28 Jan Breaking the Spell of Vanity

Our culture is obsessed with our bodies. We love to hate them. We love to pamper them. We hide them, abuse them, starve them, stuff them, and flaunt them. Whether you adore your body or loathe it, the core of the preoccupation is the same – self. There is a restlessness that swirls around our pursuit of satisfaction with our physicality, a constant current of self-esteem, self-acceptance, and self-help that never ceases and erodes the truth of what God has to say about the very bodies He created. One woman posted a battle cry on social media for fitness and wellness that represents the root of our body image obsession: “You can do this. And you will as long as you remember that you’re worthy of the love of others, but most importantly worthy of love from yourself. #loveyourself.”

I was seven years old when I was first made aware that there might be something about my physical appearance that didn’t measure up. A classmate pointed out a physical feature of mine that was different than other kids my age, and his childish comment was the first of a lifetime of wounds inflicted that have been barriers for me understanding the way God really feels about my body. Each comment, mumbled under someone’s breath but loud enough for me to hear, became the truths that I structured my body theology around. Sometimes I was resolute, determined to overcome the unlovely, undesirable image I believed I was embodying. Some seasons, I didn’t have much control over my body because I was pregnant, injured, or depressed. And some seasons in my life, I simply didn’t care and checked my self-control at the door in the hopes that comfort and ease would bring me peace. In each of these situations, #loveyourself was my mission statement.

Vanity is using the things of this world to chase after an ideal that is unattainable. For decades, I longed for a physical body that I was never meant to have, and I chased comfort to fill my lack of peace. The tools and resources I used to pursue a physical ideal weren’t wrong in themselves, but I had made them ultimate. Freedom did not come until I stopped obsessing over what I thought my body should look like and turned to God, the maker of my very flesh and blood, to change my unbelief.

Those painful remarks about my body, they cut deep. And that is not vanity. Our bodies are a part of the core of who we are, our existence. When someone, or even I myself, says something unkind about my body, those words speak to something much deeper than skin. King David understood this when he wrote Psalm 139, “You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.” In his book, Heaven, Randy Alcorn uses Genesis 2:7, when God “formed a man’s body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life”, to explain that we are not just spirits with skin on:

“The essence of humanity is not just spirit, but spirit joined with body. Your body does not merely house the real you, it is as much a part of who you are as your spirit is.”

When I am dissatisfied with the body God has given me, I am telling my Creator that He could have done a better job. And if I have any fear of the Lord at all, the idea that I could begin to make a better me than the One who sent His Son to die in order to save this body from death should flatten me on my face in humility and repentance. My physical body is one more thing God has given me to steward the advance of His kingdom while I wait for Jesus’ return. As men and women, we bear the image of God. We could not display our gifts and talents and personalities without our bodies. We exist to represent Him as His people, for His glory (Ephesians 2:20-22).

I used to be certain that shapely ankles awaited me in my perfected body in Heaven. But Heaven is not about me finally getting what I want. Heaven is where we will finally bear the image of Jesus fully, for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 15:49 says, “Just as we have born the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” It is not until I let this truth become my mission statement—my body is not for me, it is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:13)—that I will taste what freedom from the tyranny of self-obsession is like. Once my vision is broken from its spell of #loveyourself, I can fix my eyes on Jesus, who bore my sin on His physical body in order to save me from myself, for His glory.

-Molly Burns, Pelham Campus

 Whether facing physical challenges such as aging, disability, illness, and death, or more emotional challenges like comparison, discontentment, envy, and insecurity, most women will struggle with their bodies at some point during their lives, which makes this an important topic for all women. Click here for more information about our Body Matters study as part of our Ezer curriculum on this very important topic of body image. You can visit our course offerings page, here, to see when studies will be launching at each of our campuses.