Physically Attractive

Every single person has something that they find attractive in another person. Some people don’t even realize what it is that they are attracted to unless a friend points it out to them that there is a pattern in the type of person that any one person prefers to allow into their personal life. And even then the observation might be met with great protest and denial.

Attraction can be for many reasons and about many things. Most everyone is unconsciously making an effort to compensation for some internal portion of self-image or perception. But then there is just plain old lust. I would still argue that this type of attraction is about some need to compensate in some way. This may seem to not make much sense but the best way to explain it would be with a rhetorical question----- haven’t we all seen someone who is absolutely unquestionably attractive with someone that was the complete opposite? And what is the first thought that comes to mind? Naturally the mind questions what does that person SEE in the person that is so opposite. Next we try to rationalize with a thought process attempting to make a fit our understanding about motivation instead of attraction.

I might be wrong, but I believe that attraction has a lot to do with the level of activity in one’s life. The people that are considered naturally attractive (no medical assistance) are more often than not ----athletic or otherwise active.
Scientifically, there some understanding of how endorphins work in helping with the endurance of someone participating in physical activity, but the side effect is that this release sends out a signal of attraction to others.

When have you heard a woman say- “oh he is so lazy and I find that really attractive”? I know it is sad and shallow, but the truth is that physical activity makes a person attractive. I will even make a statement, that I am not going to completely defend at this time by stating there is even a difference in a person who’s lifestyle is active from the person who goes to the gym. A person who works out at the gym can develop muscle mass and tone, but something about it still seems artificial. Something about the person’s character or the way they carry themselves give away the fact that they are in the gym and not in an active lifestyle. I think it might be the person who goes to the gym moves with some stiffness or awkwardness that lets you know they are not completely free flowing in movement. Whereas, the person who plays basketball or works construction has more ease of movement or walks with a gait. It is more natural.

Now, so let me get to the theological connection so that it doesn’t seem that there is none. Genesis 3 ---in the midst of God letting Adam and Eve know the consequences of their action, Eve is told that her desire would be for her husband? Which leads to the question of what would her desire have been otherwise? And do we have any clues about it? And secondly, there is the promise to Adam that “ Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it……in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread”. Before then they could just eat from the provision of the garden, but now they have to work for what they will consume.

I am not going to point fingers or blame anyone for this set of events, but what I am going to do is to argue that there is some connection to this portion of text and what we find physically attractive.

A few years back I saw something that will forever be branded in my memory. I am guessing that I may never see such again. When I saw it, I found myself in a daze, because it seemed impossible….I saw a man with an ax cutting down a tree. Not a small tree in the front yard, but a huge tree, probably three feet thick and about 50 feet tall. I came across this because I kept hearing this sound that I couldn’t figure out what it was. It was a sound I had never heard before. When I finally found the sound, I was in some form of shock because I had seen plenty of men with electric saw in hand, but never testosterone in full throttle taking on nature. I didn’t believe that it could be done. Somewhere in my mind, I shrugged it all off with doubt that more than a dent could be made in this tree.

Then it dawned on me, this is what testosterone was for. I had wondered what purpose it truly served, but until that moment I had seen it lead a man to do a lot of things that just didn’t make much sense to me, but I knew that it was testosterone at work, but at this moment I saw something different and more theological. Human beings are not meant to sit in front of the TV and watch others do, but we are actually supposed to be doing something.

I look at how many jobs require sitting at a desk or being sedentary in this day and age. Our mode of transportation is other than on foot, because everything is such a sprawl. So instead of our life requiring us to move about, we have to make time and schedule in doing that which is best for not only our life, but our health.

I am guilty, because in the morning I will take the first part of my day off ---to hit the trail in an attempt to resolve the math of calories that keep me in a Plus. And why? Because I know that physically active is more attractive. I don’t do it for anyone else, I do it because when I look in the mirror, I prefer to see myself image as more active than stagnant and stationary. So you might be saying, but that scripture in Genesis is about Adam, and I am not a man…. And you are right. So I counter with ----- Proverbs 31, doesn’t seem to describe a couch potato.