Monday, June 29, 2009
Physical nature
I have been thinking lately and I want to know, what exactly is the purpose of having a physical body? I understand that we need it to reproduce other physical bodies, and I understand that God has a perfect physical body. But what is it good for? I feel like I don't fit in with the "normal" two camps, I don't believe that it is right to abstain from all things physical and I don't believe that it is right to give in to all things physical, but I do feel that it is very important to pay attention to physical things. I feel like it is very important to listen to your body, with proper care it will tell you everything it needs. It will moderate itself on it's own, but only if you have the self control to not over-indulge for "mental-physical" pleasure. You will not overeat, you will not become addicted to sex drugs or alcohol. In fact, you will tend to live healthier if you work on listening to your bodies needs. I have been contemplating the connection between physical and spiritual health, and I might be stretching on the connection that I'm making, but I'm feeling like the physical body is able to enhance your spiritual strength, ie. without a body you cannot exercise faith strong enough for salvation. The body is a perfect training ground for faith, think and it moves, believe you can and it will become possible. Olympic athletes learn that power of faith, hard work and effort, constant striving towards a good cause and seemingly superhuman feats happen. I guess there are different paths towards spiritual growth, maybe physical understanding isn't that important, but to me it seems like a very important part of spiritual health.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I have always thought that physical bodies were over rated in importance. Of course that is coming from a short bald and ugly guy.
ReplyDeleteI think that bodies are very important to spiritual health! Why else would we have the Word of Wisdom? God knows us and he knows that we need to be good physically first to focus on our spiritual health. Think about it, if we are in pain physically we can think of nothing else. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is so correct. On a tangent, we need to not only take care of our bodies but our finances as well. That is why I love the church. We are taught to take care of our bodies, homes and finances. Why? Because we cannot take care of our spirit if we are in poor health or are worried about providing for our families. And when it comes to temptation the body plays a very important role. If we didn't have our bodies how easy would it be to not sin? We must make a choice between right and wrong that is why we were given agency. Love you Matt and Ange!
ReplyDeleteI've had the same thoughts before-- but mine came after learning that in the next life it is really hard to repent and change your ways without your body. I've thought about that and also come to the conclusion that the physical body is an important part of spiritual health. The spirit provides the faith, and the body provides the works essential to carrying out and demonstrating faith. If you dont have a body to demonstrate faith... you don't really have faith.
ReplyDeleteI've wondered too why we need to eat three times a day. I mean, thats A TON of food. Why did Heavenly Father make our bodies need so much food? We are constantly in search of food to feed our bodies. Well everything physical was created spritually first right? So all things physical have a spiritual parallel. Perhaps the reason we need to eat three times a day is in similitude of needing to nurture our spirits three times a day. It needs to balance-- we shouldn't nourish the body three times a day (or three, or four, or five) and nourish our spirits one a week or even only once a day.
Very interesting discussion Matt. I have put a lot of thought into the subject of why we need bodies. This subject initally got my attention when I read in the New Testament about Jesus throwing the spirits of the Legion into the swine. The Legion wanted bodies so badly that they were willing to take Pig bodies. That has fascinated me and caused me to do a lot of thinking on this subject. Why would they want bodies that badly? Sometimes having a body really sucks, especially when we are experiencing something painful or uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteMy conclusion after thinking about it a lot, is that we can not possibly understand bodies in their entirety. The fact that not getting bodies was a massive punishment dealt to the spirits in the pre-existence who didn't keep their first estate, cannot be overlooked. This seems to imply that bodies are a tremendous gift. Although I don't understand it, I have thought of a few things to try and put myself in the shoes of one who has no body. I picture myself as a being, similar in appearance to myself now, that is just a spirit with no body (so basically a ghost). I think of going through my life not being able to touch anything or anybody, not being able to feel things like the Idaho cool morning breeze, or smell the delicious aroma of fresh biscuits and gravy. Not being able to open a door, pick stuff up, or even turn off a lightswitch. I don't know if that rings with anyone else, but it sure does with me. For me, all the horrible feelings I deal with are completely worth it, becuase of all the wonderful things I get to experience with my body.