Experts describe self-injury as intentional acts of inflicting pain and damage to one\u2019s own body. A person can cut, burn, scratch, or bruise their self. They can consume too much alcohol or drugs, or hook-up in unsafe sex.<\/p>\n
WebMD<\/a> tells us, however, that self-injury isn\u2019t the same thing as a suicide attempt. Self-harm is generally a hidden activity. People cut themselves in private, for instance.<\/p>\n People have been hurting themselves for millennia. For example, as religious flagellation,<\/a> priests wore belts containing sharp nails. Belts were tightened so the nails would pierce the skin, as if the self-inflicted pain would make the person more spiritual and less sensual. In the name of religion, people also practice poverty, starvation, and uncleanliness, thinking it brings them closer to God because they\u2019re denying themselves physical comforts or pleasures.<\/p>\n Are they closer to God? Or, just closer to pain?<\/p>\n Good questions. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a difference between pain and pleasure in the body. Living in either physical discomfort or comfort isn\u2019t living in God.<\/p>\n To judge spirituality based on painful or pleasant physical conditions results in serious mistakes that lead to more mistakes. Whereas, better judgement starts and ends with spirituality.<\/p>\n Psychologists say self-harm is a means of controlling emotional pain, but this doesn\u2019t make sense. I can only reason that self-injury increases emotional pain.<\/p>\n And it stands to reason that religionists who make efforts to control their own body through physical comfort or discomfort only increase spiritual-harm. Although not a proponent of self-injury, when reading about sex abuse cases within the church, I\u2019m inclined to say, \u201cGo back to self-flagellation. Hurt yourself and not others.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019re human. Sometimes we need physical restrictions to reduce total harm done. We don\u2019t have life figured out. Life can be difficult. But we have examples to learn from. The antidote to self-harm is to cherish spirituality. It comes from something higher than human descriptions and reasoning. I call the higher power God, the spirit of Christ, the truth that we were created to manifest a love of our spiritual self.<\/p>\n \u201cThe God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for \u201c\u2018In him we live and move and have our being\u2019; as even some of your own poets have said, \u201c\u2018For we are indeed his offspring.\u2019\u2014Acts 17<\/p>\n \u201cJesus was no ascetic. He did not fast as John the Baptist\u2019s disciples; yet there never lived a man so far removed from appetites and fixations.\u201d\u201421st Century Science and Health<\/a><\/p>\n
\nJohn the Baptist and Christ Jesus compliment one another in showing the power of self\u2014spiritual-love. We read in Mark, \u201cJohn was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.\u201d Whereas Jesus ate at buffet tables and drank wine. Yet the physical appearance wasn\u2019t the point for either. The aim and intent were spirit based. Mind based. Having the mind that holds and expresses ever improving behavior.<\/p>\n