Thought for Today
Proverbs 16:24 Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
Isaiah 38:16 O Lord, by these things people live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. Oh, restore me to health and make me live!
Jeremiah 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?
Acts 3:16 And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.
When the future Capt. James T. Kirk studies at Starfleet Academy (ref. the Star Trek franchise of television and movies), I wonder what those future academicians will call the 21st century and especially the 3rd decade of that century. Are we living in the Electronic Age, the Computer Age, the AI Age? All of the above?
This decade has experienced a pandemic and now is in the early onset of artificial intelligence. Almost every day we see or read an article about a new application of AI to some aspect of our life. Interestingly, in recent years that word application has taken on new usage and importance as we are awash in a plethora of smartphone ‘apps.’ Most days it seems to me that there is an app for everything and every topic.
During the pandemic, many of us were introduced to devices and apps we usually only encounter during visits to the doctor. Greta and I even got one of those small devices the nurse affixes to our finger to measure the oxygen saturation level of our blood, according to a Bing search, a pulse oximeter. We have long had a home sphygmomanometer, a blood pressure measuring device. The first one we bought had an arm cuff that was inflated by hand. We now have one that self-inflates at the touch of a button. Greta has a smartwatch which also monitors a wealth of physical data. Some folks even wear rings on their fingers to monitor health data which is then readable on an app on their smartphone.
Today, we are immersed in a wealth of data constantly available to monitor our physical health. Additionally, we have readily available websites to assist us in evaluating what that data possibly means. Information about our physical health is literally at our fingertips. Sadly, the cost of keeping ourselves physically healthy continues to soar, taking up increasingly larger percentages of disposable income.
Likewise, there is a great deal of information we can discern about our mental health. There are websites and telephone helplines to assist us in ascertaining the status of our mental health. Although we have long known that physical and mental health are interrelated, we continue to learn more about their interaction and its importance. Sadly, the costs associated with maintaining mental health also continue to soar.
There is a third arena of our overall health that is far too often ignored. Not surprisingly, I am often focused on spiritual health. I firmly believe that irrespective of our physical or mental health, if we ignore our spiritual health, we cannot ever hope to be truly healthy human beings. Yesterday I referenced ““Genesis 2:7 the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.”
How could we ever possibly hope to be healthy, living human beings while neglecting paying homage to and worshiping the God who breathed life into us? Yet, in our increasingly secular society, that is just what many people seem to attempt. I firmly support the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to our Constitution. However, we have taken it to the ridiculous extreme that people are almost fearful of mentioning religious faith aloud. I cannot imagine any doctor or researcher obtaining funding for a study of the interactions among physical, mental and spiritual health in today’s atmosphere. Would any journal or newspaper dare to print the results of such a study unless it ‘proved’ that there is no correlation between the three?
How could humans possibly live healthy lives by ignoring the very source of life itself? I cannot imagine trying to cope with my physical health or mental health without strengthening and accessing my spiritual health. I regularly do access and strengthen that spiritual health through prayer. I am healthier by doing so. And, I don’t even need a machine or device to do so.
Stay safe, pray, trust God,
Pastor Ray