Every Body Matters by Gary Thomas

Author:Gary Thomas [Thomas, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-310-41225-0
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2011-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Muscular women wanted, young women. What kind? Those to whom the Lord can say, “Do this or that for me,” and who can respond to the hardest command, the carrying out of which will mean endurance, a knowledge of the principles of the conservation of energy and the putting forth of will power through bodily power. It will mean the clear shining of a flowing soul through a transparent medium, instead of the cloudy glass of an … ill-used body.3

For Service

Muscular Christianity (MC) wasn’t about bodybuilding for the sake of looking good, but rather about having a body that was fit for active service to God. Weak or out-of-shape men and locked-away neurasthenic women, supporters argued, not only live shorter and less effective lives, but they have less energy, command less respect, and provide less of a witness to the world. This is an ancient truth. The second-century bishop Irenaeus wrote, “The glory of God is man fully alive.”

An early proponent of muscular Christianity, C. T. Studd, was one of the most accomplished cricket players of his day. While he eventually regretted having made cricket an idol, he remained grateful for the lessons that competing taught him — lessons such as the importance of self-denial, perseverance, courage, and the like. All these directly fed into a triumphant Christian life, suggesting that, for the redeemed, thoughtfully competing in sports can feed Christlikeness. In fact, James Naismith (a muscular Christianity proponent) invented the game of basketball as a means to evangelize people about morality and Christian values.4

These women and men understood — and we desperately need to recapture this today — that physical fitness can provide a fertile seedbed for spiritual growth and that physical laziness and an undisciplined attitude toward food can corrupt our souls. G. Stanley Hall argued that, sadly, many Christians were blind to the wonderful, life-enhancing aspects of “physical vigor,” while also being ignorant to “how dangerously near weakness often is to wickedness.”5

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