Taking Care of Your Body

Is staying in shape a Spiritual Discipline?

15 'Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, ' 'for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.'
1 Corinthians 6:15,19,20

not writing on the back half of verse 15, only the front. through the years i struggled with body identity: fat, chubby kid when i was young - part of elementary and definitely through middle school, then i got to high school and i grew a little taller then sorta averaged out.

never really exercised outside of walking to and from school when we were kids, sometimes riding bikes with neighborhood friends. i ate poorly because much of the time my mom was working and my dad had left us, so there wasn’t much discipline nor guidance.

through high school i was on drugs, snacked a lot because i had the munchies. the only partial saving grace was picking up bodyboarding and bodysurfing; this would lead to going whenever there were waves which provided some exercise. still, the drugs were prevalent and the terrible eating habits - fast food (a lot of it), not much fruits and vegetables, were my primary source of nutrition, though it was mainly to get fill my stomach.

keeping my body and mind ‘in shape’ were never a priority. was so clouded with getting high it wasn’t something top of mind. you think when you are young that you are invincible. well, that came to a screeching halt when i got hurt surfing at the age of 15.

a wave hit me in the back of my neck and i got “scorpioned” (where the back of my feet touched my head) which i was then left helpless, floating into shore on my board. without knowing how bad i was, i walked to my friends care after showering off as my body was simply on adrenaline when it finally wore off, the pain and numbness kicked in and i had to be rushed to the emergency room.

a month in the hospital and a few at home, with a 'halo’ on my head and brace on my neck, i realized how vulnerable one can be and that i could have been permanently paralyzed. only the right side of my body was for a several days, then sensations began to happen, then over time i was able to feel and get full mobility.

you would think that after this type of accident that i would get serious about my health - quit the drugs and alcohol, poor diet, and actually begin to exercise regularly - well, the answer then was a big, fat “NO”. i got worse in all those areas.

through college i partied hard, even though i started to gain some traction to working out, it was short-lived as i preferred getting high, destroying both body & brain, besides my soul and spirit.

then i met sachi & yujin, was stable for a bit, but i continued living the hedonistic lifestyle, believing i could burn the candle at both ends. eventually things fell apart in my life and with the impending divorce, i went into a deeper, darker place until the Lord got a hold of me to shake the crap out of it and get me to wake up.

my body was in shambles and it needed to get revitalized. after quitting drugs, believe i went from a size 32 to 42 waste within a year, then from 185 to 225 (i think it was more) and that’s when sachi was getting worried. was looking terrible and very unhealthy.

along the way, while trying to get healthy, i took up golfing, it became an addiction - going out and playing regularly instead of working on myself and my family. eventually it became a too much, spending money on something that was not providing healing, only an escape.

one day a friend reached out, wondering what was going on with me, shared i was having challenges in my life - mainly with the recovery part, and asked about getting back in the water. when i got in the water i realized how much i missed it and felt so good to be catching waves.

after awhile, i knew God was with me, bringing me back to the place where i have heard Him, felt Him, and started catching waves regularly.