War Cry - February, 2013 Page 15

He cares about the health of our emotions. Why else
would His Jesus have healed the emotionally de-
ranged, given comfort to the grieving and confronted
those living in apathetic complacency? He cares about
the health of our relationships. Why else would His Je-
sus tell His followers the world would know they re-
ally are His disciples if they love one another?

The One Binding Ingredient

Our health is not simply a matter of the condition of

our bodies alone or the state of our minds alone or the
richness of our relationships alone or personal spiri-
tual experience alone. It is all of these, and none of
these alone. A healthy person is someone on a journey
in which he is moving closer and closer to what the Old
Testament calls shalom, often translated "peace." The

word describes a condition of physical, mental,

social and spiritual wellbeing. A person liv-
ing in God's shalom experiences what it means
to live as God created him to live. He is not

perfect in every way, but he is on the way.

What is this way traveled by those who have

embraced the shalom of God, the life of full

health? Jesus calls it entering the Kingdom of

God and living by its radical values, summa-

rized by Jesus Himself as loving God and loving
our neighbors as ourselves. This simple sum-

mary is the core of everything we call health.

When we love God, and our neighbors as our-

selves, our spiritual life can be integrated with

our lives and with each other. As those who are

loved by God, we are free to value ourselves and

invest in the health of our bodies. Our loving one

another will bring wholeness to our relationships

and begin the healing of our damaged emotions.

We now begin to see what health really is. Love

binds together every dimension of our lives. That is
why the apostle Paul calls love the greatest thing of all
(I Cor. 13:13). Love is what finally matters (Gal. 5:6b).
The healthiest people on the planet are those who know
they are the beloved of God. They love God with all their
soul, mind and strength. They love the neighbors that
are close (family and friends) and those that are far
(the marginalized, the persons with appalling lifestyles
and values and the misunderstood foreigner). And they
love themselves with a humble self-acceptance. These
are persons who are whole. They are truly healthy.

Why Do Problems Persist?

This profile, however, seems out of touch with the

truth of what we see and know of human behavior
around us, and even what we know of ourselves, if

The War Cry | FEBRUARY 2013

ost ideas about

what it means to be healthy
are one-dimensional.

Illustrated

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