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The Sojo Show
The Sojo Show makes Bible Study fun with spontaneous conversations between Arabah Joy and Jen Evangelista. Together we discover how the study of God's Word can impact our everyday lives.
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The Sojo Show
Embracing Health as Worship: A Balanced Approach to Body Image and Self-Care
You were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). This means that you are a reflection of the Creator of the Universe!
Today we explore how nurturing our physical and mental well-being is, at its core, a divine form of worship. Together, we unpack the challenges of balancing a body-positive mindset with health and open up about the pitfalls of cultural pressures surrounding body autonomy.
In our journey to simplify life and elevate worship, we reveal 5 practical strategies to integrate health into spiritual practices. Our conversation is not just about self-improvement; it's a call to action for redefining worship through the lens of health and simplicity.
As we navigate our discussion, we also introduce an opportunity for listeners to deep-dive into personal growth with a great resource.
Read the Show Notes: sojohub.com/simplify113
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Welcome to the Sojo Show with Jen and AJ, where you'll dig deep into God's Word alongside two imperfect, frequently ineloquent women, as we discover fresh ways to walk out God's truth together.
Speaker 2:Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Sojo Show with Jen and AJ. Welcome, and once again we are sitting next to each other.
Speaker 1:Except I'm wearing like eyelid.
Speaker 2:She and she's in pink. I'm in hot pink today. She's in hot pink. I'm in a boring plain white. It's because you know whatever. She's jazzing it up so you can go watch this episode somewhere Somewhere. So if you want to see jenna and pink, go find the link. You know you do check it out, you know you do so. And if you are watching video format hey, um, we're, we're so awkward, because.
Speaker 1:So, for those of you watching us as like, um, what is? This vertical horizontal no horizontal, horizontal, no, horizontal. We look really super awkward because we're also recording this. Vertical, yes, and so in order to get all in the screen, we have to be up close and personal, and so we look like we're like really, really awkward, uncomfortable. Here we are.
Speaker 2:And it is a little bit, but it's good. It's good, yeah, we're good. We, here we are. It is a little bit, but it's good, yeah, we're good, we're good, it's good to be together. So what are we doing today? So we are continuing our simplify your life series and today we're talking about something that could be a little personal. Well, all of these are personal, but this one is a little extra.
Speaker 2:I think for some of us probably for all of us as women, and that is our body, in our body image and how we see ourselves and how we take care of ourselves. And this is really important because it does affect our emotional health, it affects our mental wellbeing and, of course, it's a very spiritual aspect of our lives as well, because we only get one body to serve God in. This is the body God gave us to carry out his purposes. So it's very, very spiritual how we handle our bodies, and none of us do it perfectly. Let's just lay that foundation right out there in front. None of us do it perfectly.
Speaker 2:We are all fallen in this area, as well as everywhere, every other area of our lives, but we want to glorify God with our bodies, and we know you do too. So that's what we're going to talk about. But I have a question to ask first, and it's going to kind of maybe sound a little weird, but we're going to tie it in. I promise, okay, promise, okay, okay, okay. So we're together, we're in an Airbnb, this is our little rented space.
Speaker 2:We've come to quite a few times now.
Speaker 1:We're staring out the window. You can see the kitchen behind us.
Speaker 2:Staring out the window, and we've had a few experiences in this Airbnb.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So my question to you is, generally speaking, how do you treat an Airbnb or someone else's property as compared to, maybe, your own property?
Speaker 1:Or is it?
Speaker 2:the same. Is there any difference?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean in general I'm just going to say overarching In general, I treat my property with respect. You know, I think it's really important. And that leads back to that goes back to our first podcast episode, where we talked about money and how I am extremely frugal and so if I spend money on it, I usually take a lot of, take good care of it. However, I will say that when you are talking about somebody else's stuff, someone else's thing, someone else's place you I do tend to be very cautious and very conscientious of taking good care of it, so maybe you don't slam the door, whereas at home you might not pay that much attention to how hard you're maybe yes, well, well, an example, a real life example, one of us, who shall not be named no names mentioned, but I'm sure you mentioned who the very first time we we came to visit here.
Speaker 1:Um she, she broke the Crock-Pot.
Speaker 2:Now, let you know, it wasn't the Crock-Pot, it was the lid to the Crock-Pot, which, as you all know.
Speaker 1:Which is the same thing.
Speaker 2:It's the same thing, it renders the Crock-Pot absolutely useless.
Speaker 1:But the funny part, and you may not remember this part of the story. Do you know why? We even had a Crock-P pot in here?
Speaker 2:Yes, I do remember.
Speaker 1:We requested it.
Speaker 2:We requested the crock pot because we'd been here before and we knew there was no crock pot here. And so the owner, because she likes us, she likes us.
Speaker 1:We're very likable.
Speaker 2:We're very likable. We keep her in business, we take good care of her property. We take good care of her property, care of her property. So she left us a crockpot, a brand new crockpot brand new box. In the box it was in the box for us when we got here well, within just a few seconds of getting it out it was no longer on the way out of the box it was no longer usable.
