrestlings about something I believe matters DEEPLY to God.
I say this often in my work—If we could know all about God, then God would cease to be God. I’ve found myself comfortable with the notion of unknowing, and I hope you find that peace, too.
What I’m sharing with you in today’s Truth Balm is something I know very little about (for now), but I like sharing my journey while I’m still on it. When it comes to our body, mind, and spirit, I think we’ll always be learning and growing.
The concept of the physical body has been a point of intrigue for me the last few years as mine has personally ebbed and flowed in and out of health more than your average 20-something-year-old (or maybe it is average but no one talks about it). As a result, anger and guilt have become close friends.
What is it about our physical bodies that we fear so much that it’s become a point of neglect and contempt in our Christian conversations?
I never struggled with the concept of physical insecurity until the last few years. I had the best metabolism growing up, shot up tall as I entered high school, and, other than a few things here or there, that was just not my internal battle. Then, you know, the twenties hit me, and damn if everything didn’t start taking a nose dive.
Admittedly, I have a self-sabotage mode that, once guilt hits, I deep dive in the wrong direction. I get mad at how much weight I’ve gained and how much muscle I’ve lost, so I feel sorry for myself. I eat pizza and ice cream to find comfort, then I find myself in the circle of guilt and pain all over again.
This isn’t a post about body positivity from the world’s perspective. This is about body positivity from God’s perspective.
How the world has tarnished our view of what a “healthy” body looks like is one thing, but I want to talk more about how the Christian community has neglected the body.
If we’re honest, the way we teach people to consider their bodies (women especially) is all fear-based.
“Cover up. Don’t cause the boys to be tempted by lust.”
“Gain weight, you’re too skinny.”
”You don’t look so good; are you exercising enough?”
”That makes you look like a boy; embrace your womanhood by wearing a dress instead.”
”Mascara and lipstick go a long way on a video interview.”
Yes, these are all real statements I’ve received—the list is likely longer and I’m sure you could think of your own.
The Christian culture taught me a LONG time ago to ignore my bodily impulses and to not trust my body’s warnings or signals because it is a temptress that can’t be trusted. So much so that as I navigated the most stressful season of my life, I didn’t know that my body was crying out for help.
What lies about your body have you believed because of what culture or Christian communities have taught you?
Do you know that some people who have gained excessive weight in a short time might NOT be eating crazy unhealthy? Cortisol levels, for women, build up fat in the stomach. This was news to me. I was under the impression that my guilty-self-sabotage mode had just gotten the best of me. And if I’m honest, I don’t even think I knew what cortisol was.
Did you also know that stress can determine how your food is actually digested? If you eat while working or don’t allow yourself to slow down and focus on eating, your body is still in work/stress mode, and the nutrients in your food break down differently, affecting your digestive tract, what nutrients you absorb, and ultimately, your mood, mental health, and cortisol levels.
Do you realize how much food affects our bodies? You may say, well, obviously, but I mean on a deeper level than your average “Calories in, calories out”.
Inflammation is a wild beast, and most of the time it creeps in through the food we eat—the food we think seems natural or safe like sunflower oil and canola oil (because 10 years ago, who would have known that those were as harmful as they are?). How inflammation affects everyone’s bodies is a diverse discovery, but it’s something we need to take into consideration, especially if we’re going to take it upon ourselves to comment on or journey with someone as they take care of their body.
If stress doesn’t take a front seat in our conversations about our bodies, we’ll never find healing for our whole selves.
In the last few years of my life, I began to realize how much my body was crying out for me to take a step back, slow down, breathe deeper, eat nutrition, move, and see the weight of stress in my life.
On multiple occasions, my doctor said, “Are you stressed?”
I laughed. “Isn’t everyone?”
No, seriously. I thought that was true. In fact, I still struggle to recognize that some people don’t feel stress the same way I do.
I’ve taken tests to see what foods I should cut out and learn what I’m intolerant to. I’ve tried Paleo, Whole 30, Keto, and Sugar Fasts. I’ve juice-cleansed, gone gluten-free, and cut coffee. I’ve upped my water intake, had seasons of regular exercise, and tried so many different kinds of protein powders. I’ve dabbled with intermittent fasting, cutting carbs, and of course, calorie counting.
Finally, one day, I decided to try a Chiropractor—NOT for my digestive issues because that didn’t even cross my mind—because my hips were all out of whack and messing with my daily work (not able to sit for longer than 30 minutes) and interrupting my sleep on the regular. To avoid a 30-year-old hip replacement down the road, I felt like I needed to try Chiropractic.
At my first appointment, I had x-rays, and the Doctor came in to discuss the results with me and do my first adjustment. My pelvis was WAY off-center, and he noticed my lower back had very slight scoliosis—WHAT?! He then asked me a question I had never considered relevant to chiropractic work: “Do you have digestive issues?”
With a blank stare, I said “Uh, yes. For like the last 10 years of my life. I’ve never really been able to find the common cause.” He affirmed that with how out of whack my back and pelvis were, that specific part of the spine being misaligned tends to affect the digestive tract. MIND. BLOWN.
