How Healthy Are You?

The older I get, the more it takes to keep me going.

As a matter of fact, during a one week period recently, it took all of the following...

Tylenol
Eye Drops
Vitamin E
Multiple Vitamins
Rubbing Alcohol
Aspirin
Blue Emu Cream
Neosporin
Hand Lotion
Aleve
Dayquil
Eye Drops
Mouth Salve

Not to mention the various and sundry mouthwashes, toothpastes, deodorants, shave creams, after-shaves, soaps, shampoos and hand sanitizers that I use basically every day.

And the equipment! I need toothbrushes, hair brushes, nail clippers, scissors, flosses, wash cloths, towels, razors, Q-tips, mirrors, and other items that generally fall into the category of "unmentionables."

Funny, but when I was younger, it took so much less stuff to help me stay in relatively good health.

I didn't need as much sleep either...or as much help from my kids with the heavy-lifting around the house.

What happened?

I think I have become J. Alfred Prufrock, the subject of one of my favorite poems. Written in 1917 by T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" includes the following verse...

"I grow old...I grow old...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach."

Basically, I wage this battle every single day. It is "me" vs. "me." If I win, I stave off the advance of Prufrock for one more day.

Why do I work so hard at it? Because I want to feel as good as I can for as long as I can.

So I wage the war.

I am willing to do it, willing to do even more, actually, if it helps me stay healthy just one more day.

It has become a priority in my life...and a higher and higher priority with each passing year.

Maybe you can relate.

Of course, when it comes down to it, this is only half the battle. All of these things deal with only the "physical" part of my life.

What about the spiritual "me?"

Do I wage the same kind of war there?

Do I work as hard on my spiritual health as I do on my physical health?

Does it matter as much?

Come to think of it, what equipment do I use to keep my spiritual health up? My Bible? My book of daily devotionals? My church? My service in the Name of Christ?

What do I need every day to stay spiritually healthy? Prayer? Praise? Penitence?

Are these as much a priority for me as my pills, pain-killers and powders?

Obviously, both physical health and spiritual health are extremely important to all of us. But, in the long run, which one is really the MOST important?

Here is how Paul compared our perishable, physical part to our imperishable, spiritual part...

"But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I'll probably never fully understand. We're not all going to die – but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes – it's over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we'll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal."
(1 Corinthians 15:50-54a from The Message, by Eugene H. Peterson)

When I consider what the Bible has to say about my ultimate future, I think I need to start making my spiritual health a higher priority.

Don't you?


Greg