I was read an opinion piece in the Herald yesterday on ‘gym rage’ - a phenomena which has coincided with the financial crisis.
I was struck by the world view of the writer. She began by talking about daytime television which tells us that when we try to improve our bodies ‘I’m doing it for myself’. She says for most people – this is a lie. Gyms encourage us to look in the mirror and analyse our bodies to the extreme. The reason she goes is ‘for fear of my own morality, fear of aging and fondness for attention’. She knows that a lot of it is about pride – she’s not proud of that or ashamed of it. She was honest enough to admit that we are proud and seek admiration from others about our physical appearance. But she didn’t seem to know whether being proud of that was good or not.
We live in a world where so much of it is about the external. I believe as Christians that we need to look after our bodies, we need to eat well and exercise because that’s the way God made us to function best. But we need to be careful to not get sucked into the world’s extreme views on image and self worth.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/when-credit-crunch-meets-ab-crunch-the-lycra-hits-the-fan-20090407-9zhx.html?page=-1
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