Mark, speak to this. The obsession, the absolute mesmerization with health, it's really become almost like the secular form of legalism, I would say, right? It's counterpart being in the church where people are just obsessed with certain things. But to where it's it's moved out of, hey, this is what I enjoy doing. This is what's good for me, and it's and it's positive. And to where like people even become condemning toward others. That's one aspect of it. And the other we'll we'll talk about, maybe you can touch on that, Oscar Ray, and that is the idolatry that's involved with it. So, Mark, speak to the the element of the unhealthy aspect of it where it's become something people put on others.
Well, it's when it becomes idolatrous, you know, that you just have to get your workout in, or you get angry at people because they're on a machine that you've been waiting to work out at the gym. Uh obviously, yeah, I mean, it can be frustrating for sure, but it's when it becomes you're looking at the guy's side eye. Like, what are you doing? I remember I saw a guy walk up to a guy saying, Hey, how many more texts do you have? Instead of how many more reps do you have? How many more texts? Because the guy's just on his phone as he sits at a machine. Um it is important, bodily exercise, it profits a little, but it but it does profit. You know, I remember a friend came up to me and he he was um taking steroids, and he had said, How's he doing? He said, I I have an issue, right? That people look down on me because I take steroids, but you can have a 300-pound pastor. Nobody says a thing about him. Why are we not talking about gluttony? Why is gluttony the silent sin that nobody wants to discuss? Because I dare to say, even if you have a healthy weight and you look healthy, you can still be gluttonous, right? You could you could still overeat at that restaurant instead of one donut. You went for four donuts, but nobody's saying anything, you know, about that. So there's got to be some sort of a balance. And each person needs to kind of find that area, that aspect. And if you do not treat food as medicine, it's been said, well, then medicine will be your food when you get older. We we need to take heart that these bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we need to stay active. Right.
SPEAKER_00I do think there's two extremes. There's the extreme of not taking care of yourself, of showing up dis disheveled, which is not honoring, it's a distraction. But then there's the extreme of being obsessed. And when I think of self-care, I when I when you when I saw the title, I was thinking less about working out and more about like
the self-care of youthfulness. Um, and and I love that you used easy the phrase of um like it's a religion, because you're absolutely right. And for somebody that might be, you know, you hear atheists push up against that accusation all the time. Here's the reality is that it is in our nature, every single one of us was created to worship. Yeah. And so when you let's call us all worshipers, we are all made to worship. The the the as Luther put it, the question isn't whether or not you are worshiping, the question is what are you worshiping? And when you gather a group of worshipers together with a collective idol, you know what you get? A religion. Yeah, and that's what self-care does. It's created a religion, and you have like wellness culture has its own creeds. You are enough, listen to your truth, uh, prioritize yourself. Do you hear how anti-gospel that is? Prioritize yourself. It has its own liturgies with fitness apps and morning routines and spa rituals where it's like if you got it, you know, you want to be equal and balanced with yourself. Here's, hey everyone, here's my morning routine. If I don't get this, I'm just not gonna be a good wife or mother. It's like that, your your morning routine is the worship of self. It's a liturgy. It has its own priests and prophets with influencers and gurus and celebrities with their own companies, with their own things to purchase. It has its own salvation. The promise that if you stay youthful, somehow you'll find peace, you'll live forever, you'll be at one with yourself, whatever the case. And so these this language, again, there's nothing wrong with taking care of your body per se. But when that becomes your salvific story, when that consumes you and replaces your worship of the Lord, that is when a good thing becomes an ultimate thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I've often um said or asked the question is Weight Watchers owned by Hershey's? Who fatten them up and then make them pay to
get rid of it? And it's like you said, there's a whole industry, and it's it's in the in it's in the interests of the fitness industry for you not to be fit because they want to sell you stuff, yeah, make you think they've got the better. And I don't know, you you drive past people's houses, and out the front is those old sort of torture machines that are not working anymore. And uh you see, I'll bet that costs hundreds of dollars and it's just tossed out the
front.
