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One of the things that the pastorate can do is take a toll on your body. Perhaps it’s because the pastorate is conducive to a sedentary lifestyle—you sit at your desk and study for hours, then you meet someone for lunch, show up to a church social and eat a stack of cookies piled high on your tiny cocktail napkin, and then meet someone at your local coffee shop and, why not, go ahead and grab a scone. Before your know it, your “roomy” pants are no longer roomy and your bathroom scale screams at you. Sometimes, some pastors just go with the flow and pick up the weight—it’s just the cost of doing business. But we should ask ourselves whether this is the best course of action.
For the sake of discussion, let’s set aside the morality of obesity and gluttony—an important subject for another day. I instead want to focus upon the relationship between our bodies and minds. All too often orthodox Christians live like gnostic heretics—they intellectually affirm that they are body and soul creatures but live like the body doesn’t really matter and the soul is the only thing that really counts. A pastor might gain more weight and think nothing of it because he believes that so long as his mind stays intact, what’s the harm of carrying a few extra pounds? Yet, the Bible presents a very different picture—one that we need to live out on a daily basis.
If God has created us body and soul, this means that the two elements of our existence are distinguishable but inseparable. Even upon death, our souls separate from our bodies, but this is only for a time—God will reunite our souls with resurrected and glorified bodies. We must not therefore view our bodies as simple the wheelbarrow for the soul. They are instead an integrated whole—when the soul suffers maladies it can affect the body, and when the body suffers maladies it can affect the soul and its faculties—intellect and will. This means that the state of our bodies can have a positive or negative affect on our minds—our thought processes and mental fitness. If your body is racked with pain, chances are you cannot think as clearly as you would if you were free from pain. If you treat your body like an amusement park and eat whatever shows up on your plate, then gaining weight and becoming unhealthy can have a negative affect upon your physical and mental health. So what’s a person to do?
I think exercise and a responsible diet should be a regular part of a pastor’s life. Do you have to be an athlete, benching 250, and eating chicken cutlets with a side of arugula and quinoa? No. If that floats your boat, go for it. But you should be mindful that your mind and thought processes are a vital part of your ministry, which means that you should take care of your physical health. Take part in some form of physical activity—regularly walk, ride a bike, do some calisthenics, and eat a decent diet. Just because you find twelve different deserts at church lunch doesn’t mean you should try them all. Can you splurge every once in a while and have a rich meal? Sure. But eat in moderation so you don’t adversely affect your health. Such a regimen will not only ensure your long-term health but will be help you stay in tip-top mental shape. This advice, in my opinion, is useful not only to pastors but for anyone who wants to maintain good mental acuity. Remember, you’re not a soul trapped in a body—you’re a body-soul human being, take care of both.