Speaker 1:The point of the story is that within I mean that like within 30 minutes we were over at, we were researching the internet to see what kind of crock pot it was, the brand, where we could find it. Fortunately it came from Walmart and it was not very expensive. And so we drove over 20 like minutes to the closest Walmart One way and we searched, and they did not have to the closest Walmart One way and we searched and they did not have the exact same one. Remember that. I remember we had to get a different, like a different design, a different design, a different design and so we had to tell you know, of course we would have told her anyway, but we told her hey.
Speaker 2:But like we couldn't cover our tracks because it wasn't it's not the same design, not the same design we couldn't like pretend, so we bought, and which we would not have done anyway. I don't know if it was the same exact thing, I probably maybe or maybe wouldn't have said anything. I don't know maybe.
Speaker 1:Well, well it was. We very much impressed her in doing that, the point being, at my house I might not have run out that very minute I got an a1, or I might've figured out a way to make it work for a little while, or just not used it for a little while.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But because this was not our grub pot, it's not our grub pot, right, and we broke it.
Speaker 2:So you have to replace it.
Speaker 1:We had to replace it, guys, immediately.
Speaker 2:Any of you, any of you young kids, listening to this podcast, listening to this podcast like responsibility responsibility.
Speaker 1:If you break something, you fix it or you replace it.
Speaker 2:So if it's not yours especially.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so same thing happened actually with the glass.
Speaker 2:Remember that.
Speaker 1:I do remember that well, that had to go by a set of four yes glasses? Yep, because one of them fell and broke.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that wasn't my fault, so we're that one wasn't your fault, that one was my fault fault.
Speaker 1:It was terrible, the whole thing was it was, but it happens. It happens. That's the point, and we take good care of things that are not our own. That's right. Why do you? Why, what? Let's bring this back around. Why are we telling on ourselves?
Speaker 2:That's. I think it reflects a spiritual, like a spiritual lesson for us, because our bodies the Bible says very clearly, our bodies are not our own. We were bought with a price a steep price, so very steep.
Speaker 1:Let's read that verse First Corinthians six, verses 19 and 19 and 20. For do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price to glorify God in your body. And obviously the price that we were bought with is the blood of Christ. We were bought with his life. And so the next part of that, it's not just you are not your own, you're bought with a price, but the next part was glorify God in your body.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And this leads us to what we're talking about today, which we titled in the Simplify your Life course that we are going through this summer, summer 2024 edition. So we are going through seven different areas in life in which we need to, or we need to be reminded of the importance of looking at the biblical precepts for and and simplifying, and one of them is we titled it in his image, because we were created in his image. Our bodies were our gift. No matter what your body is, is like, no matter what you feel about it, how you feel about it. It was a gift and it is. It was bought with a price, and so we're to glorify god in our bodies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so the big question is is what does that look like?
Speaker 1:What does it look like?
Speaker 2:What does that specifically look like for you? Because your body is different from every other body out there. You may have issues with your body that other people don't have. You may have a healthy body, whereas others don't. You know whatever. Whatever the scenario may be for you, the question still is how do I glorify God with this body?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And that can seem like a very high in the sky kind of conceptual question, but it's really not. You know it. It what, how? How are we nourishing our body? How are we fueling it? How are we maximizing its use? You know, um are we? Are we doing harmful activities with it? I know one of the things we talk about in this part of our study is, you know, sexual sin, other activities that may be unhealthy.
Speaker 1:Um, and of course you know some sin, other activities that may be unhealthy.
Speaker 2:And of course, you know some of these things like are we eating unhealthy? You know well, we're all going to eat unhealthy from time to time. You know, let's just be honest, we're all going to put things in our bodies that you know sugar, I mean sugar is not the best thing, but you know it's going to be something we consume. So we have to evaluate and again, I think we mentioned this last week Is it is? What is our choice? Are our choices leading us towards God?
Speaker 1:or away from God.
Speaker 2:What's the pattern there?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think understanding the reason for our choices and the reason behind our choices is really important in helping us to make the right choices, and we are not sitting here behind this desk being legalistic about telling you that I mean the things that you should be doing and should not be doing related to your health. Now I am I actually am a pediatrician and I do that with people. I do that with patients and in just very practical ways and how they can help their you know, help their physical and mental body.
Speaker 2:I want to interrupt you for a second to say we've talked about this on the podcast we have. There are five key areas that you actually address with your patient. Frequently, every time, and we go through those in our module as well.
Speaker 1:We go through that in the module and we give very practical things for you to practice related to each of those five topics. And if you happen to be a patient of mine, you've heard them. Yeah, because I talk about them at every checkup. Yes, but I think it's really important that we also recognize, when we're talking about these practicalities, the reason for it, and the reason being that and this ties into what you were saying about we're not our own right and so we should be taking care of ourselves in a way that is, even you know, even more significant, and then understanding that it's an act of worship.
