The Body

Since the blog from Mrs. Hall about blocking girls' posts hit the internet, there has been a whole lot of discussion on the topic of modesty, women's rights, and men's responsibility. But this discussion is by no means a new thing. I've heard it constantly growing up. I could spend the entirety of this post talking about how this twisted idea of modesty is extremely gendered and objectifies women, making them confused about their self-worth and putting all kinds of guilt and pressure on them and letting men shirk their responsibility of respect and self-control. Even though I feel that's all true, there are plenty of blogs floating around devoted to those ideas that you're welcome to check out.

This one, for example: http://natepyle.com/seeing-a-woman/

We're going to talk about the problem of the human body in the context of modern Christian culture.

Simply put, we DON'T TALK ABOUT IT. Unless, of course, you're talking about sex. Leading many Christians to believe that the body - this fleshy, complex, beautiful, wonderful, amazing body - is only for sex.

Think about it. Go back to youth group in your mind. Are you there? I'm sorry. I know it brings up all kinds of awkward memories, but bear with me. The only time you ever talk about bodies is when you're talking modesty. Girls, keep those feminine curves covered up, because it makes men think about sex. Because that's all the female body is - a reminder that sex happens. Nobody can enjoy how aesthetically pleasing your body is, because that means that they're thinking about the way you're shaped, which means they're thinking about the fact that you're female, which means they're thinking about what females are for! *insert B-movie scream of terror*

And men! Don't think you're off the hook! Let's talk about controlling your body. That means you must learn to control your sexual desires and impulses.

Never mind controlling other fleshly desires, like overeating, putting toxic things like tobacco, alcohol, and drugs into your body, or just straight up doing stupid irresponsible crap that could possibly leave you crippled or maimed for life. Any of these things could leave you in a very poor place to use the body God gave you to accomplish His work with, but, you know, they're just not as alluring and distracting topics to address as sex is.

Granted, sex is part of how our human bodies work, and it is important to figure out how you can glorify God with your sexuality. That's right - I said glorify God with your sexuality. The Bible actually gives us guidelines on how to do that. 1 Corinthians 6:18 says, "Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body." I believe this is in place in order to protect us, so that we can fully enjoy sex safely and without fear or remorse. The Bible even shows us how sublime sex, with true love, as it was intended to be, can be, in Song of Solomon. That book is steamy! But it's not scandalous. It incorporates ideas of spiritual love with tangible, sensory enjoyment. Because God made bodies, and bodies are pretty awesome. Sex is a powerful thing. It is connected with emotions and spirituality in a very mysterious way, and can cause a lot of pain if used flippantly. I think that is what the verse in 1 Corinthians is trying to warn against. Not because God doesn't want us to enjoy sex, but rather the opposite, so that we can use our bodies to reflect on how amazing He is and how much He loves us by making us that way, without the pain of those who just want to use it for their own personal, instant gratification, who will just use people up and throw them away, and ultimately never feel fulfilled by it anyway.

So yeah, sex is a part of how human bodies work. But it is definitely not all they were made to do. We refer to the church as "The body of Christ" because it has so many different members with so many different functions! And they all work together to make one unified being. It's pretty amazing, as a metaphor and biologically speaking. Do you ever just stop and think about your lungs? Your immune system? Your skin? Your pituitary gland? You are fearfully and wonderfully made, my friend!

Bodies are cool.

And they can do so much. Look at this picture:



I sincerely hope your first reaction wasn't along the lines of, "GAD!!! Look at them! They're wearing hardly any clothing! How disgusting!" or, heaven forbid, "Oh dear, I'm so turned on right now due to their lack of clothing. I can never un-see them in a state of undress and now only view them as objects of my sexual desire."

If yes, I can't help you. You are a lost cause. Go be a major creep in a lonely corner somewhere.

The body is beautiful, and it can do incredible things. Look at these dancers for what they are - what they're doing. They are taking the joy in their souls, the discipline of their minds and muscles, the interpretation of music, and using their bodies to create something stunning that can be enjoyed by others.

And, guess what? CHRISTIANS CAN DO THAT.

Don't believe me? The Bible backs it up. Check it out.
2 Samuel 6:14-22 "14 Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, 15 while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

16 As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

17 They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it,and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. 18 After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty. 19 Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.

20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”

21 David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord.22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”"

It may have been undignified, it may not have been pretty, he may have shown a little leg skin, but David chose to use his body to express the joy of the Lord, overflowing from his soul. And, notice something else? Michal was rebuked for rebuking dancing. So there.

 Dance is one of my very favorite forms of worship. But do you ever see it in a worship service? It just doesn't seem to be socially acceptable in most churches - so I resort to putting on hymns in my room and dancing like crazy by myself. I still enjoy it very much, and honestly, I probably wouldn't be able to really get into it as much as I do if a bunch of people were around...unless they were all doing it too. Imagine a worship service like that!

Romans 12:1 tells us, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship." In other words, use what God gave you! Praise God for your beauty, and know that by no means is a female body evil or shameful in and of itself. You certainly can do evil and shameful things with your body, whether male or female. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." This involves respect, both of other people's uniquely beautiful and amazing bodies, and also your own. Think about how you're presenting, taking care of, and using your body, and whether or not it reflects God's purposes of grace, peace, beauty, justice, and love. There are a whole lot of things you can do with your body that really go against those purposes. But that doesn't mean that having a body (yes, even if it is nice to look at) is a bad thing! And guys, I'm sure you know that you can appreciate a girl for how beautiful she is without just meaning she's sexually appealing (which, by the way, is also not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself). Females have pretty faces, pretty hair, pretty hands, and pretty shapes - and it is entirely possible to appreciate that without objectifying her. And girls, never be ashamed or feel guilty about being beautiful. That never was never will be God's purpose for you.

