Wednesday, September 30, 2020

“I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration — what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.” (Psalm 139: 14 -16 The Message Bible)

                Susan claims that I am not the man she married.

                Yikes!

                But she’s right. I turn sixty-nine this week and over the years I have lost several body bits and pieces and have had others replaced. This coming Monday, I am having shoulder replacement surgery. Eventually I will have the other shoulder replaced as well. My kids call me the bionic man.

                This is the last blog for a few weeks while I recuperate. I will probably be back in mid-November.  I probably could type with one hand and not be any worse than I am with two. But the shoulder needs to be rested for several weeks while it heals. I am putting myself on the Injured List (a baseball reference).

                Satchel Paige, a Negro League baseball player, once said that if he had known he was going to live this long he would have taken better care of himself. Well said! 

                Our bodies are marvelous creations indeed.  We were created in the image of God. (Genesis 1:26) I don’t think we reflect on that imagery as much as we might. Perhaps the apostle Paul had this rich imagery in mind when he wrote: “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.” (1 Corinthians 6: 19 -20, The Message Bible)

                I know that I could have and should have taken better care of myself over the years. My arthritis is mostly hereditary (thanks Mom)  but a lot of my other physical issues are pure laziness and lethargy. I see men, my age, jogging, riding bikes, just walking  and taking better care of themselves than I am. Ten thousand steps – maybe in a three months for me, at best, but not in a day.

                I can’t preach  what I don’t practice particularly well, but  I am aware that total well-being is a combination of physical, spiritual and mental health. It is all too easy to allow oneself to go backwards in any of those areas.  This lousy pandemic becomes an excuse to cocoon in our personal and  private nests. No travel. Little or no socialization. No or very limited church. Some are afraid to stick their noses outside the front door. I am an expert at reclusiveness.

                Yet there is a need to feed, nourish, exercise, and keep fit this marvelous thing we call our bodies and souls. I am supposed to be practising deep breathing exercises and I am doing so.  Deep breath in through the nose and let it our through the mouth. Fill up my lungs, expand their capacity, take in more oxygen. I do it several times a day for two or three minutes each time. It is a good analogy for taking care of the rest of me.

                Breathe deeply in the love of God. Exhale the toxins of the world around you. Fill your capacity for love and forgiveness. Take in the beauties of life and appreciate more fully the wonder of living. Exercise your soul in some way. Enlarge your spirit. Move the muscles of your ability to live responsibly and meaningfully.  Get up and do something, especially if it is for someone else. You will feel better, stronger and more alive.

                There are no replacement parts for our whole body, soul and spirit. We need to make sure that God’s design on our personal creation does not fall apart.

                Bend those knees. Lift those hands.

Dale