take the joy out of life. The anger turns to passive ag-
gression, often expressed in ramped-up overeating, the
choice of unhealthy comfort foods and refusal to exer-
cise. The result is that though medical science is able
to keep us alive longer, we are less and less healthy.
Wellness groups of one sort or another abound. A huge
and lucrative industry has emerged around the ob-
session with health. It ranges from nutrition-loaded
drinks, to vitamins, to drugs that fool us into think-
ing we are now "healthy" by eliminating our pain. Nu-
merous commercials prey on our guilt about our own
unhealthy behavior, and some mislead about the re-
sults as well as the safety of this food or that drug.
mation) about it, challenge us to raise two im-
portant questions: What does it really mean to
be healthy?
their product will deliver health, and it may indeed help
us feel better physically or emotionally. Others may
say the only thing that is important is spiritual health
while failing to connect it with our physical and emo-
tional life. An atheist dismisses the supernatural as fic-
tion, urging us to claim health through the self-realiza-
tion of mind and body. But none of these is full health.
spiritual, emotional, social and physical creatures. Our
bodies, our feelings, our relationships are not discon-
nected from our spirits. We do not live as spiritual is-
lands. God also made us persons with bodies, a range
of emotions and a need for relationships with others.
else would His Jesus have been such a generous healer?
For some, the worry leads to frequent exami-
nation of the latest food research. This moti-
vates an endless pursuit of foods with the best
genic contamination from additives or the environment. And
of course, the regular jog, power walk or aerobics is a must.