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Getting A Fresh Start On Your Health
Brian Mashburn
January 19, 2014
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A Fresh Start On Health
There are two areas of human life that rarely get spoken of directly in the pulpits of churches (including ours) even though they directly affect everyone.
The subjects? Physical and emotional health.
Why is that? Well, for me, I don't want anyone talking to me about my physical health because it messes with my daily "freedoms," indulgences, habits, and addictions, not to mention it draws attention to things about myself that I want everyone to join me in pretending that they do not exist or matter.
Likewise, people don't like talking about their emotional health because emotions (or the neglect of them) are laser-like pathways into areas of the inner life that are inconvenient, painful, and scary to explore.
And yet, an honest look at scripture and at how life works points to the necessity of reclaiming both of these areas as powerful avenues of practicing their spiritual lives.
For the Christian, the physical body is the property and dwelling place of God (1 Cor 6:19), and our emotional reactions to trouble are never to be the drivers of or excuses for our behaviors (Jn 16:33). We all must admit that these are Kingdom realities. And for any Kingdom citizen, these realities make these two issues more important than we have allowed them to be.
Ironically, there is a way to be focused on our physical or emotional health that is unhealthy, obsessing on them to the point of exalting them as priorities higher than Christ.
But let's face it; most of us are in no danger of that.