…As Yourself

I was asked to give a talk to a group of church women attending a conference on Loving Yourself Well.

At first glance, the topic seemed somewhat selfish to me . I am supposed to talk about self-love? to a group of Christians? Aren’t we Christians taught to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, endure suffering, trials and tribulations of many kinds.

Then I thought about Mark 12 when “one of the teachers of the law came and asked Jesus, Of all the commandments, which is the most important? The most important one, answered Jesus, is Hear O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and will all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

And it occured to me that we often gloss over the last part of the commandment. “as yourself. ”

Jesus did not say instead of yourself, not yourself, forget yourself, at the expense of yourself. He says love God. with every thing that is in you, both spiritual (heart and soul) and physical (mind and strength). And Love your neighbor…. AS YOURSELF.

We are commanded to love ourselves; but what does loving myself look like?
A spa day with my BFF? Perhaps.
Taking a vacation to Hawaii?Maybe.
Buying a new outfit? My personal favorite.

Occasionally pampering myself may be part of loving myself, but I noticed another verse that put “as yourself” in a more practical way,
In Ephesians 5:29, Paul is talking to husbands and wives. He says “husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he FEEDS andCARES for it. Just as Christ does the church.” Another version of the bible says NOURISHES AND CHERISHES.
So part of loving myself is FEEDING AND CARING for myself. Nourishing and cherishing myself.
Maybe not the whole thing, but a part of it anyway.
How am I doing?
How are you doing with feeding and caring for yourself?

How did Jesus, feed and care, nourish and cherish his body?

To answer this, I looked at the beautiful story in John 4 about the woman at the well. You may know it well. It tells the story of how Jesus, in meeting a woman, breaks through so many barriers including polictical, religious, ethnic, cultural, and gender barriers to speak to her and love her into the Kingdom.

I posed my questions to this story and noticed a few things I had never noticed before: Fully human, Jesus had physical needs. He embraced his humanity and he met those needs in a way that nourished his physical body. Jesus kept himself healthy so that he could meet others’ needs.

1 – Jesus drank water. Jesus got thirsty and he went to the well to drink water. Not juice or pop or Starbucks mocha latte with an extra shot of espresso. Water.

Water is so important to the body over sixty percent of which is comprised of water. Water purifies our bodies. It protects our nervous system. It provides energy. Sugary beverages (even artificially sweet) do the exact opposite and toxify the body and hijack hormones to make us think we are hungry. They de-energize by causing a sugar spike and then a sugar crash. They intoxicate. Jesus cared for his body by drinking water.

2 – Jesus ate real food. “He sent his disciples to buy food.” I don’t hink they went to McDonald’s or In and Out or Chick Fil-A. Jesus ate real whole food, minimally processed, like fish and whole grain breads and cucumbers and leaks and figs and dates and olives. He ate foods that provided his body the nutrients he needed to be strong and stay healthy.

3 – Jesus walked. The journey from Judea to Galilee was forty miles. He did not Uber there. He walked. I don’t know how long it took him but he walked. Walking was so important to him, in another bible story, he walked on water. But he moved his body. A lot.

4 – Jesus rested. The bible says “wearied from his journey, he sat down.” Jesus took a break. He did not go 24/7 365. He took breaks. He respected and honored the fact that he had to reboot, restore, recharge. He rested.

And while tending to these physical needs, while feeding and caring for himself, he met the Samaritan woman and connected with her in a way that met her greatest need and broke through her biggest barrier, shame. He did not ingorne her. He saw her. He was patient with her. He was kind to her. He did not manipulate or judge or condemn her. He simply asked her for a drink of water.

Jesus loved his neighbor as he loved himself.

WWJD? Jesus would drink water, eat real food, walk, rest. He would keep himself physically healthy and mentally strong.

We need to do the same.

Loving yourself by nourishing and cherishing your body is not selfish. Embracing the fearful and wonderful way God created us, with physical needs, we can love ourselves well, motivated out of obedience to God , out of reverence to Christ, as our spiritual act of worship. Then we can truly love others.