Surprisingly enough, it was in the process of staying faithful to my spiritual journey that I first began to face my profound ambivalence about life in a body. At the ripe old age of thirty, I could no longer ignore the fact that I was tired, lethargic and somewhat depressed. Thinking that my lethargy and lack of enthusiasm for life were psychological or spiritual in nature, I went to a psychologist who was also a spiritual director. To my surprise, some of our initial conversations had to do with my physical condition: eating patterns, water intake, how much sleep I was getting, whether I was getting any exercise, and general attention to health issues. Even though I had been paying attention to the condition of my spiritual life for years, no one had ever called any serious attention to the connection between my physical well-being and my life in Christ. This was something of a revelation!
During that time, I was reflecting on the story of Elijah’s journey into God’s presence in 1 Kings 19, and I was struck by the attention God gave to Elijah’s physical condition, going so far as to send an angel to guide him in caring for his body. I was comforted to find that even though Elijah was a great prophet, he had the same blind spot I seemed to have: he had let himself become so run down physically that God literally had to send an angel to strengthen his body before they could deal with anything else. The angel got very specific with Elijah providing him with a cake baked on hot stones (the first angel food cake, I presume!) and a jar of water. Elijah followed the angel’s simple instructions for strengthening his body and then fell into such an exhausted sleep that he almost slept through the next meal. The angel came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.”
“What journey?” Elijah might have asked. After all, he had left his life as a prophet in Israel, he had slumped down under a solitary broom tree and told God in no uncertain terms that he was done. But the angel knew better. He knew that Elijah was on a deeply spiritual journey—the journey into the presence of God. And that journey requires strength of both body and soul.
The Gift of Life in a Body
That season of spiritual journeying brought me to this startling realization: I had never thought of my body as a gift from God and I certainly had not cared for it as such. Rather than taking care of it as I would any other highly valued gift, I had been using (and mis-using it) for my own ends, to the point that it was now protesting. I hadn’t been paying attention to what I ate, so there was far too much sugar and junk food in my diet. Rather than getting enough rest, I had become dependent on caffeine for additional energy. I had never considered the importance of drinking enough water so I was clearly dehydrated. And as a busy parent juggling the demands of home and family plus church and vocational ministry, I thought I didn’t have enough time or energy to exercise or engage in physical activity. I, too, needed guidance in caring for my body as a spiritual practice that would strengthen me for the spiritual journey to which I was being invited.
My early lessons in flesh and blood spirituality began with growing in my understanding that the physical and the spiritual were not as opposed to each other as I had thought. I am not merely a soul and spirit; I am an embodied human being, and my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. In some unexplainable way God inhabits our bodies, making them a place where we can meet and know him. The Scriptures also seemed to indicate that it is possible to glorify God in our bodies rather than merely glorifying the body (the focus of the surrounding culture) or ignoring the body (the focus of the religious subculture). As I grew more and more curious about what it might look like to glorify God in my body, I was pretty sure that walking around tired, overweight and stimulated by sugar and caffeine was not it!
Caring for the Body
Given the consistent biblical affirmation of the significance of our bodies, part of our spiritual pilgrimage is to seek a sacramental approach to life in which the body is understood to be sacred because it is the place where God’s Spirit has chosen to dwell. We can begin by simply learning how to care for the body more intentionally. As Elijah’s story demonstrates, there is a real connection between care for the body and our ability to continue deepening our relationship with God and to faithfully carry out God’s purposes for our life over the long haul.
Interestingly enough, even secular medical research indicates that exercise and spirituality go hand in hand. We now know that exercise brings mental and physiological changes, including the flood of body-made opiates that induce what we call the “runner’s high.” This physiological dynamic can create a change in consciousness, a kind of expansiveness in which the runner feels more integrated with his or her surroundings and the Creator himself.
Listening to the Body
Our bodies have much to tell us if we could only figure out how to listen. In fact, oftentimes God speaks to us through our body. Most times, our body is the first to know if we are overcommitted, stressed, uneasy or joyful, and when we need to attend to something that is causing us pain or disease. Elouise Renich Fraser, in her book Confessions of a Beginning Theologian, writes about the significant role that listening to her body has played in her personal and theological journey. “My body, once ignored and despised, has become an ally in the reorientation of my internal and external life. It lets me know when I’m running away, avoiding yet another of God’s invitations to look into my past and the way it binds me as a theologian. I can’t trust my mind as often as I trust my body. My mind tries to talk me into business as usual, but my body isn’t fooled. Insomnia, intestinal pain and diarrhea let me know there’s work to be done.”
Paying attention to what we are experiencing in our body can open up windows of insight that might otherwise remain closed to us. For instance, the experience of consolation and desolation as it relates to discernment is, in many ways, a bodily experience. The flow of life-giving energy through our bodies or a sense of life draining away from us is experienced in the body if we are in touch with it. God’s assurance to the people of Israel is that the ability to choose life and follow God was not to be found in some faraway place but rather in the intimacy and immediacy of paying attention to our bodies. “No, the word [of God] is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe” (Deuteronomy 30:14). What we need to know about how to be well and how to choose life is already there for us in our bodily knowing if we will just pay attention.
