I just love thinking about the idea of Surrendered Wellness.
Bobby Rodriguez,
our guest on the Say Something Show (which is such a by-product of what we’ve been doing here at themoatblog – together – thanks to you guys for walking it alongside me and others!) brought the concept to my attention when thoughtfully/honestly contemplating the fine line between fitness and health.
To me, one of the coolest things about walking life’s roads together is that the people standing next to you, like a Bobby, have really given a lot of thought and time to something that is equally an issue in their own life as it is yours. And we can learn from each other. Draft off the legwork, but not in a parasite – but in a symbiotic way with our own thoughts that can often bring clarity to the one who has been digging out from trenches.
Knowing that Bobby has contemplated issues of/our relationship with fitness and health – especially as it relates to the truth about self-worth and identity found in faith, I was super excited he was willing to be one of our pilot shows. Quite frankly, anyone that signs on to Say Something is brave. They’re met with a pretty clean kitchen, but also a full dose of what-did-I-get-myself-into chaos and hilarity in the form of iPhones attached to dining room chairs, duck tape, make-MacGyver-proud balancing of microphones on books or candle holders, whatever is at hand. It’s a classy high-tech operation over here.
But actually – it’s just life. We’re all living it – so why not travel alongside rather than against. And Bobby really had me thinking this week. Not just me, I’ve had several folks touch base. Because what Bobby had to say brings with it such freedom – freedom from our natural obsession with self-image that so often steels our joy.
Here are a few that have kept me thinking, not only from Bobby:
Where we have to change as a society, innovating this path of understanding that the standard we are all trying to achieve is not how you look in relation to everyone else, but how you steward your body.
Stewardship – the simple definition of which, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is the activity or job of protecting and being responsible for something. Wikepedia describes it as: an ethic that embodies the responsible planning and management of resources. The concepts of stewardship are often applied to the environment and nature, finances, property, information, etc. How interesting, and quite possibly freeing, to apply it to the care and management of our body.
More from Bobby,
I found in a group workout environment what we all want – community. But in that venue, at the center is self. Me being the best-fit.
Why can’t we bring that into an environment, in the church, where fitness and wellness is associated with vanity so it’s avoided. The church addresses issues like pornography or an eating disorder, but we don’t necessarily push people in an area of stewardship that is so important. Stewarding the unique body gifted to us by God for God’s glory.
Each “unique body” – some that are naturally thin, some that at athletic, some tall, some short – all different. Yet culture sets a standard of perfection (that actually changes every decade – or maybe every season in this day and age) that we race after like greyhounds lured lap after lap around a track.
Sweet Erin Schreyer adds as she contemplates alongside Bobby (with Brenda Teele, me and the rest of you guys,)
Stewardship allows our relationship with our body to not be about us, a size, a number on a scale and all those things we can manufacture to to measure self-worth. Instead we can land on the fact that God gave me this body to live out a life on earth. Then go to – how can I steward my body to have the highest amount of energy, feel the best, communicate the best, think the clearest …
It’s a fun conversation that I hope blesses your day. This may not be a topic with which you personally struggle, but I’m guessing the person sitting on a sideline, parked in a carpool or standing next to you in the grocery line (eyeing the cart ahead of her with all its fresh produce and organically-grown goods that looks a bit different than the processed-menagerie of Goldfish and Gogurt cart she’s pushing – wait, that’s me :) is thinking about it. So why not say something – encouraging, uplifting, refocusing to help each other know that our self-worth runs so much further than skin deep.
For the rest of the story, here you go:
THANKS for walking the road with me.
-Kay
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