Meditation Day 3: The Body Temple

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

Today’s Reading; Matthew 5-7

For the last several days my back has been hurting a lot. Of course much of that has to do with the fact that I work a job that has me sitting for eight hours a day. It also doesn’t help that I come home and sit for at least two more hours when I write.

But the main reason is that I haven’t been honoring my body.

You know how it goes. Life gets busy, things get stressful and you start to neglect things. Normally I work out like a fiend, but lately I haven’t had the energy. So yesterday when I got home super late after putting in extra time at work I realized that I gotta do something about this.

And then I remembered how I used to stretch as a form of meditation.

Stretching is very important to me. Since grew up playing basketball my body was trained to be more explosive than flexible. When I made the change from basketball to capoeira my lack of flexibility was painfully exposed.

Over the past three years or so, as I became more serious about my faith, I also became much more serious about my health. To me they go hand in hand. If the body is a temple then of course we should not only keep the temple clean but we should also improve it right? What good is a clean temple if it cannot withstand the earthquakes of life? As we prepare ourselves to fulfill the huge purposes that God has for our lives we have to not only be mentally and spiritually ready, but also physically ready.

Yesterday I realized how much I had fallen off on the physical part, so after I got home and ate I decided to get my stretch on (If you have never stretched in a focused, organized way I suggest you pick up this book. It is a great resource). After the first fifteen minutes of stretching my hips, legs and back I felt brand new. I felt my blood flowing much more freely in my body. I could feel different muscles in my body waking up. My body was smiling.

Christianity, as it was taught to me growing up, focuses a lot on our bodies in relation to sin; especially sexual sin. While it is important to make sure that we honor ourselves with the choices that we make with our sexuality I find it sad that we tend to get stuck here on the negative. Why don’t we discuss having a positive relationship with our bodies in other ways: good diet, exercise, sleep, and balance? Why isn’t this part of the fabric of our faith?

Part of this is because Christianity made a pretty serious departure from living by laws. As Paul said, all things are permissible but not all things are beneficial.

But as Jesus said he didn’t come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. Maybe things like the kosher rules do not technically apply to our faith but we can learn something from them.

I think it is time that we take a serious look at ourselves and our community and figure out how to right some of these obvious imbalances. Let’s look at how we treat our bodies. Let’s look at the extra weight that we carry every single day. What are we eating? What does this do to our hearts? How does this affect our fatigue? And most importantly, how does this affect our ability to do what God wants us to do with out lives?

This week I realized that my failure to properly honor my body from a fitness stand point had a huge effect on my energy and my focus. It seriously impacted my ability to meditate and focus on God which is the purpose of this week for me!

Step your game up Clarence…

But yesterday was the beginning of turning that around. As I focused on honoring my temple I could see more clearly that God was there inside as He always is.

Question of the day: What can you do to improve your relationship with your body and your physical health?

My Challenge to you: Find a physical activity that you enjoy. Maybe it is running, or yoga, or capoeira like it is for me. Try something new!!! Not only will this be great for your body but it will get you out into the world and expose you to new people and ideas. If you try something new and don’t like it try something else. If you try something new and do like it, keep exploring! Don’t quit until you find a sport or discipline that you ENJOY. Find more than one if you can. Diversity is the spice of life. Exercising shouldn’t be a chore. It should be a challenge that your mind, body, and spirit enjoy.

Today’s Meals:

Breakfast: 3 Scrambled Eggs

Snack: Nuts

Lunch: Mediterranean Chicken Salad

Dinner: Albacore Tuna Steak and CHICKEN

Beverage of the Day: Water

Clearly I need more veggies. I also discovered that I CAN eat fruit but it just can’t be citrus. I need to  make sure of that before I go crazy. Also I need to bring rice into the game. I was entirely too hungry yesterday.

Meditation week continues…

Food Inc.

Today was a very interesting day. I went to the beach and worked out and afterwards rewarded myself with a Double Double with fries and an extra large coke from In N Out.

Mmmhhmmmm!

In the back of my mind though was the obvious thought… “really Clarence? A fatty burger after burning all that fat? That’s why you don’t have abs son!”

Eh… but the burger was delicious.

Something that has been on my mind a lot over the past year is my diet. It really started for me back in October of 2009 when I broke my ankle. As I started the rehab process in the following February I noticed that the bone was healing slowly so in typical nerd fashion I analyzed my diet. I was getting only a fraction of the calcium that I need.

