Bettering Ourselves

There are plenty of self help books out there. The television programs abound: from tearing down a home and building a bigger, better house to staple my stomach and give me a nose job so I can look like someone more "beautiful." For two weeks we have talked about how WHAT GOD CREATED IS EXCELLENT. We are marvelously made. No mistakes. Everything about us has a specific, unique design. Do we look at the self help books, the better yourself articles in magazines and the tv shows and say that's wrong? Stray away from that? Shun it?

What we need to understand is that what God created is excellent, but what we do with ourselves needs improvement. It's like my silver chain that I allow to get tarnished. It's still silver. It's still my favorite. I still like it. Looks good on me, but if I don't take care of it it gets dirty, black and ugly. And when this happens, it is not the jewler's fault. It is my fault. I got to get the special cloth my wife has in her jewlery draw and rub, clean and shine up my chain.

We are like that chain. We are sterling silver. Shinny. Beautiful. And when we feed our bodies physically and mentally what it does not need, what it should not handle, what is harmful to it... then we need to do some improvements. Some purging. Pruning.

Here's the balancing act: The line between bettering yourself and tryign to be someone else. After you take inventory of who you are in Christ, if you stray from that (whether it be through ungodly relationships, wrong thinking, etc.) then you must do everythign in your power to shine yourself up. BUT THAT IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM trying to immulate, copy or model yourself after an idea, celebrity or athlete you think you should act like or look like.

Why should we take care of ourselves? Because we do not belong to ourselves...
Do you not know that your body is a temple 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 body. [1 Corinthians 6.19-20 NIV]

Or better yet, The Message versions states: Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.

Amazing that we many times fail to realize we are in borrowed flesh. That God actually cares if we don't lead healthy lives. That the trash we put in our minds and mouth begins to destroy our body and that saddens our Creator. That it is our responisbility for the upkeep of this body, mind and life we are given.

Do your job!