If you follow the news, you have probably heard of the young Ex-Playboy model who captured a nude photo of a 70 year old woman in a gym. She shared it on social media with the caption: "If I can't unsee this, you can't either."
Since then, she has not only had to endure the backlash from social media, she has also had to endure death threats, hiding at her mother's house and has been sentenced for breaking the law. All this because a moment of poor judgment went really wrong. When it comes to this incident of 'Body Shaming" I'm not interested in revisiting her error, or trying to make her pay again for what she did, I am more interested in wisdom for life... what can we learn from this?
UNCOMMON SENSE
As the middle child of five, many times I stayed out of trouble, not because I was such a great kid, but because I would pay attention to what my siblings did, and I would try to learn from that. It has been said that we can learn by experience or by revelation.... it is often up to us. Experience is the hardest way to learn a lesson, especially if the consequences are hard. Revelation requires being teachable and being willing to admit that what has been revealed is accurate- whether we like it or not. Some lessons seem like common sense, but in a world where so much has changed so fast, common sense is not always common. So what does this have to do with us?
Most of what I write and encourage people with is aimed at the "Body" of Christ. I realize that if we can do our job, the world will take note. If we learn to love like Jesus did, we will be able to draw others, after all scripture says "They will know us by our love." Another goal of mine is to help us learn to handle life better, knowing that God promised He would be there for us and we can trust Him even when it hurts.
IT'S A SHAME!
When I heard about this body shaming incident, I thought about two things, first my own mother, second the Body of Christ.
I couldn't imagine how horrible anyone would feel after being ridiculed for how they look on the outside, especially if your body been through 70 years of life. My mother at 75 was not frail, but life and things she was fighting took something from her. Time took her youth, but life, responsibility and eventually chemo took more. One thing it never took was her love for people and her keen mind that kept her in the game until the day she left it. When you have lived a full life of ups and downs, the last thing you need is someone who decides to shame you on the one part of you that didn't fare as well. Body shaming to me can't take anything away from you physically, it is what it is; but it takes something away mentally.
If you manage to make it through sickness or depression and your body holds the scars from a fight, the last thing you need is for someone to try to take the one thing that might still be intact. That is what body shaming does, it robs you of your self respect and hinders your chances to love and be loved. People may see what you look like on the outside, but those that ridicule you may not pay as much attention to how you look on the inside. If you are someone who has endured this, don't allow people to hurt and discourage you in the part of you that is the most important.
If you manage to make it through sickness or depression and your body holds the scars from a fight, the last thing you need is for someone to try to take the one thing that might still be intact. That is what body shaming does, it robs you of your self respect and hinders your chances to love and be loved. People may see what you look like on the outside, but those that ridicule you may not pay as much attention to how you look on the inside. If you are someone who has endured this, don't allow people to hurt and discourage you in the part of you that is the most important.
BODY SHAMING IN CHRIST
The second thing I thought about was the Body of Christ.
SHAME is defined as something that causes someone to feel ashamed, humiliated or embarrassed.
You may wonder how does body shaming work with the church? Well, many times we look on other ministries that don't look like ours and we ridicule them. We look at believers who have been through difficult times and wonder why they don't look stronger, why are they not prospering or on top of the world. We blame people for the trials they are going through instead of praying for their strength to make it through them. Yes, we may make mistakes and have to deal with consequences, but who doesn't? We are the Body of Christ... we should be encouraging, strengthening and loving each other- not shaming each other.
A second definition of SHAME is
a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by recognizing wrong or foolish behavior
As the body of Christ, we should learn to understand what brings shame. Any behavior we exhibit that is contrary to the word of God, can cause shame or embarrassment. So when we attack each other on social media, or we jump on bad wagons about leaders or believers who obviously have struggles that they need intervention... shame on us. The world sees us and they refuse to believe that we are genuine. They realize that if we will shame each other, we may do the same to them. We are past using experiences to teach us how to deal with each other better. It is time to get the revelation that our hope in God allows us to not live in shame.
A Final Thought
We are the Body of Christ. We all have to do what is necessary for us to be well. We work better when the body is whole and every joint is supplying and doing their part. You don't have to do what I do to be part of the body, in fact, if you did... something would be missing. We owe it to every believer to pray for each other, to correct each other in a loving way and to support each other. We owe it to the world to look like The Body of Christ even with our flaws we can be healthy. God has promised to cover us and to strengthen us. When we ridicule, laugh and taunt each other because of differences, that is BODY SHAMING and the world sees it, and....
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