SPEAKER_02So, where where do we go to stop treating our body as an idol and start treating it as an altar? Just look in the mirror. Right. But where where do we find that balance where we present our bodies as a living sacrifice? Right? Because what we're talking about right now is we're treating our body as an idol, not as an altar. So, how do we make that transition, if it even if it's a baby step into the right direction? Yeah, I think it's the revelation that the idol is dying.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, one man is perishing, then one man is renewing day by day. Um, I'd like to ask super healthy freaks that spend like 25 hours a day in the gym and eat everything that tastes horrible because they want to be healthy. What's your aim? Do you want to die healthy? Is that your aim? Because that's what's going to happen. Everybody dies, hardly anyone lives after 85. Is that your aim? And so they ignore the inner man because they glorify the outer man. Um, I I was uh I was reading something this morning about a professor who found out that human beings can live to 20,000 years old. Not a thousand years, but he says we have potential to live to 20,000 years. So I started delving into it and finding what he's saying. This is in Scientific American, and he was saying the problem is at the molecular level. All we have to do is change the molecule, but we don't know how to do that. So I thought I'm gonna find out who this guy is because he had a foreign name, so I found him on uh online, found a um uh a video of him giving his his testimony, it just had a picture of him, it was just audio, and what he said was very revealing. I only had to listen to it for about three minutes. He just said, I'm terrified of dying. Yep, and that's what the basis of it. And what you've got to do is just face it. You're gonna die. Every time you look in the mirror, you think is everything's degenerating and get right with God, and that solves the problem because he grants everlasting life. Yeah, and that's what we should be doing as Christians, telling people that just give up. Give up because you're gonna die and give your life to Christ, and he'll fix that problem.
SPEAKER_00What is the difference between somebody caring about health and fitness and someone becoming idolatrous? And the the secret is motivation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I think that's one consideration, right? Not just not just from the standpoint of I want
to take care of my family and be there for them. That's one of the things that motivated me a while back to get back in the gym was my grandsons, you know, I run around with them and stuff, and I was feeling exhausted. I'm like, man, I want to have that energy. But I think another aspect too, in terms of thoughtfulness and selflessness, is the perspective of I don't want to be a burden to my children who are gonna have to look after me because I was negligent and irresponsible with my body. Again, there's that balance again when people become so obsessed with it and it becomes a religion, versus like, no, like scripture says, 1 Corinthians 6, 19 to 20, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and you are not your own for your bought with at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. We don't belong to ourselves, we belong to the Lord. And and and there, too, in the surrounding context, I mean, sexual immorality is being mentioned as well. So, you know, sin ravages the body and abuse of the body, not being careful with things ravages the body. And then there are repercussions, you know, and we want to maximize our impact for God's glory, and we want to be there for our family, and we don't want to burden them also. Because there are, I mean, you know, look, we looked after my dad for 12 years. He l lived with us for 12 years, but it was a blessing that he was healthy relatively speaking, and so we looked after him because he got older, but it was it was a blessing to see that he did take care of himself.
Here's what I think bottom line: don't be gluttonous, don't be lazy, which leads to people being being sedentary and not moving around, and don't do things that are clearly abusive to your body and love God and live life.
SPEAKER_02What a motto, right? I mean, that's great. I don't know what else to add to that. Uh I like what Ray said about sunlight and vitamin D. I remember being in uh London and the sun came out, I think it was on a Tuesday last year, and people are out there enjoying the sun, right? So everything everything in moderation is is really the idea.
SPEAKER_00I quoted um David Foster Wallace before, which is when he says, worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before your family finally plants you. And I guess the point is this is that eternal youth is not the hope that you're looking for. Eternal glory is the hope that
you're looking for, and only that will satisfy your soul. Amen.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for tuning in to this week's highlights from the Living Waters podcast. Friends, we value your time. So we've created a bite sized version of our podcast for listeners who want to get equipped without the jokes and fellowship. Be sure to check out the full episode every Thursday where we dive deeper into the topic. Until then, you can watch the full podcast episode available now on livingwaters.tv.