Your Body is a Temple

Reading 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Sometime early in my high school athletic career, I overheard two seniors talking to each other in the weight room while they were doing preacher curls (throwback!). As the last reps were completed, they did what most guys do after a big set of curls, they flexed and stared at themselves in the mirrors which covered the walls. In the midst of their mutual admiration, I heard one say to the other, “The body is a temple.” For the next 23 years, I lived with the belief that the physique of our body should be worth worshipping. Whether that’s standing over the scale dominating our weight or someone else liking a photo on our feed and commenting on how good we look, the body was made to be worshipped. Then, like so many things in life, one day I discovered this phrase was actually from the Bible. Huh? How could that be? Why would God want us to worship our chiseled abs? It occurred to me I had it wrong. Our bodies are temples, but they are not made to be worshipped, they are made to worship.

Before we get to the whole temple thing, I need to make sure we’re on the same page when it comes to the body. This is where my thinking was off to begin with. Our bodies are not just physical. Yes, we are bones and muscles and skin and yet we are so much more. Our bodies are also spiritual. When God formed humanity, Scripture says He breathed into their nostrils the breath of life. To see your body only as a physical temple is to almost not see it at all. Just think about how short term the satisfaction is that comes from physical achievements. It’s all very temporary. There’s a deeper longing inside us for something more, and that something is spiritual. Your body is both a physical and spiritual temple.

So, what’s the temple reference all about? It’s about Jesus. See, before He came to earth, God’s people worshipped God at a physical temple. They made sacrifices through the priests and had fellowship with God’s Spirit at the actual temple itself. Jesus changed all that. His ultimate sacrifice for us meant no longer did God’s people need to go to a temple to experience His presence. Instead, Jesus offered us a new way – the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a gift given to followers of Jesus, and it is this Spirit which lives inside us. The temple reference has much more to do with our spiritual nature than our physical one. Now that the Spirit of God dwells in us, we become a functional temple. We have access to God everywhere we go. But we also carry the responsibility of honoring God with our bodies. The guys in the field house weren’t completely wrong, but to fully honor God with your body, you must honor Him with your spiritual body as well.

The great news is fitness is the journey for both! While the exercises may differ, the process is the same. Fitness, physical or spiritual, is a result of the load, recovery, adaptation cycle. Our pursuit to bring glory to God means we must train both. Just like you don’t get physically fit from one workout a week, you’ll never become spiritually fit just going to church on Sunday. It’s insufficient on its own for the journey. The reason most people never become fit is because it requires discipline, sacrifice, and suffering, and most people don’t pursue these in their physical or spiritual lives.

But you’re not most people! You’re active in a community of physical fitness. You’re either active or exploring a community of spiritual fitness. You are learning how to apply discipline, sacrifice, and suffering to your life and you’re seeing some results. Remember the journey has no end here on earth. And just like when your house is super clean, as you honor God more with your physical and spiritual bodies, you’ll began to notice the little things that still need to change. Even though the changes may be smaller or more subtle over time, they have the power to produce phenomenal results. You’ll see what I mean. Just stay engaged with your community and the next time someone says the body is a temple, you’ll know just how much that really means.

Questions for Reflection:

Does the idea of the Spirit of God dwelling inside you make you want to live your life differently?

In what ways do you honor God with your body? In what ways could you?

Of discipline, sacrifice, or suffering, which do you most embrace? Which do you most avoid?

Amnesia

Reading: 2 Timothy 1:1-14

In 2002, Matt Damon stepped onto the big screen to play the role of Jason Bourne. The movie opens with him getting picked up by a fishing boat only to discover he’s lost his memory. He has absolutely no clue who he is, how he ended up in the Mediterranean, and especially why there are two gunshots in his back. No matter your Rotten Tomatoes score, The Bourne Identity is an action-packed thriller. What I most connected to in the movie wasn’t the chase scenes or the gun fights, it was watching the main character slowly rediscover his purpose in life. Bit by bit as the information rolled in, Bourne began to see more about how his life fit together and what his true identity was. It struck me that all of us in life wrestle with the same problem. We’ll have to overcome some amnesia.

Now look, I’m not going to spiritualize The Bourne Identity and try and draw some sketchy comparisons between us and Matt Damon, but think about it, we’ve all had amnesia. Car keys anyone? I had some amnesia this week in the gym. After just seven days off, it felt as if my body completely forgot how to move. I found myself struggling to achieve basic positions, hit simple lifts, and finish WOD’s without completely self-destructing. I spent the better part of five days recovering my identity as an athlete. It was a process of self-discovery, or in this case, self-rediscovery.

