Are you in the process of learning to live healthier? Join us for the next few days as we offer scripture, insight, and encouragement to help on that journey.
Today’s scripture: Proverbs 14:30 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Tommy Chittenden):
Bodies by themselves do not “think.” They don’t “care.” They never have any “problem with themselves.” They never beat themselves up or shame themselves.
They simply try to keep themselves balanced and healthy. They’re efficient, intelligent, kind and resourceful. Where there’s no thought, there’s no problem.
It is the story (or attachment to thoughts) we choose to believe — prior to doing inquiry — that leaves us confused. Every story is simply about body-identification. We have been taught, and have chosen to believe, that we ARE our body. So when we tell the story of our body: “I have cancer, I have an addiction, I am fat, I can’t see, I can’t walk, I can’t breathe, and on and on…” we create an identity and suffer, believing we are that with which we identify. But the truth is we are not! The mind absolutely loves this “story-telling” because it thinks it is doing exactly what YOU want it to do.
You and I believe, truly believe, that our body is the problem and that if only this or that would change, we would be happy! Our problem, our suffering, our chaotic mind is always a thought that we innocently believe. The incredible peace and tranquility that comes from inquiring into those thoughts reveal that it is our thinking we’re addicted to — never an object or substance.
Who would you and I be without our story about our body (whatever that may be)? We would be free! The mind would be at peace (tranquil). Even the science of the last decade confirms that this state of awareness frees or “gives life to the flesh” to draw upon all of its God-given resources to restore balance and health to itself.
Thought for today: God, if I choose to believe that I am not my body, that I instead am Divine Essence, moving around through that body, I can claim the promise of scripture to experience peace, oneness and health.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.