WHY HAS NO ONE EVER TOLD ME THERE COULD BE A CONNECTION?
Multiple conversations with doctors and all they could do was prescribe me Prilosec, tell me I have IBS, and fling a paper at me for a low-fodmap diet, dismissing all my aches and pains (not to mention the stress this journey adds in its own right).
In its own funny way, this chiropractic journey has opened my eyes to how God created us, mind-body-spirit all connected.
The body is connected in all ways. The chiropractor actually took the time to help me understand what pressure points are connected to parts of the spine, etc. One visit, he was adjusting my neck and said, “You work on a computer all day?” (HE ALWAYS KNOWS.) Because everything we do physically or emotionally, even mentally because of how that affects emotions, impacts the rest of our whole selves.
Physical adjustment releases emotional tension. If you know me, you know that I struggle with healthy releases of my emotions. Almost every time I get adjusted, emotions just tumble out of me afterward—unrecognized grief, unmanaged anger, unseen fear.
The amount of tension I carry because of unknown stress or emotions that reveal themselves physically is insurmountable and not as common as I like to think. Some people actually just cry when they need to? A weird phenomenon.
You can’t tell me there is no connection between our mind, heart, and body. I have literally felt the connection. This is why physical exercise is actually good for our mental health, too. I’ve never cried more than after an adjustment or a run.Stress isn’t a natural God-created occurrence that we’re forced to carry. Not everyone has a stressful job. Yeah, you can laugh at me, but this was recognized at the beginning of the end of my time in ministry at the church I was working for. Slowly over time, I realized the toll my job was taking on my body more than just on my time, relationships, and personal worth. Something no one but the chiropractor helped me understand.
Ultimately, my body is the one I needed to listen to.
Ultimately, my body held everything within it and was bearing the burdens I didn’t even know I carried.
My body braced itself for reactions. It carried the stress my mind wasn’t even willing to admit was there; it ached from the lack of nutrition (because even when I was eating healthy, I would rush through it or work while eating); it housed the pain I wasn’t giving my heart time to feel.
I started Truth Balm with the idea of studying, writing, and bringing life to the reality that Jesus’ words and life and love bring true healing to our WHOLE self—mind, spirit, and body. To be honest, “the body” part of that made me cringe because that’s the biggest journey I’ve been on the last few years, and I’m still working through it. But I know the truth of God’s Word enough to know that God didn’t create our bodies frivolously.
Don’t read what I’m not saying here—the body cannot and should not drive our lives and motivations. Like everything—our minds and emotions too—our bodies need to be kept in the bounds they were created to be kept in, surrendered to God’s Word and obedience above all else.
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Thessalonians 5:23
Paul appeals to the reality that we can and must honor God with our body and our mind and ultimately our spirit. They are all connected; it’s how we were created—Imago Dei. To truly honor God with each element of ourselves, we must recognize that none of them are created sinful or separate. Sin comes when we let our mind, body, and spirit become misaligned with God’s ordered creation, commands, and blessings.
If Jesus came embodied and lived a perfectly whole life, free of sin, then the body cannot be intrinsically sinful, so we ought to stop treating it as the enemy.
I don’t know where you’re at in this realization—maybe this is your sign to start going to the chiropractor. Maybe this is your sign to start to see other people more wholly. Maybe this is your chance to lean in and learn to recognize how connected we all are, and how God created our body uniquely, powerfully, and creatively to work together with our thoughts and emotions.
This is my stake in the ground to stop spiraling into a guilty-self-sabotage mode when something is out of whack in my body. Instead, I resolve to slow down, take a step back, assess my emotions, thoughts, and habits, bring it all to God to see why my body is reacting the way it is, and move forward in true wholeness. I hope you’re with me.
Truth Balm Updates
Some of you shared that you would be interested in hearing more on these kinds of topics and how truth intersects with culture. I am working on relaunching my podcast to talk through that very thing! Stay tuned for updates on that—Truth Heals, coming soon to a podcast app near you.
Beginning next week, you’ll start seeing me a little more frequently in your inbox! I wanted to find ways to stay more engaged with you and my writing. On the first Monday of the month, you’ll still receive this more in-depth Truth Balm.
Then every Monday following, you’ll see “A Word of Truth” for the week. If it’s not obvious, I love words. I am FASCINATED by the etymology of words, especially when it comes to words we see in Scripture, but also how we use and engage with words in our cultural conversations. So, each of the weekly truth emails will be rather simple:A word I’m studying and its background and correct usage
A verse from Scripture I’m meditating on
A song I’m listening to on repeat
A saying or quote from something I read that is influencing my thought life
This was so insightful and helpful, Stephanie - thank you for sharing!
This is excellent (though I’m sorry for any part I played in your upbringing on dress). I’m so glad the Chiropractor is giving you relief and good Health Care for your body! I love that this is a journey for you. It’s truly how we learn and adjust. Especially when seen through the eyes of God.