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The Call to Good Stewardship Extends to Your Body
Cultural vs. Biblical Stewardship
Christians understand themselves to be stewards of literally every single aspect of life, and our bodies are no exception to that. I think where this gets cloudy is when we bump into cultural associations with what it means to steward your body well.
Anyone who has spent any time on social media knows there are many ways to think about stewarding a body. Anyone who has ever seen a Hollywood actor or actress age into the wrinkled phase of life knows that there are many ways to think about what it means to upkeep our physical bodies. And so when we think about stewardship as Christians, we think of our bodies as primarily useful, not primarily decorative or for our own purposes. We think of them as something that we submit to service for others.
Dust to Dust
Jen Wilkin
In this biblical meditation on aging, Jen Wilkin draws poetic parallels between the first half of life and the second, inviting us to live fully at every stage.
So yes, stewardship is a very real issue. It means we want to keep our joints as healthy as possible, because we have the feet of Jesus in this life. We are the ones who will walk to help those who are in need of clothing, shelter, drink, or food. That’s on us, so, yes, we want our bodies to be as healthy as possible. But we also don’t make their health or their external beauty an idol or a means to an end that is self-serving. We want it to be in service to others.
Jen Wilkin is the author of Dust to Dust: Aging Wisely in an Anti-Aging World.
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