Spiritual Body Envy
Several years ago, I put together one of the most involved outreach projects I’ve ever done. The exceptional people over at Greatist had written an amazing article documenting the changes to the ideal body image of women over the past hundred years. They graciously gave me permission to use the images from their article to put together a life-sized display of the ideal body image from each decade. One overhead projector and more than a few pieces of refrigerator-sized cardboard later, I had a staggering visual image of how we’ve valued certain aspects of a woman’s physique more than others over time.
It was impressive to see how the curves and corsets of the 1910s gave way to the petite flappers of the 1920s. The hourglass women of the 1950s stood in stark contrast to the thin and delicate ideal of Twiggy in the 1960s. And the exceptionally tall and slender supermodels of the 1980s slowly morphed back toward a curvier and/or more muscular frame in later years. No matter when you lived, the ideal kept shifting, and inevitably, discontentment came with it.
It’s hard to be okay with who you are when who you think you’re supposed to be keeps changing. It’s also easy to envy women who have the body currently in vogue: If only I had her hips.
It can also be easy to slip into spiritual “body envy.” Long before mainstream media began its commentary on the physical body, God addressed this tendency head-on. In 1 Corinthians 12, he reveals the variety of gifts and purposes he created in the body of Christ. An entire chapter on this one subject? It seems he knew we might need some guidance.
Rather than embracing the gifts and roles God gives us, we can find ourselves wishing we had her job, his ministry, her projects. Or we say things like, “Oh, how my life would be better if I could pray like him [or discern like her, speak like him, or lead like her].” We spend so much time looking at everyone else’s design that we end up idolizing “the other” and missing the beauty right in front of us.
In many of the verses in 1 Corinthians 12, we’re shown some of the specific ways God has created variety in the gifts and purpose of his people. However, in a fantastic moment in verse 18, he steps away from the specific and casts a wide net to sum up the reason for the variety we see: “God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be” (1 Corinthians 12:18 NIV).
Just as he wanted them to be. I need you to hear that. God knows where you are and the gifts you have. Your design and place in the body of Christ is no mistake; they were even specifically chosen for you. Sometimes your “part” may seem more in vogue or more central to the essential functions of the time. Other times your form and function might seem less desired and feel less important to the work being done. But feelings are not facts, my friend. Your purpose and design in God’s body are never a mistake.
We must not fall victim to the idea that the ebb and flow of life and culture dictate our value. It would be shallow of us to consider that any woman who fits the ideal body image of today has more value than women who do not. Similarly, we miss the mark if we mischaracterize our own or someone else’s value because we don’t happen to be serving the body in the most glamorous or coveted of ways.
Perhaps sometime during the last hundred years, the physical body type you inhabit aligned with the “gold standard” but then fell out of favor. Similarly, perhaps the design God has placed on your life isn’t as appreciated as the design he’s given to others. But make it your mission to accept your spiritual body type exactly as he created—you with your gifts, you with your role in the body.
Just keep doing you, no matter what seems most glamourous in the moment. Live out your spiritual gifts and be your part of the body with gusto. And when you do? God will be watching. He’ll say, Look. Isn’t she just beautiful?
is an author, speaker, professional counselor, marriage and family therapist and veteran coaches wife. She and her husband Tim have two children and are passionate about reaching people for Christ and sharing information on coaching, marriage, family, and mental health. Read more from Anne at www.annerulo.com.
Photograph © Leon Ell’, used with permission
