dying prematurely...

I've been writing a lot of blogs lately, but not finishing them. I get an idea or have something on my mind and start writing and don't have the time to finish them right then and then later have lost the desire to. A few I may go back and finish, but for now these are my thoughts today.

I just had a great conversation with a friend about health and taking care of our bodies. I realize most of us don't like to go there because we feel defeated before we even get started. There's no starting place! It's one diet after another and its some over zealous healthy person who always has the answers to how to lose weight and be healthy (i know i can sometimes be that person :). We immediately close our minds to hearing them because they 'obviously don't struggle like I do' and then go back to our same old ways.

A few weeks ago a chiropractor came and spoke at our college ministry about taking care of our bodies overall and one of the best things I heard him say was how the church tends to brush health and taking care of our bodies right under the rug. As if overindulging and filling our bodies (temples) with crapt is one verse in the Bible that we don't have to live by. We all have those areas that we choose to skip over and that 'dont' apply to me', but what the church doesn't seem to realize is how sneakily (yes that's a word) the enemy has used this to kill us. We don't see it as a sin so we don't address it as a place of need. I'm not saying you need to 'go green' or 'all natural' or 'organic', I'm simply saying that in the case of 'not wanting to offend' someone we comletely brush it under the rug! More often than not I hear people exaulting this area as a point of humor and lack of self control, that 'I just dont' seem to have'. But as this chiropractor pointed out, we have all been given self control as a fruit of the spirit, just like we have all been given peace. Now its your choice if you want to walk in peace and take your thoughts captive, no one can do it for you, but why dont' we see taking care of our bodies as seriously as we do someone who is walking in fear and depression.

There are countless people who are dying prematurely because of the lack of self control and knowledge they have to take care of their bodies. As someone who has dealt with fear and seen how it can hold me captive from wanting to walk out the plans of God on my life, I know I will do whatever it takes to study, research and find others around me who can check on me, to make sure this area of my life doesn't 'kill' me prematurely. What works for someone else may not work for me and I think it would be unwise for me to not grow in knowledge and understanding to take care of this area of my life. Now using this in the scenario of taking care of you body wouldn't it make sense that the verse 'people perish for lack of knowledge' could fit in this area?

I'm not saying you have to be a 'health nut' or 'freak' even, I'm just suggesting that maybe we make a little bigger deal about taking care of our bodies so we can do what we're called to do! Of course bad health doesn't come over night, like most other problems in our lives, they start with bad habits and choosing our fleshly desires over discipline and the kingdom. I just hope that the church will start addressing it like we do everything else in the Bible!

Now to wrap it up, I can bet that most of you who read this will think 'this doesn't apply to me' or even recognize that this is an area of weakness and attack on the church today... so if that's you...thinking that... maybe just think about a little more.