The Ballet Dancer's Discipline

Misty Copeland, the first African American principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre, once described how she guards her body with an almost sacred attentiveness. She could eat whatever she wanted. She could skip her morning warm-up. She could stay out until two in the morning — no one would stop her. Every one of those choices was technically within her freedom. But Copeland understood something that separated her from casual dancers: her body was her instrument. Every meal, every hour of sleep, every stretch was either serving her art or slowly destroying it. "I have the right to do anything," she might have said, echoing Paul's words, "but not everything is beneficial."

Paul makes a strikingly similar argument to the Corinthians, but with even higher stakes. Your body is not merely an instrument for your own performance — it is a temple where the Holy Spirit of the Living God has taken up residence. You were bought at a staggering price, the blood of Christ Himself, and that purchase was not just for your soul but for every fiber of your physical being.

The question is not whether you are free. You are gloriously free. The question is whether you will use that freedom to honor the One who paid everything for you. A dancer protects her body for the stage. How much more should we honor ours for the God who dwells within us?