Friday, March 09, 2012
Are we sure about this?
God-Hungry:
Our sinful selves are simply incapable of indulging self-anything without the self taking over. Example - me weight loss. I have lost weight many times before in my life and always gained it back plus. So far, this is the longest I have ever gone without regaining. Why? This was about my wife, not me. Fact is - my "self-care" pretty much consists of sitting around, watching TV and eating myself gigantic.
But, I want to be with my wife, I want to be active with my wife, I do not want to abandon her with an early death. My weight loss is not self-care it's wife-care.
IF it is a gift - self is never involved.
Self-care is incredibly important for men and women. Self-care is to recognize that the creator God has given me my physical, emotional, intellectual, and relational self and has called me to care for his creation. I do so as a part of my stewardship before him. Self-care is not selfishness. Rather, it is to recognize that caring for the self is actually a blessing to others.OK - somewhere in there is a point worth making, but the language makes awfully hard to find. There is no doubt in my mind that God intends for us to be of sound mind and body in order to be able to care for others. I think one of the great failings of the church today is that it focus so hard on reaching out that it fails to care for its primary tool to reach out - those already in. There is a balance here somewhere, but to say "Self-care is a gift to another," is putting a bit too directly.
- Self-care is to recognize that I bless others in the body of Christ by nurturing and caring for my own walk with the Lord.
- Self-care is to take care of my physical body. To care for what God has given me that I might serve him fully throughout the days of my life on this earth.
- Self-care is to pay attention to my emotional self. How many people have ignored their emotional fatigue only to use some very poor judgment regarding an ethical or moral decision?
- Self-care is to understand that I need relationships. I need friends. Something is wrong whenever I manage to burn bridges with most everyone I get close to. Something is wrong when I wall myself off from people.
I could go on and on. Think about the instructions given by flight attendants every time we fly. Suppose you are flying with children. The cabin pressure drops and the oxygen masks appear. What does the flight attendant say? Put yours on first. Then put a mask on your children. You are in a better position to help your children if you have first practiced self-care.
Our sinful selves are simply incapable of indulging self-anything without the self taking over. Example - me weight loss. I have lost weight many times before in my life and always gained it back plus. So far, this is the longest I have ever gone without regaining. Why? This was about my wife, not me. Fact is - my "self-care" pretty much consists of sitting around, watching TV and eating myself gigantic.
But, I want to be with my wife, I want to be active with my wife, I do not want to abandon her with an early death. My weight loss is not self-care it's wife-care.
IF it is a gift - self is never involved.
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