Hey friends, I'm Jess Connolly. I'm an author, a coach, a Bible teacher, and a local church leader, and I love talking to real people who know what it means to have full lives, but also want to walk in abundance.

This podcast is for you. It's not my podcast. It's ours. It's for people who crave lighthearted conversations and deeply

spiritual truth. It's for people who are busy, tired, waiting, growing, dreaming, working,

or praying about what's next. Wherever you're listening from, if it's quiet, mundane, or busy, I am praying for you,

and I'm so glad you're here. Let's go. You live your entire life in your body. It's not an

accessory to your life or even a small part of it.

It's also not your identity.

And the state of your body isn't intrinsically tied to the value of your life.

Your soul, your spirit, that's what's eternal.

But your body still matters.

And how you feel about your body matters. In 2022, when my book Breaking Free from Body

Shame came out, the one thing that surprised me was how often people would assume that I

didn't care about health because I was the anti-body shame girl. It seemed like the general

assumption amongst believers, even if we didn't say it out loud,

was that we could either care about the physical state of our bodies or the spiritual state of

our freedom. I couldn't agree with that statement less. I don't think it's spiritually immature

to steward and care for your body. And at the exact same time, I think we

often confuse worshiping in our bodies with worshiping our bodies. So let's talk about health.

Specifically today, we're going to talk about what it might look like to live fully awake in our

bodies that are constantly failing and experiencing the effects of a fallen world.

My friends, I cannot say this clearly enough.

This is your disclaimer at the top of this episode that will not be surprising to you at all,

...