I believe we’re in this process all the time, in so many areas of our life. Think about the evolution of your identity over the course of your life. Pretty crazy! But something happens when we migrate into adulthood, we lose the sense of adventure that once came with the journey. We settle into an identity that for most people is primarily physical. Not just physical in the sense of working out or staying in shape. I mean physical in the sense of tangible things, like your career or your financial worth. This is such a limited way of thinking, and I should know, because for almost 40 years it’s how I operated. Then one day I realized God is more interested in who we are than what we do. And because we are both body and soul, our identity must be both physical and spiritual.

But unlocking our spiritual identity can have us feeling like Jason Bourne (ok, only comparison, I promise). This however is where we find our true purpose, or our calling in life. More than a vocation, a calling is akin back to the childhood adventure of discovering your identity. Author Os Guinness describes it this way:

“Are you looking for more purpose in life? For a purpose big enough to absorb every ounce of your attention, deep enough to plumb every mystery of your passions, and lasting enough to inspire you to your last breath?”

Uh yeah Os, sign me up! This is the search for your spiritual identity, where you find answers to these two questions: Who are you in the eyes of God, and how has He wired you to change the world? Not surprisingly, a journey like this has the capacity to completely reorient your view of the world. Let me say it like this – your true purpose in this world will be formed around a legacy mindset. Legacy is the key, and it works in two ways. First, you focus on leaving this world better than you found it. You become investment centric. You’re investing time, talent, and resources primarily in the people around you. You’re building people up, helping fan into flame their purpose in life. Secondly, but just as important, you are building a Christ-like spiritual nature which you will carry into eternity. You are a caretaker in this world, but you live with Heaven in mind.

This is the adventure God is inviting you to step into. So, what are you waiting for? You don’t have to quit your six-figure job or liquidate your 401k. All you need to do is start by asking God to show you. Or maybe life has pulled you away from the pursuit of your purpose and today it’s time to ask God to lead you back. My identity as an athlete in the gym wasn’t going to be rediscovered by staying disengaged. Engage God today and let your adventure begin. Who knows, one day you may not be able to remember life without Him. And that’s not amnesia, that’s transformation!

Questions for Reflection:

Do you see a difference between a calling and a career? If so, how do you reconcile them?

Why do you think God reveals our purpose over time rather than all at once?

Time to Recovery

Reading: Isaiah 40:21-31

One of the ways we determine the fitness of an athlete is how long it takes them to recover, known as time to recovery. It works like this. Let’s say we take two athletes and give them a 15-minute workout of as many rounds as possible of 5 kettlebell swings, 10 box jumps, and 15 pushups. At the end of the workout, they both score the same number of rounds and reps. On paper it may look like they have equal fitness, and they might, so we add a recovery component to each round. We’ll have them repeat the workout with a heart rate monitor, only this time they can’t start the next round until their heart rate gets below 120 beats per minute. The fitter the athlete, the faster the recovery, and thus the more rounds they will be able to do. Great athletes know it’s not only how hard you push, it’s also how fast you recover.

Time to recovery is a great assessment of spiritual fitness as well. Let me give you an example of a spiritual test most of you face every day – driving in traffic. Have you ever wondered why the only good driver on the road is you? Cars whizzing by, drivers cutting in front of you, slamming on breaks, and all of that is making your blood boil. Who knows, you might even say a few choice words or offer a “kind gesture.” Here’s the point: how fast can you spiritually recover? For some of you, you’re not even thinking this way. You’ll carry that anger into your next phone call or Zoom meeting. Some of you will be plotting ways to get back at everyone who’s wronged you. But the more spiritually fit you are, the faster you recover peace and harmony in your life. The more you know who God is, what He’s done, and how you fit into the whole equation, the easier it is to release the tension of life.

I’ve spent years developing and applying this in my spiritual life, and nowhere does it help me more than in relationships, specifically my marriage. Conflict in relationships is inevitable. There’s a 100% chance of you frustrating those close to you and vice versa. So, what’s your time to recovery? Are you going to take that hostility and give it back to them? Are you going to burn their toast “on accident?” Or maybe you’re going to let their words hurt you more than they were intended to do. When your spiritual mindset is on recovery, you learn to let go of things faster. Because your focus isn’t on you, it’s on the power of God’s Spirit working in you. And believe me, there’s a difference.

Questions for Reflection

Is there an area of your life where you need to apply the principle of time to recovery? If so, what is it?

What are some obstacles to developing a faster spiritual time to recovery?