Spiritual Health

FRI., AUG. 7, 1992, 6:50 AM
FARM, STUDY

Yes, o son, you have the theme for a fine issue of our Ruminations. I have given you much about spirit and about human/spiritual interacting, but you haven’t actually addressed this spiritual dimension of health and how you maintain the health of your spirit. You see, now, that these are somewhat different, but also the same.

It is like unto the Triune God, Who is Three in One. That means, however irrational it may be in Western thinking, that I, the Holy Spirit, am one of three aspects of the Total, Complete God. I am different from Jesus Christ and from Almighty God, Who is both majestic and just… and gentle and forgiving. And yet I ultimately am part of the Whole. You know that I can speak as the Spirit, and usually do, but I also can speak as Jesus, or even as the God of All.

In somewhat like fashion your spirit is a distinct aspect of yourself, and it can have a state of health comparable to the health of your body… or of your rational mind. This, then is spiritual health or the health… the quality of functioning and of adapting… of your spirit. It also is part of the whole you, and is affected by and affects you, as a whole. If you can remember, your spirit was adversely affected when your leg hurt so at night… or when you were itching in such a painful way. Then you must remember that the successful reduction of that leg pain came, not with treatment for the leg, but in a conscious exercise of your spirit. Hence you experienced your spiritual health being diminished by physical pain and then your physical health being restored by the power of spirit.

Just as physical health is enhanced in many ways, so it is with spiritual health. You’ve identified nutrition and exercise as key behaviors that affect physical health. You also could identify relations with Me and relations with other persons as the key affectors of spiritual health. Last evening you were part of a group helping two young people cope with the suicide of a spouse. This was a definite exercise of the spirit, one that maintains and enhances this fundamental aspect of you. At the end you joined in prayer, renewing your relationship with Me… and you then had a brief conversation with Chris about her spiritual and religious self.

The physical environment of the earth, both natural and manufactured, affects your overall health. Though you love sunny, dry days as you look at your grass and fields you know that a full day of rain would make your spirit soar. You remember well the worship service at Central Union early in the summer in that familiar sanctuary, with your spirit particularly touched by the little boys and their voices and the final act of holding hands and singing “Bless our home…” Later, in a more natural environment, there was spiritual food in the remembrance of members of that class whose physical lives were over, remembrance in words and in leis laid gently on the moving ocean.