Ep. 51: How important are our bodies, really?
Welcome back to the Woven Well Podcast!
If you are listening to this episode, you’ve likely already seen how short it is and yet you’re listening anyway. I consider you one of the truly dedicated listeners.
I was really tempted to not put an episode out this week since tomorrow is Christmas Eve and there are lots of other important things going on in our lives over the next few days!
But I had a conversation over coffee with someone this week that really made me think about our relationship: you, faithful listeners, and I.
I started this podcast with my clients in mind. Real women and couples who I had spoken with and journeyed with on their individual paths. Some prioritizing health and investigating issues, some attempting to avoid pregnancy naturally for the first time, some desiring to conceive a pregnancy, but all of them eager to learn more about their bodies and their fertility and God’s good role in all of it.
The experience of making this podcast over the last year has allowed me to see more than ever before that these women are not isolated relationships. I don’t happen to work with the few hundred people in the world who are interested in diving in and exploring the Good that God intends for them through the gift of their body and fertility.
I knew it. But this podcast has helped me to see it and experience it, firsthand.
I’ve received emails and messages from women across the country who stumbled upon our little corner of the podcasting world either through a friends referral or a lucky algorithm suggestion, sharing how much these episodes have meant to them. How much they’ve learned about their fertility, how they’re preparing to talk with their doctor about PCOS, or researching next steps because they suspect they have endometriosis. Or they’re finally ready to investigate the issue that started them on birth control 15 years ago. Or excited to explore options for addressing infertility that work within their body’s natural processes.
It has been so rejuvenating and exciting to get to connect with you all.
A podcasting community is an odd dynamic, of course, because you hear my voice each week and I don’t always get the opportunity to hear yours. But I so would love to. I would absolutely love to hear your story, your goals, your journey. That’s why, in addition to offering Creighton instruction, I offer consultations that allow you to meet with me to walk through your fertility questions or medical situation or process your journey. Fertility is a sacred space, and I want to be a safe space for anyone who needs a place to talk through their history and their fears and their next steps. I want to educate and empower, and keep pointing you back to the Good God who made you just as you are.
Our bodies have meaning, and they have purpose. We’re tempted to think that purpose is measured only by what our bodies can do, but it’s also about what our bodies help us to realize.
Bodies remind us that we are human, not an animal in this world, but a different being all-together, designed to ponder and speak and create and thrive.
Our bodies remind us that we were made in this physical world, and so there’s something important about the physical world in which we inhabit. We can easily convince ourselves that it’s only our thoughts or our perspectives that matter or make us who we are, but then we could just live in the Metaverse and miss out on nothing. And let me promise you that that is not true……
No, our physical bodies remind us that this physical world around us is here for a reason and our physical natures are just as important as our mental and spiritual natures.
Our bodies also remind us that we are finite. It doesn’t take long into adulthood before things start changing and you see (visually before you in the mirror) that time is passing and you are aging.
There are thousands of instagram reels and Tiktok videos showing you how to hide or possibly delay these signs of aging. But friends, aging is not the enemy. We are all aging, at exactly the same rate as everyone else.
Our aging bodies remind us that there is an end to this precious time on earth, so let’s make the most of it by living and nourishing and honoring our bodies in ways that say to God, “Thank you for this precious gift.”
There are no “good” bodies or “bad” bodies.
All bodies remind us that we were lovingly and knowingly designed by an infinite Creator.
And here we are at Christmas.
We’ve been reflecting through advent on the physical birth from the body of Mary to bring into the world the person of Jesus Christ - fully God, fully human, living, breathing body and all.
And we continue to wait for the physical return of Jesus Christ in his living, breathing physical body.
Jesus took on flesh! We talk about it again and again this time of year. But the flesh he put on is our flesh!
Jesus’ body reminds us that our bodies are holy and good. Otherwise, Jesus wouldn’t have come in the way that He did.
My prayer is that this truth will transform how we we see our own bodies. That as we celebrate the birth of Christ and anticipate His return, we’re reminded that God has made our bodies holy and good. That God has GOOD for us in the design of our specific bodies. And that though they may be tired, or broken, or aging - they serve a God who is never ending, all powerful, and infinitely good.
Merry Christmas, my friends.
Thank you so much for listening each week. Be sure to listen to our final episode of 2022 next week: an interview with a guest who shares how important community has been for her as she walks through a journey of infertility, and then be on the lookout for all that’s to come in 2023 at Woven Natural Fertility Care and, of course, the Woven Well Podcast.
As always, thanks for listening as we continue to explore together what it means to be woven well.