Health Is “Of Old”

SUN., JULY 14, 1985, 6:16 AM
FARM, STUDY

This somewhat oblique short sentence is meant to convey the reality that health is not a “modern” phenomenon, but has been a characteristic of life ever since creation. Using your definition that this is the quality of functioning and adapting for individuals and for communities I assert that people have functioned and adapted from the very beginning of earth life. Why should I, then, make such an obvious statement on this Sunday morn? Write on, and you shall see.

Your culture tends to feel that this is the healthiest era of all time, mainly because of operations, synthetic medications, and modern technological care. Now I have no desire to belittle these, for they do aid some people in returning to health when sickness or disability has prevailed. Yet the holistic health of which you are… and should be… an advocate is a gift from Me, both in general and in specific instances. The gift of life comes first, and then the gift of health.

The significance of this is in how you view this multi-faceted capacity. If you view it as a gift, then you should see yourself as a steward, maintaining and enriching this, for it is a wonderful and sacred gift. And just as the parable suggests, when I give you this gift I expect that you will not just maintain it at a minimal level, but will “invest” it, so that your health increases, rather than diminishes, as earth life proceeds.

Now, given the deterioration of the body that is obvious with advancing age, how is this possible, even if desirable. Well, first, this implies that it is important to maintain the body’s functioning capacity by right living as earth life proceeds. If you are given an inanimate gift, you can only maintain and display it tastefully and lovingly. But if the gift is alive as, for example, the tree from Russ that now grows below your window, then you can take action not only to protect it, but to encourage its growth and development.

So it is with physical health. Accept it as a gift and then nurture it, not as something you deserve, but as something given that can make a great difference in the effectiveness of a life. I am more in favor of the development of healthy lifestyles (for there is not just one) than I am in favor of more complex medical practice, necessary because of people’s lack of care for themselves.

The second understanding is that health is an holistic concept, having dimensions beyond the physical. So, as some deterioration and loss of adaptability comes with age, despite right living, the development of spirit should replace this temporal, earth dimension. If spirit develops as it should a person can function in many more and better ways, even with loss of physical capacities.

Mental and emotional dimensions also can be utilized effectively when spirit is strong, and this can develop even while physical disabilities increase. You wonder what your capacities might be if you were now in Raymond’s situation. Be thankful that you are not, but know that as your spirit develops, through this relationship with Me and all that it suggests in life action, you shall be more and more ready to make the best of what is a sad ending for life.