049: Mortal Bodies

April 5, 2010
Psalm 139, 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Bodies are really interesting, amazing things. When you focus on individual parts, they seem kind of weird, but still incredible.

Something I think is interesting is watching my body age. I never thought about it until I hit about 20, but it’s been kind of fun to see wrinkles start to develop around my eyes, and the skin on my hands look less childlike and more adult-ish. I do push ups and/or the plank position multiple times each week, so the muscles in my arms have developed more also. It’s phenomenal to me that we can be aging while we’re also developing – my skin is aging, but my muscles are developing: is that not just neat?

I try to be aware of my health and live a healthy lifestyle. Lately I’ve been trying to avoid a lot of processed foods. I made a conscious effort to stop regularly eating foods that contained high fructose corn syrup several years ago after hearing a theory about how high fructose corn syrup might be significantly linked to the increase in diabetes. I’m not a huge fan of meat – especially red meat – so I try to be aware of how I’m getting protein, and what kind of protein, etc. I’ve also kind of mentally been hung up on dairy products – why do we think that we need to eat the baby food of a four-legged mammal? Humans are the only creature that seems to think we should consume meat well past the age of being weaned. Why? Don’t get me wrong, I love dairy products – cottage cheese, cheese of any other kind, yogurt, milk in my cereal and coffee, ice cream, etc – but is it really all THAT good for us? I mean, there are proteins in it that our bodies are just not really designed to break down…

Another major focus for me lately is water. I think the majority of the time I think I’m hungry, I’m actually just thirsty. I’ve found if I can keep my stomach filled on water, I don’t want to eat as much throughout the day… and since our nation, as a whole, is dying from OVER eating, I figure I probably don’t need to worry too much about under eating!

Something that’s been annoying lately, though, is that my knees are starting to hurt. They tend to just be achy by the end of the day, and sometimes it’s an all day thing. No position is really all that comfortable – when they’re bent, they hurt. When they’re straight, they hurt. When I stand on them, sit on them, or am even laying down, they just register a little pain. It’s not terrible – nothing I can’t handle – but it’s still kind of just an awareness of pain. That scares me! I don’t want to have bad knees for the rest of my life! I started doing some physical therapy exercises that a personal trainer friend showed me, and I bought new shoes and am trying to figure out how I can incorporate less running into my exercise routine. The bummer is that I still haven’t run that marathon I’m dreaming of!

It amazes me that Jesus chose to come and live within the limitations of the human race. And it amazes me that God has designed our bodies to work as well as they do – even when I’m in pain, my body is still doing miraculous things! When I think about all this stuff, it also makes me get excited for when I will live in a body that won’t experience pain and I won’t have to worry about the negative affects of aging. Hooray for eternal life!!!