You have been so blessed with this beautiful, mysterious, powerful thing called a body. Don't be afraid of it. Learn how to use it, and appreciate the ones others have been given.  

Life, Love, & Other Vague Generalities

Well hello there, people of the interwebs! I’m pretty new to blogging, but figured I’d give it a shot, as that’s what writers and artists and students and thinkers in general seem to be doing these days. I figure a topic such as the one listed above is a pretty safe place to start. So, here we go! What I’ve learned in my brief 22 years which makes me a veritable sage, how having a broken heart has made me into a better person, how writing is therapeutic and I’ve discovered meaning in my life because of it, why family is really the most important thing you can possibly have, why everyone should do ballet and yoga and learn an instrument at some point in their life, why dressing to impress is important, how to be an independent woman without bending to the will of the patriarchal society, why Stravinsky is better than Mozart. The end. I’m done. Wasn’t that fun? Aren’t I smart and insightful? I thought so. So I wrote a blog about it.

Those are the things people write about in blogs, correct? Those are the things people write about over and over in blogs, columns, forums, magazines, newspapers, books, and bathroom stalls. So I guess the question is, why? Why, when we are flooded with an abundance of stories about the same topics, do we keep producing them?

I think I may have part of an answer.

THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE

It’s what they tell you in every single writing class – write about the human experience. What the flibbertigibbet is the human experience though, anyway? Well, that question may be the point. We make so many generalizations about this mysterious thing called the human experience, but we all know full well that no two humans are exactly alike. Therefore, no two “human experiences” are going to be exactly alike. No matter how many advice columns you read, no matter how many stories you find of people overcoming the impossible, no matter how much you can relate to anyone’s personal life, things are not going to work out the same for you.

There are infinite factors that have made you into the person you are today and are going to make you into the person you’ll be tomorrow, the next day, twenty years from now, all the way up until your death. Infinite factors. For ONE PERSON. There are over 6 billion of us. If you’ve ever studied the principle of derangements in math, you’ll realize the magnitude of possibilities for completely different outcomes that creates. A derangement of ordered objects is a permutation in which none of the objects appear in their natural ordered place. For example, if you have a line of say, 4 people and you want to see how many different ways you can arrange those 4 people in that line, you use a simple formula to find the number of possible derangements. Now, I know what you’re thinking, Math?! I hate math! Why is she using math? I don’t want to do math – that’s why I’m reading! I know. I hate math too. Just stay with me for a minute here. So, the formula goes, n!/e (n being the number of objects, ! being “factorial” i.e. the number multiplied by each preceding digit to 1, and e being the irrational number 2.718…blah blah blah forever just because it is.) Going back to our 4 lovely people, you just multiply n, which is 4, by its factorial (4x3x2x1), you get 24. Divide that by 2.718 and you get 8.83. Round that up to the nearest whole number and you get 9. There are 9 possible ways you can arrange four people in a line. Want to see without the silly maths? Ok. Say our friends are named A, B, C, and D. Aside from the first ABCD, the only possible ways you can arrange them are: 1-BADC, 2-BCDA, 3-BDAC, 4-CADB, 5-CDAB, 6-CDBA, 7-DABC, 8-DCAB, 9-DCBA.

Pretty easy to see the principle with a small number. Now, say we had a line with 16 people in it. See, the funny thing about factorials is that they get really huge, really fast. If we try to do this equation, 16 factorial (16x15x14x13x12x11x10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2)…it gets pretty freaking huge.

What I’m trying to get at is, if we’re looking at that many different possible outcomes just for a few people standing in a line, life is absolutely unfathomably complicated.

The human experience. Somehow, we keep coming back to it. If there are all these infinite possibilities and all these forces working on every single person and we know that no two people are going to be the same, why is it that we are so often drawn to these very similar generalities?

For one thing, life isn’t math. (Thank GOD!!!!) People have a lot more in common with each other than math principles and probability would have us believe. It is true that nobody’s experience is going to be exactly the same, but that’s beautiful isn’t it? Everyone sees things a little, or a lot differently, and sharing that is how we discover more and more of this crazy, confusing, terrifying, wonderful world we live in. It doesn’t matter if someone has talked about it before. Everyone has their own completely unique perspective. And, really, it’s satisfying to read things that seem to line up with your own thoughts and experiences. That’s why we keep doing it. Even if the circumstances surrounding the idea are completely different, there are certain things that a whole lot of humans know at some level. We all know love, loss, bonding, faith, hope, longing, struggle, failure, and triumph. Our own personal experiences with them will be unique to us, but the human experience is the broader principles at work. And the more we share them, the more we connect with each other on this fundamental level, the more our own experiences are enhanced.

C.S. Lewis. I love this man. He said, “Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence about how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”

So, I’m starting a blog. Sure, I’m going to touch on a lot of topics others have delved much deeper into. But that’s okay. I’m me, and this is what I think and feel. You can choose to read it or not read it. You can relate to it or be completely confused, offended, or bored by it. That’s up to you, and what I write is up to me. Here’s my experience, and my hope is that by recording and sharing it, we can all get at least a little something out of it.