Every Body Matters

by Gary Thomas

[Charli G.]

When it comes to spiritual matters, one does not really take into account the amount of weight they may be carrying on their bodies. Most pastors do not preach about this topic and most church members probably would not be particularly pleased to find the topic of the Sunday message to be about how healthy eating habits and proper exercise are related to spiritual things.

While this book does a fairly good job of pointing out that spiritual matters can be affected by how much physical weight a person is carrying, and does touch on a couple of reasons why a person may be carrying that weight, I found this book to be more aggravating than not.

Part of the reason I did not like this book was that I have always been taught, regardless of the faith the church I am attending - be it Baptist, Pentecostal, Mormon, or otherwise, is that your life ends when God wills it to do so. The very fact that Gary Thomas repeatedly states in the book that your life may end before your ministry is supposed to end, that you may die before God's purpose for you is completed, makes no sense to me. I cannot fathom how it is that the Devil could possibly be causing me to overeat, not exercise, get out of shape, and then die if God does not will me to die at a particular time. This flies in the face of having faith in God in my opinion and in the opinions of friends with whom I discussed what I was reading.

While this book may give readers a new reason for losing weight, that is really all this book is doing - giving you a new reason to lose weight, along with a few suggestions that you could get from your primary physician.