Principled stewardship of the bodies gifted to us by our Creator requires targeted diligence in certain areas of life. From a prior essay, the drive behind pursuing such targeted diligence resides in the purpose of fulfilling God’s design for us, glorifying Him through the command to love God and to love neighbor.  Properly functioning bodies generally improves our capacity for such purpose driven activity.  Yet, God can still use illness to serve such a higher purpose so that illness and less than ideal health does not prevent achieving God’s purposes in one’s life.  For proper functioning, our bodies require certain ongoing inputs such as calories and nutrients of different types which provide fuel and support for bodily operations.  Beyond these basic necessities, our bodies can only handle a certain number of stressors like toxins of inflammatory inputs which must be recognized and intentionally limited.  In addition to these necessities and limited stressors, our bodies require some measure of active physical operations beyond the sedentary in which proper levels of exertion can improve operative functioning as well as a sense of well-being.  Excessive levels, however, can become a stressor and even harmful.  Feeding our bodies well, tending to the level of stressors it faces, and keeping it in some level of physical fitness within the bounds of our abilities empowers us to fulfill our higher purpose. Given each individual’s uniqueness, each one must adapt the general principles of nature to one’s own unique needs.

               Before moving forward, we remind ourselves that a sense of stewardship arises from recognizing life, body, and spirit as gifts from a benevolent Creator.  The burden of stewardship arises from living in a fallen world with human limits that challenge the actualization of right stewardship.  Striving for optimization, for attaining our highest abilities in this area requires a knowledge of the target or purpose, glorifying God by loving God and loving neighbor.  Striving extends beyond a one time or one day event into a lifetime of pursuit.  Our purpose is fulfilled both internally in our desires and externally in relationship to God and to others.   

               Properly functioning bodies generally improve our capacity for striving after and reaching these purposes, although God can still use illness and dysfunction to move us towards the higher purposes.  Generally, caring for our bodies results in bodies that are more efficacious in serving God and others.  Bodies with less pain are less distracted from caring for the pain and can focus attention on serving others.  Bodies with more energy generally have more time in productive modes to help others.  Even when a chronic illness or disability seems to limit our physical capacities, caring well for our bodies under such circumstances still leads to optimization within that providence of life.

               In a reality where our fallen nature and our fallen world hinder such optimization, we do well to remember that falling short of such optimization does not prevent us from striving for these higher goals.  The illnesses and dysfunctions of the body often prepare the spirit of the person to be more receptive to God’s leading and more understanding of other’s weaknesses.  When our bodies are free of suffering and prospering, we can easily forget our Maker.  If we make the body an idol, God may allow suffering to restore a once distanced spirit back to focus on Him and His higher purposes.  We are also called to be understanding with the weaker brother’s shortcomings (Romans 14, Mark 9:24, I Corinthians 8:9-13) so that we do not look down upon them.  While we act as stewards of the gifted bodies in health, we must also trust the providences of pain and suffering with their physical hindrances from the hand of God.  In that manner, we can optimally serve God in both strength and in weakness.

               In stewarding our bodies for the higher purposes, we must be aware of their proper care as our bodies require certain ongoing inputs such as calories and nutrients of different types.  Overly restricting or overly providing calories can both lead to ill effects.  Our current culture tends towards over-indulgence which leads to other health issues impacting the body.  Yet, in the health-conscious world, over restriction can also lead to negative effects.  Some fad diets leave out important nutrients.  Some diets make health into an obsession, possibly even an idol.  Without being a nutritionist, basic knowledge of the difference between macronutrients (fats, carbs, proteins, and fiber) allows one to self-monitor and self-adjust calorie intake to fit one’s individualized needs.

               Beyond understanding the macronutrients and calories between different food types, an overview of the nutrient content of different foods is needed for optimization of health.  Without spending inordinate time on counting every milligram or unit of a vitamin or mineral, one can still choose a mix of foods that covers the spectrum of needs.  By combining different macronutrients and foods sources, the different nutrient needs can be met.  Various animal products like meat and dairy can offer certain nutrients not as concentrated in other sources.  These include protein for building our tissues, vitamin B12, and iron as well.  A variety of vegetables offer both the necessary vitamins but also the helpful phytonutrients which lower inflammation and support gut bacteria.  This includes vitamin A as necessary as well as flavonoids and other anti-inflammatory phytonutrients.  It also includes fibers and resistant starches which our gut bacteria use for themselves and also to produce a healthy microbiome for us.  Many fruits offer other anti-inflammatory nutrients and some vitamins like C in citrus fruits.  Without some level of nutritional awareness, one can inadvertently fall into an unhealthy eating pattern on one’s own or follow the bad advice of a bad fad diet. Optimal bodily operations require some optimizing of inputs.

               While we are guiding these nutrients into our bodies, we must also be aware of stressors on our bodies that counteract these efforts.  Some of these stressors hitchhike into our bodies with the nutrients we seek.  Some of these stressors simply lurk in our environment and seep in through skin and lungs.  Such stressors may include pesticides on veggies, extra sugars and unhealthy fats added to processed foods, or chemicals naturally included in some foods like oxalates or gluten.  In other cases, it may be the poor quality of the air we breathe due to nearby industry or traffic.  It may be the growing number of toxins in our water supply or the chemicals applied to our skin in personal care products. 

               Such stressors can directly damage our bodies or indirectly hinder our proper functioning. Either way, the effects of the stressors require more work for our bodies to overcome and can lead to sub-optimal functioning in the short and/or the long-term.  This extra work may hinder our striving after our purpose in life.  Our fallen world has a number of potential stressors both from nature itself and increasingly from our own poor earth stewardship and foolishness. However, we can work to limit these stressors and their harm as much as possible.

               Once our bodies are properly fueled with good calories, equipped with proper nutrients, and stressors are limited, our bodies need some activity. We don’t function well when entirely at rest no more than when entirely at work.  We need a balance of rest and exertion.  Regular exertion in proper patterns improves our body’s functioning and resiliency.  Improving strength and endurance through activity improves our ability to serve God and others.  Exercise in some form should never be completely shunned nor idolized.  It should be viewed as a means to improve our health for the greater purpose of serving God and serving others. On the other hand, physical fitness for the sake of physical fitness is self-serving, which is contrary to the higher purposes this essay is espousing. 

               Feeding our bodies well, tending the level of stressors they face, and keeping it in some level of fitness readiness within the bounds of our abilities empower us for fulfilling our purpose.  None of these action steps should overtake the higher purposes of loving God and loving neighbor or else they can become idols themselves.  None of these action steps will be accomplished 100% in this earthly life.  Providence of life can interfere with optimizing any one of them.  Limitations of time, money, and other factors will influence how close to optimization we can attain.  Even when illness, injury, pain, and suffering interfere, we can still pursue the higher purpose of loving God and loving neighbor.  We can still fulfill stewardship responsibilities and benefit from the action steps that we are able to do.  God does not need our physical perfection to work out His purposes. Perfection is not the goal.  The higher purposes of loving God and loving our neighbor are the actual goals which these means are aimed to serve.

               Next Pracsy, How do we live?