Our bodies are not display pieces

“He’s doing his ‘body builder strut’ again,” someone says while we’re enjoying a cup of coffee in a coffee shop. “He’s doing what?” I ask, a bit confused. Then I also notice the body builder passing the coffee shop in his tiny shirt, shorts and overflowing muscles. “Some body builders walk through the mall to show off their pumped-up muscles after a gym session,” he says. Then someone else in our little group shows us an Instagram profile of a woman who regularly uploads photos and videos of her ‘gym body’, accompanied by Bible verses and ‘wisdoms’. “What do you see?” he asks. “Well, definitely not the Bible verses,” someone else remarks. “Her body shouts louder than any of the texts!” The therapist among us tell us how narcissism cleverly disguises itself when such Bible verses constantly accompany it. People use this to display their bodies, while at the same time hiding their ‘hang-ups’ behind a religious cloak. I thought to myself that I must be getting old. I also struggle to hear the gospel when people’s bodies talk louder. Our bodies are God’s temples that we should care for and look after. But it can never be show pieces.