My last few fleshly posts have been like rocks skipping across the surface of an ocean of metaphysics underneath (still trying to decide on the aptness of that metaphor...), and I can see the eyes rolling back into their heads.
So, let me wrap this up with another of the marquee passages of scripture relevant to spiritual formation and our bodies. Paul writes in 1 Cor 9:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one wins the prize? Run in such a way as to win the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to gain a crown that will not last. We do it to gain a crown that will last forever...
What is the "it"? Strict training. Strict train is what those who have intended to grow spiritually enter into. He continues:
Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly. I do not fight
like a man beating the air. No. I beat my body and make it my
slave.
I think the last sentence should be read as follows: instead of being a slave to my body and its desires, I make it my slave. That way it can work in service to me. I train it to do the things that I want to do.
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