Healthy Much?

What’s with being super healthy? I know that I cannot live out my dream of eating candy all day long and hoping that the milk I dunk the Oreo’s in will balance off, but we have issues here in the West. At the expense of being genuinely happy: we count percentages, we say no to enjoyable foods, we work out way too much, we stand in front of many mirrors and step on scales, we feel bad when we’re not ‘in shape’ and the list goes on. I understand that there is a certain healthiness that is good (my candy life-style is bad, I know this), but what is the mostly Western psycho-healthy life-style good for?

Here are a few stabs at positive points:

1. Being pleasant to others. It is true, the saying ‘easy on the eyes’ did not come from nothing. But do you really sweat 4 times a week so that other people can look at you and not be horrified?

2. Being attractive to others. This is more like it. This is the reason that when you DO go for your run or weight-lifting that you have no sleeves or anything covering your tummy (well, for those who have something to show there; I’ll keep the mo-mo thank you). You want others to look at you and say, ‘oo-la-la.’ You also, like some animal, want to be made of the right stuff to attract a suitable mate. I said like some animal . . . that’s weird, I thought our brains set us apart . . . maybe our souls, regardless there are plenty of people who buck the number scale for attraction. Besides, there really is much more to a person than their looks (seriously, I’m banking on this one). Not that it is at all wrong to enjoy someone else’s beauty, especially your spouse’s, but one bad accident can change their physical physique: do you really want to base a marriage off of something as mutable as skin and bone structure?

3. Feeling good about yourself. Most of the time this phrase can be translated into ‘good self-esteem,’ which can equally be translated into ‘I like me,’ which can just as easily translate into ‘I’m arrogant and think I am the center of the world.’ When I look in front of the mirror and the shadows are right and it is just dark enough to be very visible I do not think good about myself, I feel great, I feel like I’m something special that the world has been missing for quite some time. What really IS good is more so feeling comfortable—without everyone else’s commentary—with yourself, regardless of how your body is shaped. Lie 3 exposed.

4. Live longer. This is good. I am not going to say that I want to die young and hope everyone else does too. Even the Bible speaks of long life as something positive. However, there is a big difference between hoping you live long and demanding it. People who are always in the gym and always watching what they eat seem to want to demand more life out of Life: look what I’ve done, give me days!! This is silly. What prevents us from dying when we are 20 or 120: not our choice. People who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day may live decades longer than the person who never ate a calorie more than he should have.

Ultimately we fear death. There is a sense in which this is not a bad thing at all. However when we fear death so much that we try and wield the reigns of life, there is something wrong. I am not a Fatalist or a disguised Fatalist (Realist), rather simply one who understands how the world turns and who really is in control of things. The Bible is very clear about this subject and there are three aspects:

A. The Ruler of this World. He is also called the Devil, Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness, the Father of Lies, the Deceiver, but he is also called the Ruler of this Present Age (of this World). When he tempted Jesus by telling the God-man he would give him authority over all the earth, it really was a temptation because the Devil DOES have the authority (thankfully Jesus is patient). In the book of Job (pronounced with a hard vowel sound like boat) the Devil inflicted Job with the death of family members, the loss of wealth, and personal hardship and physical suffering.

B. The God of the Bible. Read the Book, he’s all up in there. God is above the Devil, while the Devil does what he does on the earth God is telling and allowing him to do so—the Devil is leashed up. In the book of Job again we see that the Devil first had to ask permission of God to do the harmful things to Job and his family, God allowed them to happen. God even appoints the seemingly terrible things that happen in life: he even appointed that Jesus, his very own son, be unjustly murdered.

C. We are the final aspect. But some things do not make complete logical sense. I understand down to the most minute aspect how a seed grows into a tree and then produces fruit, but it still does not make sense. So too it is with our responsibility on earth. If you believe that the actions you take and do not take control the world (not in a dictator way, rather have an effect on the world) than you must have the most ulcers out of anyone. There is no way that you can believe this and still get up in the morning. If you think that the world will be tremendously effected by the decisions you make you would be crippled with anxiety because you know you will make a mistake that could kill someone and no one can live with that understanding all the time and not go crazy. You call it chance or fate or providence, regardless, you believe there is something other than your personal decision that dictates the flow of life. You know that you do not determine who gets cancer and who misses getting hit with a bullet when everyone around them does.

What does all this have to do with being overly healthy? When your health begins to dictate all you do and do not do it has already controlled you and you are bowing to a subservient master: you are being controlled by something other than God and even less than man. You cannot escape death, no one can. But you can laugh at the future knowing that eternity is in the hands of a God who loves you . . . unless you do not love him, then you should be afraid to die because if you die being a rebel towards God, you’ll be judged for it. However, like the All-State Insurance guy says, if your in God’s hands, your in good hands. And being in God’s hands means you can be a little less trim because you are worried about bigger things than what others will say; you can be a bit more round and not freak out that you will never attract a good spouse; you can know that your future is okay, ultimately. This is no license to be a glutton and not give a cent about your health, but put it where it needs to be, somewhere further down the list of priorities than it is. And go get some Dairy Queen, please.