Health in the Spotlight
The topic that has our minds riveted these days is health. How do we ensure it? If we have it, how do we keep it? If we don’t have it, how can we attain it? This is not a new topic, but the spectre of Covid-19 has added a certain urgency to it. I do not presume to be a health guru, nor will I pretend to be. I’d like to appeal, however, for the consideration of two things: health in light of the big picture, and health in light of the gospel.
Health in light of the big picture
Several places in Scripture call us to consider the length of our days. Moses made that appeal in Psalm 90: “teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (v.12). Our days on this earth are few though they may be filled with hardship and suffering, there is a coming day when God will, “satisfy us in the morning with [His] steadfast love” (v.14). He will make us “rejoice and be glad all our days” (v.15a). He will make, “us glad for as many days as [He has] afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil”(v.15b). The length of life for a believer in Jesus takes on a much different meaning than for an unbeliever. These days are not the only ones, and as Moses reminds us: the best is yet to come.
James calls us to consider the length of our days to reign in our overconfident plans: “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). Contrary to what the health experts may say, the real enemy to health is the brevity of life. Yet, is the brevity of life the presupposition most left out of the equation in passionate debates about health? As an individual with Type 1 Diabetes, these are issues I wrestle with in relation to my own life. I do not mean that debates about health - how to attain it or keep it - are not useful. Keep thinking and debating, but remember, however, to keep the big picture in view.
Health in light of the gospel
The movement of God’s kingdom is forward looking. Jesus said concerning His kingdom: “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it” (Luke 17:33). For members of God’s kingdom, preserving life is of utmost importance, but it comes by relinquishing our hold on this life in view of the life to come.
The gospel changes our view of other pilgrims on the road to the celestial city. Mr. Worldly Wiseman offers many recommendations of “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (Col. 2:21) which have the double effect of false confidence in an extended life and weapons to condemn others who do not follow the particular regulations. In contrast, God beacons that the believers’, “hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:2-3). Pilgrim, do not let discussions of health separate you from your fellow travelers on the road to the Celestial City. Pursue health, but pursue the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ even more.