Much of the world lives as a slave to exciting stimuli, which draws people into a cyclical pattern of falling into fleeting promises of happiness. Tish Harrison Warren explains this pattern and how to overcome this worldly trap in her book Liturgy of the Ordinary. Warren uses moments of difficulty in her own life to relate to the reader; for example, that she is able to find value through the mundane task of brushing her teeth or consuming leftover food. As a whole people, God created each individual person to experience life in an exciting context in order to better seek Him; along the same line, Warren agrees that we are made to be embodied - to experience life, pleasure, and limits in our bodies (Warren 39). Although God created this yearning
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She begins by proposing a chilling yet truthful statement, “We spend most of our days and much of our energy simply staving off inevitable entropy and decay” (Warren 37). People place their foundations in futile endeavors, yet tend to classify actual meaningful activities as pointless. Warren explains this using the example of the human body, “We can believe that the cumulative hours and years spent on the incessant care of our bodies are meaningless, an insignificant necessity on the way to the important parts of our day” (Warren 38). This is a concept that most people overlook as there is so much emphasis on worldly accomplishments and intellectual achievements, that the simple necessity of caring for a body’s physical obligations seem wayward. This concept is particularly helpful because every single reader exists in a physical form and can relate to Warren. Through her words, the reader learns that a body is a site of worship, literally the temple of God, and should be treated as such. One should not constantly overindulge, yet should not deprive the body of its necessities as life is a direct blessing from the Lord. Through this scenario, the reader is persuaded to appreciate taking care of their own bodies even if it is simply brushing
She begins by proposing a chilling yet truthful statement, “We spend most of our days and much of our energy simply staving off inevitable entropy and decay” (Warren 37). People place their foundations in futile endeavors, yet tend to classify actual meaningful activities as pointless. Warren explains this using the example of the human body, “We can believe that the cumulative hours and years spent on the incessant care of our bodies are meaningless, an insignificant necessity on the way to the important parts of our day” (Warren 38). This is a concept that most people overlook as there is so much emphasis on worldly accomplishments and intellectual achievements, that the simple necessity of caring for a body’s physical obligations seem wayward. This concept is particularly helpful because every single reader exists in a physical form and can relate to Warren. Through her words, the reader learns that a body is a site of worship, literally the temple of God, and should be treated as such. One should not constantly overindulge, yet should not deprive the body of its necessities as life is a direct blessing from the Lord. Through this scenario, the reader is persuaded to appreciate taking care of their own bodies even if it is simply brushing