"In Shape"

So I was sitting here on the internet and all of a sudden I realized I had been listening to two half hour infomercials about how to get in shape. They were pretty intense. Apparently even Marines wanted to use this workout, you know, because they are not in good enough shape already. It reminds me of a couple things. First, our society is so obsessed with how were are perceived. I cannot remember a time when there have not been commercials about exercises to get in shape or dieting programs that sweep the nation. The Atkins diet was pretty huge once, remember that? Now we have Jarred and Subway. But they are not the only ones trying to say you can get thin using their products. Taco Bell claims the same thing! TACO BELL! Everyone is trying to get in on this action. So our society wants us in shape to look great. The other thing it reminds me of is that Christians often do not care. Our bodies are temples of God, where the Holy Spirit dwells when we become Christians. It would be wrong for us to misuse that. As Christians, should we be allowing the world to push across a message that we should be sending? Is this another area we have slacked? The secular world is pushing the skinny agenda for simply image and often superficial reasons, unless they are doctors and are telling you that you may die if you don't change your living habits. But as Christians we have a reason to be taking care of ourselves. God loves us and takes care of us, and His Spirit dwells in us! As Christians we should be helping each other. We often talk about accountability, how many of us have accountability in our physical health part of our lives? I was reading Teaching to Change Lives and on page 31 Dr. Howard Hendricks is discussing giving our lives as teachers over to Christ and he begins to list areas of our lives that maybe we have not given to Christ. He says "How about your diet? If I scheduled a seminar at your church and then walked in drunk, you'd dismiss me immediately. But if I walked in fifty pounds overweight, you'd feed me more, right?" I'm not out to attack all the overweight people in the world. I'm simply stating that sometimes as Christians we overlook this one. We are to look out for our brothers and sisters right? I think that includes our physical life. You would not want someone to smoke themselves to death. I think we as the Church should be even more concerned about our health than non-Christians. This is not so we can be the most fit and best looking people on the planet, but rather because it is what God wants from us. We are to be stewards of everything He has blessed us with, and I believe that means taking care of our bodies the best that we can. Again I am guilty of this as well. Over the passed four years I have not been taking good care of myself, nor have I been helping others do the same. But over the passed 2 months I have been doing more to get myself back on track and if others are willing I want to help them as well. Just a thought.