Health And Life After Life

SUN., NOV. 7, 1982, 5:49 AM
FARM, FRONT OF FIRE

This fine Sunday morning I have some instruction for you, o son, which ties together health (your professional field and interest), the continuation of life, and the Scriptures. (See, patience and attention are important.) This should be an interesting and important lesson, but you shall have to tend fires during the time, so be little concerned about the amount of time it takes. You have nothing better to do in this period of dawning.

Health is a term for your capacity to function, in all of life situations. If you consider that life is continuous, truly… that there was life before life and there will be life after life… then health takes on a longer context. How you are now, then, is partly a result of how you have been, in lives before this one. Also, how you are now will be an influence on how you will be in “the future.”

As Jesus, I lead a culminating life. It was an honest earth life (and I note the confusion that comes to your mind and spirit now. Put that away for now. You have made a commitment, so We shall deal with this troublesome issue during this week. For now, stay with this theme.) I was born into mean circumstances, and I lived in a time and place wherein problems with health were true problems. There were no hospitals, no efficacious drugs, little knowledge of how the human body works. Yet you read no account of My being sick, disabled, or unable to function.

Was this good apparent health (and it was more than apparent… it was good health) actual? Yes, because it was a culminating life, and I brought into it much in the way of positive, spiritual living. I simply transcended the disease and disability possibilities of the time and place. And so can anyone who has such a heritage.

In one sense this represents a manifestation of the Scriptural admonition, To him who hath shall more be given, and from her who hath little, even what she has shall be taken away. Health is cumulative, here in the earth. Those who start out life in a healthy state of being and who follow healthy principles and practices are generally those who remain healthy throughout life. And so it is no big step to see this as the manifestation of a longer heritage. Your health today is a result of how you live now, of all that has happened since your birth two score and sixteen years ago in Long Beach, and of how you lived the life and lives before this sojourn. And so it shall be in the future… generally.

You have considered, over the years, doing an analysis of the “health education” in the Scriptures, at least in that Testament called New. When you finally do that you shall find it fascinating and worthwhile… some of what you would expect from your general knowledge of those Writings, but also some that shall be surprising.

What is the focus, if health is a quality that reflects transcendent being? It is quite different than the dominant focus of American secular health… even that of the wellness movement. This one is a focus on self, on getting self well and keeping self well. What you do to and with yourself is critical. You are responsible for your own health. The longer term focus is on selflessness, on service, and on gaining as a by-product of a genuine concern for others… and for the earth.