Part of my wife’s job as a dietitian is teach classes. Most of the places she has worked, she has been asked either by the medical facility or the community, to teach classes on various dietetic issues. The place she works now has her teaching classes several days a week and one of these is a class on body positivity. The gist is for people to see the good in their bodies, even they fit the stereotype society says they should. It’s a way of encouraging a better view of the self so patients have a chance to let go of certain negative ideas they may have about themselves.
Personally, I think the Body of Christ might be in need of some body positivity classes. The Body is taking a rather negative view of itself at the moment, and it might be good to have some reminders.
We are one body in Christ. The idea here is Jesus never intended denominations. He called his disciples to unity in following the way of life he taught them and the way of life the Holy Spirit continued to teach after he was gone. In what is often referred to as the High Priestly Prayer in John, Jesus says,
I’ve given them the glory that you gave me so that they can be one just as we are one. I’m in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you have loved them just as you loved me. — John 17:22-23
Notice the world will see the love of God and bear witness to the truth of Jesus when we are “made perfectly one”; Not the 200 or more in the US and certainly not the 45,000 or so globally. We are called to be one, something we failed at a long time ago.
We have one mission: make disciples who follow the Way of Jesus. It’s not to make everyone believe what I believe or make everyone feel miserable for disagreeing with me. It is to make disciples who follow the Way of Jesus. Notice that, to make disciples who follow the Way of Jesus, not our way, not the way of political parties, not certain ideologies, not certain talking heads or pundits. We are called to know the Way of Jesus as taught by Jesus and passed to us through the Holy Spirit and then teach the Way to others. And we must read and know the life and teachings of Jesus (start with the gospels) in order to do this.
We will not find the abundant life in Jesus or be able to help others find it until we get these ideas deeply rooted into ourselves. May each of us strive to be one body with one mission in order to change the community around us to reflect the true nature and being of the Jesus Way.
Brokenness to Wholeness 
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