Body, mind and soul: Wellbeing and faith

Major Alison Hudson reflects on how caring for our bodies is a meaningful expression of our spiritual life.

Every so often you encounter a thought so simple yet so profound that it stays with you long after you read it. That was my experience when I came across Barbara Brown Taylor’s words from her book, An Altar in the World: the body ‘is my soul’s address’. It made me think about the body I inhabit, how I treat and care for it and how I help it to glorify God. 

More recently, I have found myself wondering what it means to bring my ‘best self’ to God. My first thoughts turned to the familiar spiritual disciplines: what I read, how I pray and the ways in which I worship. Yet I came to realise that bringing my best self to God involves more than these practices alone. I am better able to offer myself fully when I am rested, when I make space for the things that bring me joy, and when I allow myself to be refreshed and renewed. In caring for my body and wellbeing, I am caring for the place where my soul resides.

It’s important to pay attention to our bodies, because they can tell us things. We might be driven to do good works, but neglect basic self-care. We might complain that we can’t sense God but also be clearly exhausted – most of the time our bodies are the first to know when we need to attend to something. 

How we care for our bodies is different for each one of us and will depend on our unique circumstances. What is the same for all of us, though, is that in some unexplainable way God inhabits our bodies, making them a place where we can meet and know him. It is through our bodies that we participate in God’s activity in the world. 

There will be things we don’t like about our bodies, but they are made in the image of God’s own goodness and are worthy of care and blessing (see Genesis 1:27–31).

The Bible affirms the significance of the body as a place where the presence of God can be known and experienced. David, the psalmist, celebrates the fact that his body is fearfully and wonderfully made (see Psalm 139:14) and uses this awareness as an occasion to worship. He describes his desire for God in bodily terms – as hunger and thirst that he experiences in his body. The Incarnation itself was Christ’s choice to inhabit a body: this supremely spiritual being, who has existed for all eternity far beyond the physical, material world as we know it, chose to take the journey into human flesh, to become limited as we are by space and time and to become vulnerable as all bodies are. 

Our bodies are an integral part of who we are. As Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 4:7, we carry the treasure of Christ’s presence in these ‘earthen vessels’ (King James Version). Therefore, caring for our bodies is not a distraction from our spiritual life, but an expression of it. May we attend to them as wisely and lovingly as we can – whether that means getting enough rest, making time for renewal, or perhaps even taking the practical step of booking that long-overdue appointment with the doctor. 

And may our bodies, sustained and cared for, be used in the service of God and for his glory.