Most diet and exercise books start the first chapter as if the reader has already healed from the things that made them reach for the books in the first place. I think they’re skipping a major step. Hurt people hurt people; healed people heal people. It’s difficult to know who to trust as a friend, a guide, a helper, a doctor, and a healer because we don’t really know what’s going on under the surface. So I choose the Healer with the open book: Jesus.
Before I began writing a book for you, I scoured the market to see what was already out there. “They” always tell writers to write the book they need. That’s definitely happening for me because I find a lack in what’s available.
That can seem incredibly easy and even arrogant for me to say, especially since I haven’t done any of the work the other authors have. Their work is theirs, mine is mine. And I never want to take away from their life’s work or callings, unless what’s presented is false or hurtful. But it’s also important for me to distinguish the lack I’m sensing. Each one of us is called to vastly different and equally important work. Such is the mysterious beauty of the body of Christ, us all working together, yet separately.
Why do we think we are the solution?
One of the major missteps I see in books about the body, is they depend on us to heal ourselves. Why do we think we are the solution? Isn’t our own brokenness or our own lack of expertise or knowledge or ability the reason we ran to find more information outside of ourselves? Yes, God designed our bodies to heal. But because of the fall and the broken, sinful world we live in, God’s design does not always work like He planned it to. Just like we do not wholly love God and others as ourselves like He calls us to.
When things aren’t working for me, the last thing I want is more of me. Yet diet and exercise books just tell me to eat better and move more and I’ll be all better. I have to stop being lazy. If that were true, we would just get up and do it, right? And then we’d all be thin and there would be no heart disease or cancer or even depression, right? Wrong. We need more than surface solutions; we need someone to save us from ourselves.
Some bandages are bondage.
Most diet and exercise books–yes, even some Christian ones–skip over the traumatic past or current soul issues you may have that prompted you to reach out for help. From chapter one, they start telling you how amazing you are or how amazing you could be if only you would read your Bible and cut out sugar or get better form in your burpees. (If you don’t know what a burpee is, it’s basically a combined push-up jumping-jack type exercise that makes you question what you ate the meal before. But it is great for strengthening your core, which is crucial for your whole body.) They offer check lists instead of heart transformation, or Biblical context and inspiration but no clear path to practical application. I hope to provide both context and practice for you in a meaningful, simple way.
I am passionate about including both the deep end and the every day in my first book because, from my experience, some bandages are insufficient and turn into bondage.
This is not a statement against medical or mental health treatment, my friends. What I mean is: deep wounds need more than a slight covering. They need ointment, oxygen, light, and a miracle or two…thousand. They need a doctor and a nurse, maybe a surgeon or a couple specialists or an entire medical staff. Sometimes they (we) need a splint, a cast, bed rest, or even a coma to heal.
Some of the solutions I see for ourselves only address the surface level. Those kind of bandages won’t help deep wounds or severe injuries. If we keep our wounds wrapped up tight in the dark and alone, well, we know what happens to cuts that never get a chance to breathe: infection. And we can plainly see what happens to broken bones without correction: swelling, pain, desperation, weakness, and crookedness.
We need a Savior.
If we are going to get out of our pits, break death grips on our lives, and live free and fully loved, then we need someone to save us, to heal us from our wounds and make us new. For me? I depend on Jesus. I believe Jesus is the Son of God and, thanks to thousands of witnesses (yes, that’s what the Bible contains, and like Aristotle’s writings have survived, God has made sure to preserve His Word for us all these thousands of years later), I know He is a healer. Thanks to what He’s done in my marriage, my mind, my home, and my heart, I know He healed me and has saved me.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I have never seen anyone be physically healed in a miraculous moment. I just read a wild and terrifying memoir, Holy Ghost Girl by Donna M. Johnson about tent revivals and physical healings and a corrupt evangelist preacher…I’m not talking about that. But I have seen people’s souls be made new. I’m referring to the soul healing that God has been dealing to and sifting through me too. He has healed me, for example, by renewing my mind which has not only helped me care for my body, but also helps me feel better in it. Now, I actively love the skin I’m in because of Him. That alone is evidence to me of a real, living God.
I want less of the superficial me and more of the supernatural You, God.
How would our days change if we said this to ourselves in the mirror every morning?
And how would our lives change if we strung those days together into years?
Jesus Heals.
I was asked to help a group of women lead the Lord’s Supper in our Life Group years ago. In my preparation, it hit me that salvation in Jesus is a salve to my soul. He heals me. So I choose the Healer with the open book, Jesus, to trust as my friend, helper, guide, doctor, and Savior because He provides.
“I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35
Jesus spoke to the Pharisees again. “I am the light of the world,” he said. “Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness.” John 8:12
Jesus answered, “If only you knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you life-giving water…All those who drink this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring which will provide him with life-giving water and give him eternal life.” John 4:10, 13-14
Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24
He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. 1 Peter 2:24
Love,
Amanda
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