[Part 5] negative self-image, body dysmorphia, and battling feelings of unworthiness

If you know the feelings I’m talking about, I ask you to let me know. You don’t have to tell me your entire story if you’re not able to articulate it yet, or if you’re not ready. I’m not here to judge you. I’m not here to drag the details out of you before you’re ready. I’m not asking you to go in front of the congregation and tell your story. Some of those wounds are still fresh. It’s not anyone’s right to tell you that you have to share before you’re ready. Or that you have to be ready at all. I do want to let you know that you are not the only one in our church family who feels this way, whoever you are, and whatever you’re feeling.

As far as body image goes, there are times when I still fluctuate between trying to bulk up to get muscle and trying to stay away from calories altogether. I’m not going to pretend that all the insecurities are gone. But having community who believes in me, wants me to succeed, and who sees me as a complete, grown, accomplished man has helped me to ignore my own voices of self-doubt.

Paul tells us in a couple of his Epistles to the Early Church that we, the collective Church, act as the Body of Christ in the world. None of the members of the body can say to another, “You are just an eye; you are not as important as me, the hand.” None of us are able to say, “I do not matter; I am only an ear.”

We all have very different skills, Gifts of the Spirit, Fruits of the Spirit, things that we contribute to the whole. I hate that so many of us experienced people who attempted to represent Christ and yet told us that we were not important.

Some of them, it felt, were telling us that we were only the appendix—yes, it hurts a little bit to cut us out, but we are not really that important. That’s more malarkey.

In scholarly theology, there is the concept of the Imago Dei, the Image of God. Humankind, all of us, are made in God’s Image. The trouble, however, is that many people want to assert that their “kind” are the only ones who reflect that Image. All people make up that Image. If you ignore people who are a different color, orientation, ability, or gender from yourself, you get a more pixelated, censored Image.

For example, Proverbs says that gray hair is a crown of wisdom. Then, Paul wrote Timothy that he should not let anyone despise or discredit him for his youth. So, we need to stop believing that we can ignore the voices of the older or the younger. We are supposed to listen to the wisdom of age and the new ideas of youth. You are not too old to be a minister to others. You are not too young to have a great ministry. And no, it doesn’t have to be formal pastorhood in order for it to be great.

Anyone who has heard maybe two of my sermons knows that my favorite scripture is 2 Corinthians 3:3, which tells us,

“You yourselves are a message from God written not an ink but in the Holy Spirit; written not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

Your journey, your transitions, your learning, your lessons, they all hold something that God was trying to tell the world.

1 Corinthians tells us that if any of you are to brag, brag about what the Lord has done! Be proud of the fact that the creator of the universe saw you as worth suffering and dying in order to save and to be with forever. Take pride in being part of that Body of Christ! I will always be proud of that Body no matter what I’m thinking about my own, physical body. You are part of the thing I’m proud of! Don’t put up with anyone trying to make you feel differently!

-Rev. Gavin Warren, Pastor