Paying attention to what gives our body and our spirit a sense of life or drains life from us can help us stay connected with God’s guiding presence. When I honor my body by “listening” to tension, discomfort, lightness, or joy and wonder, and ask, Now what is that about? often God speaks into that awareness with truth and insight that proves very helpful over the long haul.
This Tender Body
Life in these earthen vessels is an astonishing and glorious and tender thing. It is glorious when we consider the fact that our human being-ness reflects and mirrors the image of God, speaking deeply about who God is. It is glorious when we experience ourselves to be strong, beautiful, healthy and whole—awake to all God’s good gifts to us in a body. But life in the body is also a tender thing because our bodies are vulnerable.
When we are sick in the body…when there is something wrong and we don’t know what it is…when the only way to deal with what’s going on in the body is to go under the knife…when we remember early experiences in the body that we could not control…when we open ourselves sexually to another person and realize that we have given them the power to cause us great pleasure and great pain…when we experience aging and the loss of our physical strength and capacity…when men experience shame and confusion about the powerful drives within them…when women experience being excluded or having their gifts rejected because their souls are housed in a female body when we see bodies crushed in an earthquake or swept away by a tsunami or the bodies of children starving or forced into hard labor or sex trade…when we carry children in our hearts and bodies and they break our hearts…it is then that we feel the gift and the terror of life in our bodies. But it is also then that we wonder at the fact that God, our Creator, chose to crawl inside the human experience and participate not just in the glory of life in these bodies but also in the vulnerability.
Bodies can be hurt, violated, broken, and even killed—but God chose to partake of it all. It was in a body that he came to us. Even now, Jesus chooses not just to be present to us in spirit but to be incarnated in another body—us!—the Church! It, too, is glorious and strong and full of youthful vigor at times. Other times it is vulnerable and broken and aging. But all the time it is Christ’s body and it is the way he has chosen to be present to this world. “Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks about doing good.Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world…Christ has no body now on earth but yours.” from the poem, Christ Has No Body, attributed to Teresa of Avila.
Who knows but that the practice of honoring our physical bodies might also lead us to the practice of honoring and being Christ’s body in the world?
Practicing Wholeness
God has created us for wholeness. When aspects of ourselves that were always meant to exist together are reintegrated, the result is a combustion of joy and vitality that goes far beyond the physical dimension. It is a spiritual vitality that is essential to the abundance of our life in Christ. Moments of physical activity and exercise become prayers of gratitude and moments of consecration. Eating healthy food that we enjoy can be an occasion of experiencing God’s care for us, reminding us of our dependency on him and of his faithfulness to care for our needs. Scheduling at least some of our meals at times when we can eat slowly and prayerfully can make mealtimes occasions of true communion and gratitude. Paying more attention to the act of bathing or showering can heighten our awareness of our human vulnerability and also the wonder and beauty of our body. Receiving the loving touch of friends and family members can allow God to minister to our very human needs for love and meaningful connection. Giving ourselves wholeheartedly to the sexual experience with our spouse or learning how to embrace our sexuality in periods of singleness is a profound yes to God’s call to live in this world as human beings.
Spiritual disciplines that teach us how to honor our own and others’ bodies help us find our way between the excesses of a culture that glorifies and objectifies the body and the excesses of Christian tradition that have often denigrated and ignored the body.
Knowing that God has chosen to make our bodies his dwelling place opens the door to remarkable opportunities for heightening our awareness of God’s presence so that responding wholeheartedly to that Presence is possible. And isn’t that what the spiritual life is all about?
Practice
Paying attention to your breathing is one of the simplest ways of getting in touch with your existence as a body. Settle into a comfortable position, either in a chair or on the floor, and pay attention to your breathing. Notice if your breathing is shallow, and take time to breathe deeply. Allow your breathing to release any tension you are holding in your back, your shoulders, your arms. Adjust your body for greater comfort, and allow yourself to relax into your chair or cushion as a physical expression of your trust in God.
Gently turn your attention to your body and invite God to speak to you through your body. First of all, just notice how you feel about life in your body. Are you embarrassed about it? Do you enjoy it? What happens inside you when you consider the idea of honoring your body or meeting God in your body?
What is the condition of your body these days? Have you been caring for it consistently—eating right, sleeping enough, exercising, attending to medical issues and concerns—or have you been ignoring it or even abusing it in some way? Sit with your awareness and talk to God about it. Listen for his response.
Is there anything your body is trying to tell you? Any place of tension or discomfort that you have been ignoring? Any medical issue that requires attention? Any feeling of dis-ease that is vaguely unsettling and seems to persist? Listen to see if there is anything you have been keeping outside your awareness, and let it come fully into your awareness in God’s presence.
Is there any way your body wants to pray right now? Any way you could express yourself to God physically? Go ahead, follow your body’s lead, and pray with your body and soul.
In times of solitude, begin with a few moments for breathing and settling into your body. Notice if any of your spiritual practices might be combined with physical activities that you enjoy and then pay attention to the ways in which you experience God’s presence through a greater appreciation for life in your body.
