Our Unselfish Temples

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself. - 1 Corinthians 6:19 (NLT)

I've heard this scripture numerous times before. I've heard it quoted from people who have decided to stop smoking, drinking, doing drugs and those who have wanted to start eating healthier and start exercising. It fits all those motivations rather nicely wouldn't you say?

Even if you don't have a bad habit or you are already eating healthy and exercising this scripture STILL speaks to you. How?

Because EVERYONE is still selfish.

That's not easy to hear is it? I know for me, I immediately want to defend that claim and show example after example of how I'm NOT selfish. But just like those bad habits I mentioned above, all of us share a habit of being selfish. We have this same thing in common even though it might look different from me to you.

Some people are selfish because they want to smoke.

Some people are selfish because they want to drink.

Some people are selfish because they, like me, want to eat whatever they want.

Our habits look different but the commonality that we share is that we are full of our selves. And I didn't really get this scripture until I read the paraphrased version of it from The Message...

Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body! (emphasis mine)

WOW!!

Let people see GOD in and through your body!

When I read that I had a crazy thought.

What if one day I had to give blood for some kind of testing and the lab technician was looking at my blood cells through a microscope and actually seen that God was coursing through my bloodstream!!!

I know that is a pretty far-fetched idea but what if we actually were meant to be that dedicated to God and unselfish?

What if one day you you had to get an x-ray and all of a sudden you heard a commotion in the back of the building because the x-ray technician was able to see that God and His word was buried deep in your bones!!!

Though these examples aren't likely to happen, I still can't help but think that this is how we are supposed to look at this scripture. This is how dedicated and unselfish we are to be to God through our physical bodies.

Imagine what it would be like to be that unselfish!

A Crazy Thought: We Look Like Pinocchio

This thought occurred to me this morning: I wonder what it would look like if we could see everyone's lies...kind of like Pinocchio?

Now, I don't even have to remind you that God sees and knows everything. So let's not waste time wondering if we look like Pinocchio to Him. We may not have a nose that grows with every little lie that is spoken but God knows it when we lie. He knows it just as easily as if we did have something that gave it away like a growing nose.

But the idea I want us to think about is the idea that we could see everyone elses lies. What if we could tell someone was lying to us because their nose grew when they did? How would that look and how would it change your world?

I know for me one of the things I really really dislike (hate is such a strong word) is when I find out someone has lied to me. But in that same breathe I must confess that saying a statement like that immediately makes me a hypocrite. You see, although I hate it when someone lies to me, I'm not innocent of this sin by any means. I still mess up and do it! I'm working on it, but I've still got some "nose shrinking" to do of my own.

So let's think about it for a minute. What if you were having a conversation with someone and all of a sudden you seen their nose grow a couple of inches? And then a little further in the conversation it grew a little more. How would you react?

What if you was talking to someone and you seen through your reflection in the restaurant window that your nose was growing? Would you be embarrassed? Would you feel exposed?

See, even though we don't like to think about it, God sees every little lie we tell. Even down to the little "white lies" we sometimes think are okay. God sees it all. And if we would become incredibly embarrassed seeing our nose growing when we lied to someone else why don't we feel embarrassed or exposed when we lie knowing that God sees it?

Maybe we are just immune to it and think that telling a lie is not really "that bad". I'm sure a lot of people unknowingly have built a strong immunity to it. But whaddya say we try to work on shrinking our noses? Let's try to remember that just maybe sometimes we really do look like Pinocchio.