I Don't Feel Good

One of the great struggles of contemporary western man is our commitment to our physical bodies.  It is clear that we are both spiritual and physical but our culture places the entire premium on the physical.  Medical and health services, diet and exercise, self-esteem and personal autonomy are all services for our bodies, an object destined to die.  This death is to be avoided at all costs and western culture signals that in every way creating in us a love for our own biological life, that for me personally, borders on idolatry.  I am often so consumed with my body that it scares me to death (pun intended) when it reminds me it is immortal.  I find this to be very maddening and troubling.  How can something so transient be so able to determine the state of my mental health?  I have concluded that it is a weakness of faith but that is truly not the complete answer.  Christ Himself struggled with the same issue when He begged God to remove death from His equation.  It would be disingenuous of me to not concede that Christ was struggling with something more monumental than His own physical death but it would also be heretical to not admit that Christ suffered in every way that I do, including a love for His Physical Body.  So what is the answer?  Faith is our only answer, even a faith that seems to be less than adequate.  Faith does not mean our hearts will never be troubled it just means that our hearts do not have to be.  Even our strongest faith can sometimes only exist as a bruised reed or a smoldering wick.  We must never forget our hope is not in our faith but in Christ, who Himself was once locked in a physical body like ours.