When we worship our beach bodies over our God
Figure-forming, anti-aging, and the Holy Face of Christ
I have a confession: I’m a Pilates princess.
There’s a fantastic, inexpensive studio only 10 minutes from my work with a weekday 7:30am class. I stretch, strength train, and lift to my heart’s content without getting grossly sweaty, then change into my office outfit and leisurely check personal emails and social media for a few minutes, all with plenty of time to get to work a little early.
Boy oh boy do I enjoy Reformer classes (that’s the name of the equipment we use). The calm, encouraging instructors! The soft background indie-pop! The slow, deliberate pace! The sheer fun of it all! It’s exactly my cup of tea to warm up my body and brain before work and after morning prayer.
But it hit me during a class last week: they named it a Reformer for a reason.
The name “Reformer” implies a reformation—I have to give props to this marketing from the Big Pilates powers that be way back when for thinking of this name. It subtly messages to us to expect results, to ›expect a reformation of our bodies thanks to the workouts done on it.
It’s smart marketing, but it hurts my heart that our human nature is apt to make this name is so effective. And the only reason it’s effective is because the workout industry knows how desperately many of us want total reformation for our bodies. I certainly don’t blame individual Pilates studios or instructors for using the language already established in the industry, but I still find myself wishing our culture didn’t put so much weight on the idea of total body transformation.
It isn’t bad to want to feel beautiful and steward the bodies God gave us with healthy habits that nourish them—our desires for good, true, and beautiful things are imprinted on our hearts. But it’s a problem when we take the “good things” of wellness and turn them into “God things,” when we place them on pedestals they don’t deserve to be on, uprooting Christ the King from the throne of our hearts.
At the same time, I’d be willing to bet most of us who follow Christ didn’t set out to idolize beach bodies and flawless faces. We’re on an uphill battle here against a wellness industry with expert marketing designed to make us feel bad about parts of our bodies we didn’t even know we were “supposed” to feel bad about. It doesn’t occur to little girls shielded from beauty-aisle packaging to desire plumper lips or certain eyebrow shapes, toned legs or muscular-but-not-too-masculine arms. Somewhere along the way we became unable to recognize ourselves for who we are as God’s children amidst a sea of botoxed celebrities and photoshopped images models (not to mention the fact that airbrushed AI images make this 10000% worse).
For me, this has looked like a new fixation on anti-aging. My first smile lines appeared under great stress last fall, and I’m heartbroken to share that I haven’t looked at myself in the mirror the same way since then. I’m a human desperately in need of God’s grace and the inside-out, full-heart/body/mind/soul transformation only He, and no retinal or Vitamin C cream, can provide.
Let’s look at the Shroud of Turin above, the cloth believed to have been lain on Jesus’ body at His burial post-crucifixion. In 1898 the first photo was taken of it, revealing a photo negative that looked strikingly like a human face with its inverted color.
I regret that when I look at Jesus’ Holy Face here, I wonder when He started to wrinkle and suppose that it was early, since they didn’t have sunscreen in the second decade of A.D. I regret that my mind’s imagination is tempted to fixate on his under-eye circles and sun spots, wondering how large His pores here, musing on the human imperfections rather than His perfect, divine radiance of love.
It is exclusively by God’s grace that we have the strength and power to stop idolizing what doesn’t deserve to be on a pedestal, what will always leave us feeling ultimately empty, what can never fill and satisfy us. And, it’s exclusively by His grace that we receive the healing we need to reclaim our hurtful memories of body-shame and fade the photoshopped-imaged surrounding us on all sides into our periphery, until He becomes our only clear view.
But the Gospel brings us great news: God gives us graces simply when we ask for them and receive Him in prayer and the sacraments.
I need Jesus’ Holy Face to heal me with merely His gaze; to grant me the grace to see Him for who He is and see myself for who I am: a daughter of God regardless of dark under-eyes and newly-etched smile lines. It isn’t magic, it isn’t manipulation—it’s God’s love in action through the free gift of His grace. He loves us not because we do anything to deserve it, but just because we exist.
When I look in the mirror, I don’t want to see blemishes and imperfections—not because they’ve been erased, but because I’m not over-fixated on or idolizing of them.
When I look in the mirror, I want to see only Him.
In His grace,
-Eliza
PS: A book with much to say about this that is all things Christ-focused, encouraging, balanced, nuanced, and healthy is “Breaking Free from Body Shame” by Jess Connolly, a Christian author and fellow Charlestonian. Writing this Substack has made it clear that I need to revisit this book after pouring through it back in 2021! You can get it for $7 at Thriftbooks here.
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The front of this dress is a precious high-neck, but this back is a STUNNER. Maxi length and 100% cotton red gingham, a classic for summer! Shop it on Tuckernuck here.
Allow me to welcome you aboard the “Baby Tote” Train. This is the smallest size of Lands’ End’s canvas pocket tote, and it’s perfect. One of my best friends got them for us bridesmaids as a gift for her wedding, and it’s become my go-to casual purse because it’s nicely petite but fits so much more than it looks like it can. Lands’ End’s totes are less $ than L.L. Bean’s, made of thicker cotton canvas, and have interior pockets—LLB’s don’t. “Baby Tote” is a new staple in my closet! Find it here.
Heads up: Target has even more colors in their $28 perfect-fit wide leg jeans. I own multiple—not because I’m a person who likes owning multiple colors of the same thing normally, but because these are the comfiest, nicest-looking, best-fitting jeans I’ve ever tried on, and the color denim versions look really sleek and chic for work attire. Most sizes are still available in every shade! See all their colors here.
I’D APPRECIATE YOUR PRAYERS FOR…
Those who struggle with eating, exercise, and body image disorders. May they come to experience full, wild, and beautiful healing from these hardships by the love of our Great Physician.