Physical Formation

The apostle Paul says in Philippians 1:20 “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.” What a great expectation . . . what a great hope . . . that Christ would be exalted in our bodies. But how do we do it?

Our body is potential energy. It is available to us that we may act, for good or for evil. I can use my body to serve God. I can use my body in defiance to God. What I do with my body right now in some mysterious way has an impact on the person I will be for eternity. My body is also my personalized power pack, provided by God so that I can physically do the things I am created and called to do. Without a body, it would be tough to do these things. For my body carries the natural abilities that enable human beings to act, even to act without God. In some sense, our body takes on a life of its own, just as God created it to do. Unfortunately, in our fallen world, it takes on a system of tendencies away from or against God.

The body is inseparable in it functioning from the context of the surrounding world and its contents. 1 John 2:16 makes it very clear that our bodies are motivated by “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” In reality, flesh is not inherently bad, it is inherently good. The problem comes when living in a fallen world. The typical error in asceticism is to regard the flesh (i.e. body) as evil. Christianity believes that natural reality, including the flesh, is good. Our desire is to see it redeemed.

Sadly, there is a lot of body hatred in the world today. Some of this stems from the view that suffering is meritorious because you are punishing an evil thing. It often manifests itself in such practical struggles as eating disorders and personal physical abuse.

One of the results of neglect of our physical formation is burn-out. Burn-out occurs when the body is stretched beyond its capacities and is not supernaturally sustained. This can happen when we take on more responsibility than we are meant to take. It is easy to take on tasks that other people should be doing. This is a temptation for spiritual leaders who feel responsible to take things on because of the expectations of others. We need to view our bodies from God’s perspective. We are created in the image of God. A false spirituality arises when denial of genuine need is combined with a real lack of supernatural support and with the assumption of work other should do. When this happens, we are set up for collapse, failure, and burn-out.

On the other hand, a true spirituality is honest about human limitations and about God not intervening in the given case. It is good to be able to say “No, I can’t do that.” We want to have times in our week when we have nothing to do. We need to be able to say sometimes, “My work is done.” God never gives anyone too much to do. Human beings do this, but God doesn’t. We have to be able to put slack, margin, and space into our lives.

A remedy for this imbalance of our physical bodies is play and leisure. In fact, play is an essential part of spirituality. You are not safe in your life or ministry unless you play. Play is when you do something that has absolutely no point. You don’t play because its good for you, you just play to play. Play is the space of non-productive behavior. Play becomes work when it is engaged in to produce a value that remains after the activity. It is important to view play in the presence of grace. So it is important to ask yourself the question “What activities are play for me?”

For further reading, check out the Physical Formation section in the SOULeader Bookstore.