Not a good look.

The problem started in college where the cafeteria milk made me lactose intolerant (or so I thought). But with desperate times come desperate measures. I need calcium and I can only eat so much spinach.

Time to bring back the cow juice!

So I posted this declaration on my facebook status and immediately got hit up with a litany of comments from loved ones about how I was throwing away my life at the shrine of the white drink. Incredulous, I tried to ignore these well meaning, albeit quite annoying naysayers until I could stand it no longer.

To the wiki I went. And ohhh buddy were they right. It was on this day that I first felt compelled to watch Food Inc.

Food Inc is a documentary about the industrialization of food and how that affects the lives of all of us. I remember when it first came out. All of my hip and groovy friends swooned over it. I, on the other hand, knew better. There was not way I’d every watch that flic.

Why you might ask? I could give you all kinds of creative and cockamamie excuses but the truth is there is only one real reason: Ignorance is bliss baby!

But I can only be ignorant for so long.

I watched it today and was blown away mainly because it was not at all what I expected. I expected the movie to try to convince me that the food that I love was bad. That I am horrible for loving to eat four legged creatures and other miscellaneous critters with eyes and faces. I was ready with my subconscious defenses, the best of which is “how do you know that plants don’t have feelings too?” (seriously… think about that for a second… Gandhi is the only person that I will take heat from in the diet department).

But no, the movie very clearly articulated a crucial point. The problem isn’t necessarily the food we eat. The problem is how it gets from the “farm” to our plates and what that means for our food choices in terms of price, quantity, and quality.

It laid out a convincing case for how bad our food economy has become and what we can do as consumers to change it. I also enjoyed its treatment of Walmart. They were fair to the big box chain in showing their progress in line with their profit motives. It was refreshing to see a thoughtful look at a huge problem as well as some small steps that we can all take to help make things better for ourselves and everyone else.

Of course this movie does not claim to be the end all be all for how to save our diets, cure childhood obesity and diabetes, and feed the entire planet; but it is a good start for those like me who have avoided this issue like the plague. It is a good place to begin if you have ever wondered why you should care about what you put in your mouth everyday and what you can do to make better decisions in this regard.

After all our bodies are temples right? Living a fulfilling spiritual life starts within. What better way to affect our walk than to stop bringing the crap in the temple. Sure bad movies, music, and TV may not be ideal to consume. But the same goes for bad food.

My challenge to myself is to work at being the best I can be everyday. Food Inc was today’s step along that path.

And to all of the fast food in the world I say get thee behind me!! I am free from your clutches! Well… until I really really want some In N Out…

Baby steps you know? But moderation has begun. 

Pruning Hurts So Good

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. John 15: 2-3

Today’s Reading: 2 Chronicles 23-24; John 15

This has been a tough one for me personally.

As a child and even into adulthood I used to hold onto friends a bit too much. I have always been a very loyal person and someone who tries to see the best in others that I deem trustworthy. But not all of those “friends” were really friends.

Have you ever depended on another person and had them let you down? It’s a really wack feeling. Each time I opened up to a new person I felt like I was let down. Sometimes it was just my perception, other times it was true… but with each encounter my heart grew colder. I got to a point where I just didn’t let anyone in at all.

Then I got to college and started to challenge this. I tried to open myself up again and had some great results. I met some great people who are still in my life to this day.

But even the best of friends aren’t perfect. Sometimes they let you down.

This happened to me several years ago. I thought to myself… damn… not again. This is what I get for opening myself up.

But then I had a second thought… wait a minute… I can’t keep on cutting people out of my life. What the heck is wrong here?

And that’s when I realized my problem. I put way to much faith in other people, and not enough in God.

Sometimes we have to experience some form of loss in order to reach our full potential. When we have folks in our lives that we love, but aren’t going in the similarly positive direction then they can pull us off track.

That’s where the pruning comes in.

As those dead branches are cut away we realize that our energy, our spirits, and our lives were not dependent on these branches anyway. But as long as those branches are still attached, we continue to pour energy into them, preventing our ability to bear good fruit in our lives.

So if you have noticed that things are being stripped away from you; just roll with it. Odds are it is just dead weight that is keeping you from flying.

It may be hard to see that now… but have a little faith… It will all work out in the end.