Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

1 Corinthians 3:16

This, to me, is one of the most amazing verses of the entire New Testament. That this body, is this temple. I look for a long minute at my unevenly tanned arms and very ordinary body. Poke the soft rope of muscle. And look again, bemused. This is the TEMPLE, the dwelling place of Almighty God.

The temple is a holy place. A sacred space, open only to the privileged few. And now, WE are the Temple. We are the dwelling place of the Spirit of God. Our bodies house the living God, in some mysterious and incomprehensible way.

This being so, it seems to me that we should give a little bit of attention to how we feed and clothe and care for these bodies. Not because our bodies are so important, but because these short-lived bodies are the temporary temple of the most Holy.

This premise, that we are the temple of God, is the foundation for all the rest of what I do and write about health. This is the primary reason, really, why taking care of our bodies actually matters. Every other reason is secondary and of little importance, compared to this.

This thing of being the temple is quite practical, too. You are created to worship the King, to be an ambassador of the Kingdom, and to make His name great. There are some everyday implications from these realities.

Obviously, a temple should be clean. Dedicated to worship. But this doesn’t mean becoming a monk or a nun who lives in a cloister and avoids the mess and hustle of real life. Worship extends far beyond contemplation and music making. Worship includes the entirety of your life; work and play and relationships and everything else. Worship includes the everyday ordinary actions of your life.

“Even before I was born, you had written in your book everything I would do” (Psalm 139:16). “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

God knows everything I will do. And he prepared specific good works for me to walk in. I started asking Him what those works are, what the things are that He has prepared for me to do. I have been amazed at the simplicity and directness of His leading, in response to those questions.

I suggest taking an afternoon, or perhaps all day, and finding a quiet spot where you can pray aloud without hindrance or distraction, and asking God to show you the paths that He has laid out for you, the things He wants you to pursue next, the educational opportunities and training that He intends for you to have. Write down what you think He is showing you. Do this every few months, or at the least, once a year.

Continue to seek God. Ask Him to show you what your specific next steps and bigger role is within the Kingdom. Ask Him to give you a burning passion to see your work fulfilled.

This burning passion, this work that must be fulfilled (for it is yours alone and you are commissioned thereto by the King Himself); this will lead to a desire to have a body and soul and spirit that is capable of fulfilling this work. Pursuing good health becomes both an act of worship and a practical means to walk in your particular calling within the Kingdom.