Speaker 1:It's an act of worship to take care of what God has created and has given us. He has gifted us with, whatever your body is. Now, some of us have not been as diligent in caring for that gift as others of us, and that may be something we need to evaluate and constantly evaluate, but I think it's really important to recognize the overarching reason that we need to be thinking through these things is as worship to our creator.
Speaker 2:Right, right. And then, secondarily to that, you know, our whole topic is simplifying our life. If we can simplify our health, our lives are drastically simplified. I mean, how much time, I mean your whole career is based on people being in the doctor's office, you know, and it's a little different for kids and children, babies and such than it is for an adult, but like this is an area that can consume so much of our time and so much of our money and so much of our energy just trying to stay functional. And if we can live by these biblical principles where we're honoring God, there's going to be a natural fallout from that that's going to benefit us.
Speaker 1:And I think it's important to recognize that we're not doing everything at once to be overwhelming. One of the things that we do in this module and then we recommend that you do, if you're listening to us right now is we take it one habit at a time. We actually do this and we have another program called Spiritual Growth Accelerator that we have done a couple of times, where we do what we call habit stacking. It's the same idea when related to any of these topics, when related to any of these topics, but in particular with this one, we find one habit, one healthy habit, one way to take care of our body better, and we focus in on that habit and then we add to it. We recognize the reason that we're doing this for the glory of God, for his worship and also for our good, Because in the long run, we are better served when we feel better and we are not struggling with our health and our mental health and all of the things that can be affected when we are not caring well, not being good stewards of our body. So it's the same as being good stewards of our time and our finances and all of the other things we talk about in simplify your life. This particular one, though, is touchy because it's our body. And, going back to what we talked about a couple I don't know which episode it was, but what culture tells us.
Speaker 1:Culture now is I don't know if I should even go here, but culture is telling us that you know your body, of course, is your body. Nobody else can tell you what to do with your body. Nobody can tell you anything, and you know we should have positive body image, body positivity. I agree with that to some extent, but not to the detriment of your health. As a physician, I struggle with this balance. I struggle with this balance of people do not need to be shamed by your unhealthiness, but you still can't sit there. It's like being in an unhealthy place spiritually. If we see a believer that is not in a healthy place spiritually, there's no reason you can't, there's no shame in that, but you also can't sit there. You have to move forward and make progress. So I don't know, that's that's a that's a cultural issue right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is, and it kind of reminds me of the verse in I think it's somewhere in one of the Corinthians. I should have looked it up, but it's where Paul says all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable.
Speaker 2:So it's like one of those things that, okay, we have the freedom it's not like illegal to do all of these things or to become this certain person that you know just is given into your wanton pleasures, whether it's food or sex or whatever you know any number of things, whether it's food or sex or whatever you know any number of things but it's not profitable. You know, it's like okay for you to do that. It's not against the law Nobody's going to arrest you for it but it's. You're only hurting yourself. So there's some decisions and you're hurting your creator, right, you're?
Speaker 1:grieving him.
Speaker 2:Right, Right, yeah, and and honestly, going back to the first verse we talked about, that our body is not our own. Therefore, glorify God. It's not like a under your thumb. You know you were bought with a price. You should do this. You know it's not like a guilt, shame induced response. It's a response of I was purchased oh.
Speaker 1:I mean purchased, I mean.
Speaker 2:I don't belong to myself anymore. I can live for something. I have the capability now to live for something bigger than myself.
Speaker 1:And that is a positive. And we sometimes do not think of that as being positive in our current culture, because to think that I was bought with a price almost makes you want to rebel. Heart issue yeah rebel against that I'm. I am my own person. I am independent. I'm my own person, but in reality you are. It means you're precious. Yeah, you are the clay. Yeah, and to know that the potter has created you exactly the way he has is a joy. It's a joy everlasting.
Speaker 2:And once again, to believe the truth, that God's way is best. You know that he knows best and that, even though sometimes our rebellious nature says, well, I want to do it my way, just trust that his way is the best way. You know he wants what's best for us. He created us. He knows how we're intended to work and when we fall into line, when we just trust that things go a lot better in life, right, and once again, just like we mentioned before, have grace.
Speaker 1:Have grace with yourself, but just let's move forward. Yes, let's move forward, yeah, yeah, that's a good topic, that's a great topic. So, if you want to dig a little deeper into it and dig into the five ways in which that I typically recommend you focus on your very practical ways to focus on your worship through physical health and mental health, dig into the course with us. Yeah, sojohubcom, slash, simplify.
Speaker 2:We are selling it at a very discounted price yeah, I think it's like 75% off of what it normally goes for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you were to buy them individually. Exactly, it's a valuable resource. Yeah, it's a valuable resource, and we just felt like it was a good time to do it. And this is summertime's coming, the or you might be listening in the middle of the summer. Pick it up, find the areas in which you want to grow, to simplify, to silence some of the chaos in your mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of like a reset.
Speaker 1:Reset and glorify him in doing so.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, yes, join us.
Speaker 1:Come join us. Yep experience it with us and we will talk to you later. Bye.
