Every Body Matters…a post by Jim

Recently CrossPoint hosted Cohort #4 of our Soul Care Institute. About 25 soul care persons (pastors, small group leaders, counselors, coaches, etc.) are committed to meeting eight times over the course of two years to discuss matters that are crucial to Christian soul care. Over the course of the two and a half days we have some wonderful discussions and clarifications.The topic for this cohort is “The Embodied Soul.” We explored the nature and role of the body in the process of sanctification. While we know we are to keep our bodies from sin we often do not spend much time thinking about how our bodies contribute to our growing connection with God and others. Our ‘body theology’ is often a little weak. But it shouldn’t be.Our very salvation hinges on a human body. That is what the earliest church counsels and creeds made clear. Without Jesus being incarnate in actual human flesh there is no hope for salvation. The human body is that important in God’s plan of redemption.The body is that important in God’s plan of sanctification as well. Our glorious, ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’, ‘earthy’, engendered, enlivened by the ‘breath of God’, developing, ‘home of the soul’, capable and needy, emotion impacted body KEEPS THE SCORE in our journey through life and in our relationships with others.Maybe you might pay extra attention to your body today. And if you really want to see the impact of the body in your life and relationships, do a ‘Body History’. Reflect on what your body has experienced and done over the course of your life. What might God be inviting you to in light of what your body has lived?