Healthy Living: Physical & Spiritual

Healthy Living is part of Equipping For Life. And I love ‘connecting the dots.’ It’s how my mind works. One ‘dot’ for today is physical health. Another is spiritual health. And the third is, words matter. So how do these diverse ‘dots’ come together?

Healthy Living – Physical

Just a short web search reveals widespread agreement on an important health issue: rest. Our culture doesn’t really embrace the concept. Rest is not necessarily the same as play. It has been said:

America plays at its work and works at its play.

The pages of our lives are colored from edge to edge with little if any room for real rest. But its value has been recognized for a long time. Benjamin Franklin said:

He who can take rest is greater than he who can take cities.

Healthy Living – Spiritual

Spiritually, the idea is as old as Creation. God created for six days and rested on the seventh. God set aside a seventh of our time to ‘do no work.’ He set a necessary example for us by prohibiting Sabbath Day work. The Father’s command extended to one’s entire household and any guests that might be present. That little web search I mentioned reveals agreement on the point of rest among very diverse groups/religions. But God’s further instruction was for the Sabbath to be holy. He set the day aside so we could focus on Him, i.e., worship.

We learn much from what Scripture says. But we can also learn by what Scripture does not say. And if that weren’t enough, we also learn by how Scripture communicates and idea or command. That is our third ‘dot.’ In Mark 6, Jesus and His disciples were so busy ministering to people they had not had time to eat. Jesus instructed them: Come away…(v. 31). That suggested web search will reveal strategies to:

• Get away 
• Go away
• Stay away.

But only in Jesus’ words is it, Come away.

Physical AND Spiritual

For our physical and spiritual health, He says, Come away. He does not say, Go away, because apart from Him we can do nothing! To Come away is to go with Him. There is never a time in a Christian’s life when Jesus is not present. If we ascend the highest mountain, He is there. If we plunge to the lowest depths, He is there. Alone in a place is not so important as alone with a Person.

Want better physical and spiritual health? Come away! 

Soli Deo Gloria! 

PS – That line above about the pages of our lives being colored from edge to edge is an expression developed by Dr. Richard Swenson in his book: Margin. Too often our lives don’t have any margins – think of the white space on a page. It’s there for a reason. We need margin in our time, relationships, money, work, etc. I highly recommend this resource. The link is to Amazon so you’ll get the best price they have!