My Body is Holy
A Guest Post by Dr. Kelly Edmiston
Last week, I began a series on Sex & Your Body: Reconnecting with Embodied Spirituality. For the introduction go HERE:
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To reclaim the body in Christian spirituality we must learn to view the body as a resource for knowing God, not a barrier between us and God. To do this, we must experience four primary values.
1. I am my Body
2. My Body is Holy
3. Pleasure is Good
4. God is Everywhere
5. What I do with my body matters.
This week is on value #2, Your Body is Holy.
I sat across my office from Leah, an 11-year-old girl wearing “mom jeans” and a crop top. Leah’s mom requested a meeting with me because Leah was being bullied in school. Kids are calling her “fat,” her mom told me. I asked Leah about it.
“Your mom says you are being bullied. Would you like to tell me about it?”
Leah shrugged her shoulders and flipped her auburn hair off her freckled forehead as she rolled her eyes and said, “Yea, pastor Kelly, my mom is freaking out because kids keep calling me fat. “
Then she paused for a long time and went on.
“Someone also wrote it on the back of the bathroom door and drew a picture of me as a pig. I never should have told my mom. She is just making such a big deal about it now.”
“That must really hurt that kids are saying that about you. What have you been feeling?” I asked.
She paused again. This time for a long time, and her eyes filled with tears.
“I already hate how I look.” she said, “so I guess it just makes me feel even worse.”
So many young people today are bullied for their weight and their appearance. In a culture obsessed with Kylie Jenner’s “perfect body,” standing (nearly) naked for an IG photo, how do we teach our kids that their bodies are holy?
Our kids are growing up in a culture that assigns value to people based on the number on the scale, jeans size, or how someone looks in a bathing suit. We see famous people at the Met Gala wearing “clothes” that cover less than bathing suits displaying perfectly chiseled lean muscles. (By the way, what is with the looking naked trend?)
What we must tell our children, as they are consuming these images, is that the Kim Kardashians and Nicole Kidmans of the world have spent most of their waking hours working to get their bodies to look that way. They have consented to their bodies being chiseled, sculpted, cut, injected, frozen, and worked to create the shape that we see in the red carpet picture.
In this kind of cultural environment, we can easily forget that bodies are not meant to be ornaments to be adored or criticized. Rather, bodies are meant to be the vehicle by which we know God.
To be holy is to be like God. Because of our bodies, humans can create and generate life, we can help and heal others, we can work to accomplish what needs to be done, and we can reach out to care for the hurting. Simply put, bodies are holy because of what they do not because of how they look.
This is what I told 11-year-old Leah, (in so many words), as she sat in my office, tears streaming down her face.
I said, “Leah, your body is holy. Your body is how you know God and become more and more like God. And look at your body! She is amazing! Your body runs, jumps, and plays sports. Your body plays the trombone. Remember your band concert I came to last year? Your body laughs. I love the sound of your laugh. Your body makes your friends feel comforted when you reach out to hug them. Your body is amazing! Your body is holy.”
Here are a few implications for parents seeking to raise school-aged children with this value in place.
#1 Your Body is Holy, so the size of your body is the least interesting thing about your body.
Every single body on the planet is unique. Genetics, lifestyle, geography, age, emotional, physical, spiritual health are all factors contributing (among others) that lead to the shape and size of our bodies. Some bodies are big. Some bodies are small. Every body is shaped different. Every part of every body is different.
We want to teach our kids that the most Interesting thing about their body is what they do with their body. Focus on what a body does and accomplishes, not just how a body looks.
#2 Your Body is Holy, so your assignment is to treat your body like Holy Ground.
Think about the most holy place you have ever visited. Have you ever been to a location where it seemed that the line between heaven and earth was blurry? Many writers have referred to this experience as being in “thin places.” I had a “thin place” experience when I visited the Giza pyramids for the first time and when I stood on a mountain overlooking the crystal blue ocean in Greece. I have also experienced the holy nature of various churches, cathedrals, and places of worship all over the world as I walked in, sat down, took in the stained glass artistry, and tried to “listen” to the stories of so many people who had come before me. Can you remember the last time you were in a holy place?
Now, imagine that someone came into this beautiful majestic holy place and splattered mud everywhere. Or peed on the church altar. Or graffitied the Giza Pyramids. Or verbally abused the place through hateful or disrespectful speech. In some holy places, you are not even allowed to speak. Silence is required. Imagine someone going into that place and screaming and throwing a fit.
We would be appalled. We would be offended. We would be outraged. We would demand behavior correction.
And yet, I wonder if this is exactly the kind of reaction that God has when we defame, disgrace, or harm our bodies.
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (1 Corinthians 6:19)
The temple was the most holy place. It was the dwelling place of God. It was the thin place between heaven and earth where the people of God throughout history went to meet with God. Paul is reminding the church that your body is the temple. Your body is the dwelling place of God. Your body is the thin place between heaven and heart where you meet (and others meet) God. Your body is Holy because God dwells in your body.
We teach our kids this value. And we reclaim this truth for ourselves every day.