The Healthy Life

"We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ." 1 John 1:3

When it comes to our physical health, most people want the easy fix to any problems they are experiencing. As one health expert said, and I paraphrase, "Stop looking for something to take. Start looking for what you can change." Basically, people want to take a pill, have surgery, or do whatever requires the least amount of effort, but get maximum results. There are no shortcuts. It is why people who start exercising and dieting don't often find success because they want to reverse the effects of years and decades of poor living overnight. When it doesn't happen they quit and make excuses. Yet, there are always examples of people who got sick and tired of being sick and tired and it led them to make drastic changes in their lives. Take Tim Wolfgang, 53, who used to be in poor health. After changing his diet and lifestyle he said, "I feel and look great. I thought I was dying, but it was in my mind and the way I was living. Now, I eat healthy, juice, exercise, stay positive, listen to healthy music, and try to be around other healthy people." Then there is Dean Landau, who through a shift in mindset, changed his diet and lifestyle and went from 400 pounds to 195 pounds. Next, there is Muamer Dajdic. Muamer was 500 pounds! Yes, he was the same size as a grizzly bear or a trash dumpster. Imagine carrying that much weight around on your body. "There was a night I was awakened by choking to death. I was bleeding through my mouth. Somehow, I ended up in the bathroom. As I was bleeding through my mouth and nose, I realized my life was going down the drain," Dajdic says. He continues, "The only way for us to live is to have fun, enjoy life, and achieve our full potential while maintaining ...listen to this... our body. And I mean mental and physical because that is the foundation of our health ... everything ... to life." Joseph Hill was an unhealthy, 48-year-old, vegetarian, that turned his life around. Besides changing his diet and increasing his physical activity, he says, "The most important thing in the equation is our mood. That is how I got fat in the first place. My mood got gloomy. I took responsibility for the whole situation." The common thread in this, besides eating better and exercising is that they changed their mindset. Something happened in their lives that changed their heart which changed how they viewed their circumstances. This is what gave them the motivation to make the changes that literally saved their lives.

How does this apply to the way a person looks at religion? Many people view Christianity the way a little kid views eating vegetables. They hate it, but they do it because they are forced to, it keeps mom and dad happy, and they may get rewarded for doing so. They still hate eating vegetables, but struggle through it out of habit and to avoid being punished for not doing it. This is the Christian life for many people. They are told that in order to have a relationship with God, they must endure the religious version of eating vegetables and vigorous exercise. They want the results, but the effort they must go through makes it difficult and, in many cases, impossible to achieve. All their life they have probably heard that they must engage in a bunch of religious activity that doesn't come naturally in order to please a God who never seems to be satisfied. Go to church is the first thing they hear. If they ask why, they are told that it is because "God commands it." Next, it is read your Bible. You struggle through it because it doesn't make sense, you don't know where to begin, your reading some version written in an archaic language, and, apparently, requires a pastor to interpret it for you. In the midst of all that, you now are told you must part with some of your hard-earned money or else the God you are trying to know will inflict pain on your life in some way. Like the child with the vegetables, you do your best to navigate through it all, because it is the only way to get to dessert; the blessings God "promises" for your obedience and hard work. If you are honest, you know you are not doing all God asks and the blessings seem few and far between if they come at all. Eventually, you reach the point where you finally ask, "Is this really what a relationship with God is all about?" Hopefully, this point doesn't come after some life-changing event like Muamer Dajdic experienced. However, this may be necessary for you to realize that all that you have been doing not only doesn't work, but it also was never what God intended for you. Jesus Christ did all the work for us through His sinless life, death on the cross, resurrection from the dead, and the giving of the Holy Spirit when we accepted Him as our savior. Now, all He wants to do is live His life in and through you. The only way He can do that is if you realize that a relationship with God is not conditional on what you are doing in the flesh, but on what He has given to you in your spirit. All you need to do to start experiencing a relationship with God is to believe that He is already in fellowship with you because of His love for you. This will change your heart which will change your mind and you will begin to experience a healthy relationship with your God the way those people mentioned previously are experiencing a healthy life because of the changes they decided to make.