“Shhhhh. Don’t wake up Addy, but come and see. The Otter People are on our dock.”
Linda sat up in bed and stuck both fists in her eyes before she stealthily slipped out of bed trying hard not to wake up Addy the Labrador.
We both tiptoed out into the living room and sleepily gazed down the slope to our dock on Lac La Hache. Linda got out the binoculars and I made breakfast watching the show from the kitchen window. Eventually we both pulled up a couple of antique rockers to the living room picture window to share breakfast and the binoculars. Addy had now joined us for toast corners and was doing her best not to bark under threatening glares from Linda.
A family of four large otters were sprawled out on our dock. Two were cuddling and preening. The other two were butchering suckers. They had caught two white sucker fish the size of my arm and were consuming them from the head down. The other two otters eventually slipped into the water and then clamoured back onto the dock, each with a large squirming sucker in its mouth and tucked in. The dock was covered in blood, scales and grinning otters.
When each otter was done with its fish, which took the better part of half an hour, they looked like overworked fish mongers covered in a slurry of scales and sucker slime. Then they began a cleaning ritual that was as thorough as it was hilarious. They first found a portion of the dock that wasn’t covered in sucker and scooted along it, vigorously wiping every part of their bodies from their whiskered noses down to their sleek, dark brown tails. When they were satisfied with this part of the body ritual they slithered into the water for a rinse and came and repeated the whole wipe-down process again, sometimes lending a hand to each other to preen their thick, rich brown fur. Finally, when this was done to their satisfaction they each proceeded to the lawn, had a good green grass rub and then humped up a bit, stamped their back legs whilst wiggling their hind end and had a pee that ended in a tail quiver. And then they were gone. We made it out the door and down the road silently, walking and praising God for a magnificent September morning. For me though, the morning had another twist to it.
I had been working with Romans 12:1. This biblical text raises the whole question of what we Christians do with our bodies. Otters apparently take their bodies very seriously. Cleaning, preening and pruning and generally tending to their bodies are rituals that I have watched them perform many times. These rituals do not appear to be based upon anything as human as vanity but is a natural part of taking their bodies seriously, kind of a health and welfare ritual. The morning’s otter show just reminded me of this. It also reminded me of how some evangelical Christians focus so strongly on our hearts and souls in our walk with God that it almost seems we forget we have bodies as well. We tout phrases like, “Give your heart to God,” or “Worship God in the spirit.” Seldom do we mention our bodies and God in the same breath unless we are begging for healing for them. It’s almost as though we are embarrassed by our bodies, like they are some kind of embarrassing spiritual encumbrance for our souls on one hand or that they have absolutely no spiritual value for our Christian living on the other.
It seems to me this kind of gnostic attitude leads in at least two wrong directions. On one hand we can find licence to abuse our bodies all we want, tattooing them, piercing them, stuffing them with fat to the point of obesity, letting them slip into unhealthy ugliness. On the other hand, we can find licence to use our bodies as mere receptors of pleasure—oversexualizing them, flaunting them, if it feels good, do it. We can use or abuse our bodies to our own ends or to Satan’s ends all we want because our bodies apparently aren’t really spiritual or important for spiritual purposes. But Paul says to the Romans: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1).
Huh. From what Paul wrote to the Romans it appears to me that otters make better Christians than many of us who are busy giving God our hearts and worshipping God in spirit, yet treating our bodies like they are not part of the equation. From what Paul is writing as the word of God, we may not take our bodies very seriously as part of our Christian walk, but God certainly appears to. In another place, the apostle writes: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20) .
So as I ponder otters, scripture and this panting, potbellied person as he labours up a gentle hill on his morning walk, I am left with a question: How do I bring my body into the realm of worshipping and glorifying God? I don’t have all the answers to that question yet, but it’s beginning to dawn on me that I am really good at compartmentalizing my life, and that’s a big part of the problem. I think that for me at least, the journey to bringing my body into the realm of worshipping and glorifying God is going to take some very intentional decompartmentalization.
John Piper has written a short but helpful article titled, “Bodies, Breakfast and the Marriage Bed” in which his opening premise is: “‘Worship’ is the term we use to cover all the acts of the heart and mind and body that intentionally express the infinite worth of God … But don’t think worship services when you think worship. That is a huge limitation which is not in the Bible. All of life is supposed to be worship… All of life is lived in the body. And the body is to be presented to God as our ‘spiritual service of worship.’ This is utterly sweeping.”
Piper then goes on to consider a few implications of what he has written; food, sex and death are all aspects of life that are heavily rooted in the body. His insights are interesting and quite practical; well worth the read. (Visit desiringgod.org to find the article.) Again, the essence of his insights reflect the need to seriously decompartmentalize one’s life. The result is that the morning breakfast table, the marriage bed and the deathbed are all discovered as places of worship, as God is given thanks and praise for the gifts received there.
After saying all this, the subject of worshipping God with my body is very much on the leading edge of my spiritual growth, and I have much more to reflect on and learn.
To be continued…
