Wellness

  Have you ever been sick?

  I imagine that when you recovered you spent a few days appreciating your good health.

  As someone who has been struggling to feel healthy for the better part of the last three weeks, I'm really looking forward to the days when I can be healthy once more--I will be truly grateful for my good health.

  All the time I've spent moaning about how sick I am makes me think about my spiritual health--and it makes me wonder if I spend enough time paying attention to it, or if I take it for granted and don't reflect upon it like I often do with my physical health.  When you're healthy, you don't worry about being sick, just like when life is grand and all is well, we have a tendency not to think about God.  As soon as the house comes crashing down around us, though, we run to him and remember how important he is in our lives.

  But the truth is that we need to spend just as much time with him when life is good, because that's who we're made to be.  It doesn't mean that we won't have tough times, but it does mean that when those tough times come we will be able to face them better, because our relationship with God will be deep enough for us to remember God's promise to be with us in good times and bad.  The work we do on life's mountaintops pays dividends when we're in the valleys.

  Lately, insurance companies and doctors and those who know things about health (and how expensive it is to be sick!) have been pushing 'wellness'.  Our insurance company doesn't pay for 'wellness visits' to the doctor, which includes yearly physicals and things that we do when we're feeling good, in the hopes that we'll establish practices that will prevent us from getting sick often.

  Perhaps it's time that pastors and other leaders in the church spent more time emphasizing 'wellness spirituality', a spirituality focused on deepening our relationship with God while life is smooth sailing, so that we'll be better prepared when the storm hits.  Perhaps it's time that all Christians dedicate themselves to a serious spirituality of work and play, so that we won't be too busy enjoying the sunshine to recognize Christ's presence with us, so that we'll see God's handiwork in the glorious spring days when all is right with the world, so that we'll have a deep and life-sustaining faith that walks with us every day of life, good and bad.

  May our faith be well, that each day may draw us deeper into the life-giving arms of the Holy Spirit.