Now I think it’s time to talk about where our physical health does come into play, what importance it does actually have, because I do not think it is without value. What I have said has been about dismantling traditions I believe have been built up around our physical health, making it a thing of worship.
PRIORITIES AND PERSPECTIVE
When we have identified a concern as being Telestial, that does not mean it is without value, but that it has limitations placed on its value. We are living in a Telestial world, where we influence and are influenced by Telestial forces. While the Lord does not teach us to focus on our physical health, He does acknowledge that it has its importance and function. Else why would He spend so much of His ministry healing and feeding people? Without sufficient physical health to function, we cannot accomplish our ordained purposes in this world. So we need to do what is necessary for our survival in this world, inasmuch as we continue to have missions to perform and lessons to learn that require our presence here.
When it comes to the temporal things, what we need is to maintain perspective. Sure, it would be good to not put toxic shit in food. Sure, it would be better if everyone and everything was better. That’s the nature of things being better, is they are better. But, it would be far better to focus on repentance and faith in God and serving his children. Our bodies are guaranteed to suffer toxins and poisons, that’s the whole state of being in this fallen and dark world. As you remove physical toxins, more will replace them, ultimately to your death if nothing else kills you first. One of the trials may be to see which poisons you will focus on eliminating, the spiritual or the physical. You only have hope at succeeding with one of those.
Physical health is a means. It is to enable you to engage in activities, for the purpose of being proven. Like money, it should be understood only in the context of how it can serve greater means, and what we are willing to exchange for it. How much time are we willing to exchange for it? How much energy spent studying health and arguing about what is and isn’t physically nutritious for someone other than yourself? How much extra money should be spent to buy the expensive organic stuff? Extra money that could perhaps be used to help the poor who cannot even afford the cheap prepared foods?
ILLNESS
Physical health is a blessing, but what if illness can be as well? I am not saying those who have illness need to suck it up and appreciate their sickness, but I am saying that until the Lord sees fit to deliver you from an illness, some afflictions may actually be beneficial in the bigger picture. Some illnesses may be given because we need lessons that will be learned in overcoming them. Some illnesses may be given because the lessons that need to be learned and experiences that need to be gained are found under the illness itself, and the suffering can be consecrated for the benefit of your soul.
Job’s enduring of his afflictions was accounted to his benefit, even to double (Job 42:10). The woman with the blood issue was granted a Divine miracle for both her spiritual and physical benefit, which she may not have received without first suffering the blood issue. A blind man was ordained to his blindness from birth specifically so that he might miraculously receive his sight (John 9:1-3). We cannot experience physical illness outside of a temporal realm. We are here to endure experiencing the evil, so that from it, we might learn to appreciate and choose to know the good (Moses 6:55-56). If we are hoping to become like God, who has descended below everything we can suffer here (D&C 122), then we must expect that such experience needs to be accumulated at some point. By faithfully experiencing it now, you may be preventing the need to experience it again later. Or, by being driven to God in humility by your afflictions, you may find deliverance from the afflictions and obtain great faith in the bargain.
PERSONAL REVELATION
We know that God gives unto men weakness, that they may be humble (Ether 12:27). Some weaknesses may require different actions on the part those afflicted than are required of those who do not have that weakness, as people vary in their needs and individual glory like the stars themselves vary.
While the Lord speaks out against becoming focused on our physical well-being, He leaves the door open for Himself to grant individual instruction, built around the needs of each of His children. Such instruction may include guidance concerning things they should and should not consume. While God condemns men trying to fulfill this role, He is fully qualified and free to perform this station, and does not contradict scripture by doing so. When God gives personal instruction concerning temporal matters, it indeed becomes significant, for that person.
WHAT WE SHOULD BE FOCUSING ON
Mankind has an interesting notion, that if we focus on the little things we struggle with, we can obtain little “successes” and eventually move our way up to the bigger things. That is one of the reasons many want to focus on the Word of Wisdom, because if they can perfect that little thing, they can work their way up to the more important things.
I think this is deceptive, a calculated distraction. There are always more little things that a person can work on perfecting, and there are always little voices more than willing to point these things out. By constantly focusing on addressing these matters, the larger things will never be addressed, and mortality will end with all the greatest weaknesses still fully in place. We will not have accomplished the measure of our creation.
Rather than focus on the little things, what is the biggest weakness under which we suffer? What is our biggest flaw? What is the sin we are most given to committing? Perhaps that is the better thing to focus our attention on. Perhaps we should be more focused on the commandments God has given than on the “greeting” which is definitively not a commandment. That is how sin is overcome, that is how repentance is accomplished.
I have found that as I focus on obtaining more light and knowledge, and on tackling my own biggest hurdles, the smaller issues have an amazing tendency to dissolve on their own. Grace comes into play and as my heart is changed by addressing the big things, the change of heart naturally eliminates some of the lesser issues, without any active effort on my part.
CONCLUSION
I believe that the truths governing what is good and bad for our temporal bodies are as Telestial as our bodies themselves are, and as varied as can be. This makes it difficult for God to proclaim too many things concerning these matters, and obscene for one man to tell another what they should and should not do with their body. I believe the scriptures teach that what I do with my body is none of your damn business, no matter how fervently you might disagree with my choices, and what you do with your body is no business of mine.
I believe the Lord has been pretty clear on how little stock we should place in our physical well-being.
I believe that even when God does say something about diet, we have a dire tendency to take His words and ignore or wrest them to grotesque misinterpretations, allowing worship of our bodies, even when He explicitly warns against such behavior.
We seem to have minimal respect for what little God actually does and does not say in scripture about physical health, as well as many other things. Perhaps that, rather than our diet, is what needs to change.
