2010-06

I love the BBC comedy Outnumbered, which, as I write, is
showing its third series on Thursday nights. It is witty, wellobserved,
and bears an all-too realistic depiction of family
life. My own family seem not too far removed from the
family on-screen. In a recent episode the Granny is trying
to explain to the seven-year old girl, Karen, that it doesn’t
matter what shape or size a woman’s body is. Karen, ever
alert to the absurd, comes back with “what about a
hexagon?”
When we talk about getting into shape we often have a
specific shape in mind – perhaps the shape that we were
ten years ago or perhaps an impossible body shape that
we have seen on the cover of a magazine – but the great
thing about being human is that we are all shapes and sizes (though none
of us, thankfully, are hexagons).
For me, getting into shape means re-ordering my attitudes. It certainly, in
my case, means being more disciplined about physical exercise, but it
also means getting my emotional, mental and spiritual attitudes right as
well. Sometimes we can be fit in body but flabby in mind. The problem
that I find is that there are so many things in the world that conspire to pull
me out of shape. Too much time in front of the television or on the
internet is not only bad for my physical health but it’s not great for me
spiritually or mentally. I need to shape up.
St Paul wrote that Christians should not allow themselves to be shaped by
the world but to be changed from the inside-out by the power of God.
That involves a different set of exercises altogether – the exercises of
prayer, of love and forgiveness. In their own way these exercises are just
as gruelling as training for the London Marathon and I think the rewards
last longer. Perhaps the next time we think about how we would like to be
slimmer, lighter or fitter, we might also think about how we would like to be
more loving or more thoughtful. Perhaps even more prayerful.
I want to be the shape God made me. That will almost certainly mean that
I never have a body of an Olympic athlete but I think that it means that I
will have the heart and spirit of someone who loves and is loved and who
trusts that God is changing me to be more fully human. I think then that I
will be someone who shapes the world and is not shaped by it.
Rev Toby Hole
Vicar
St Chad’s Church
Woodseats
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 3 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086