Beyond Bodies

Running on the treadmill this morning, I didn't see the man go down only a few feet from me. Being so engrossed with my own workout, I completely missed what was going on around me. Within a few seconds, several others gathered around him offering him any assistance they could. At this point, my limited experience would have been no help at all. Feeling my own heart pounding in my chest as I ran, I had to wonder if, or when, that might be me. It is ironic how we work so hard at staying physically fit and can still collapse doing the very thing that is intended to keep us from doing so (I think of athletes like Jim Fixx, Pete Maravich or Sergei Grinikov, a 28 year-old double Olympic gold medalist, who collapsed and died suddenly while training).

As it turned out, the gentleman in the gym today likely only overheated. Following a visit with the paramedics and some time on an oxygen bottle, he was eventually walking under his own power though clearly a little woozy. I'm reminded to pray for him even as I write this entry. "May it go well with him and with his Creator." I'll likely see him again in a day or two.

Still reflecting on the Body Worlds exhibition (see yesterday's blog), I've been giving some consideration to just how temporal is this physical body of ours. So limited by the forces of nature is our flesh that, to transcend it would be a marvelous thing. I've heard many "near death" testimonies speak of being "released from the body" and that experience of this release being a marvelous thing. How would life perspectives change were we to concentrate less on the flesh and more on the spiritual essence of our being? While not advocating the neglect of the flesh, I do believe our flesh receives far more attention than does our spiritual self.

For many years I've lived with a nagging sense there is so much more to experience beyond the boundaries of this fleshly existence but I simply too infrequently pursue that experience with any real devoted diligence. Don't get me wrong, I'm very much about praying, meditating and the pursuit of the spiritual life (not merely for the sake of experience but for becoming more of what the Creator intends for me to be in the following of Jesus Christ). But I'm finding the desire to pursue the spiritual existence with the same (if not increased) diligence with which I have pursued my flesh. There simply has to be so much more to be known in the spiritual world and finding something of it is filled with fascinating question and wonder.

The other day some amazing photos taken from the Hubble Space telescope came across my electronic desktop. These photos brought physical imagery to some of my notions that there is much more to experience beyond this life. Though simply physical representations of what the human eye can't see unaided, but now can be seen with the benefit of the Hubble, imagine what spiritual wonders await us that exist but remain "unknown" because of our lack of "vision" to see it in the here and now. If the beauty of the spiritual "unknown" is as magnificent as the physical "unknown" that is now seen in these pictures, then there is much to "see" and "know" in the spiritual.

For a glimpse at these physical wonders... click here or here and imagine what more is "out there" that we have yet to see and know. For a glimpse into the spiritual wonders... find a renewed dedication to the pursuit of what it means to "be" created in His image and imagine what will be.

Happy imagining...

"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him --
but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit."
1 Cor. 1:9-10