Research on life satisfaction and well-being show that, unsurprisingly, personal health is a top priority for most people. We all care deeply about this. In the West, it is a multi-trillion-dollar industry that plays on our desires and insecurities. There are numerous diets that we are encouraged to try – 5:2, Keto, Atkins, Mediterranean, Banting, Ducan and even Flexitarian! Nutrition is a favourite topic for educational courses, books, degrees and careers. Are you getting all your essential vitamins – all 13 of them, let alone over 13,000 minerals to be considered?! Not to forget the many thousands of slimming clubs, gyms and personal trainers that all take a slice of our budgets. So how would you score yourself ‘0 to 10’ on the following (where 0 is low and 10 is high) accepting that 10 is the target for each one?
Actual Target
- Healthiness ____ _10_
- Happiness ____ _10_
- Well-being ____ _10_
- Fulfilment ____ _10_
If you tot up your score, anything less than 20 is not a good score and if less than 30 still means there is need for improvement. Supposing you were to add on ‘0 to 10’ for your spiritual health, would it add much? The fact is that more people generally value physical health (if measured by time, effort and perhaps budget) as a higher priority than spiritual health. If you struggle to define ‘spiritual health’, here’s what AI gives: ‘Spiritual health, or spiritual wellness, is a state of being that involves connecting with the inner and outer world to find meaning and purpose in life’. If you have spiritual health as a lower priority than physical health, you are with the majority, but surely that is a bit short-sighted when you think that the body’s life span is so limited in comparison to that of the soul.
- ‘‘I’m exhausted trying to stay healthy’ – Steve Yzerman
- ‘When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost’ – Billy Graham
- ‘He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything’ – Thomas Carlyle
- ‘Maturity is the ability to think, speak and act your feelings within the bounds of dignity. The measure of your maturity is how spiritual you become during the midst of your frustrations’ – Samuel Ullman
A personal trainer will assess your needs and then set you goals that can be measured, so-called SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). These may be targets to do with exercise, eating, sleeping, career advancement, travel, wealth and so on. These goals are all earth-bound and end with our inevitable physical demise – perhaps not so smart! By contrast, Paul steps up as a personal trainer to give you one goal which is a spiritual goal and has a lasting benefit. It is a goal that seems impossible but is in the reach of every human being: ‘…become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ’ – Ephesians 4:19b
This concept of becoming mature only makes sense if you comprehend the second part of the sentence about ‘the whole measure’, for you cannot attain to something that you do not accept or understand. The bible is not written in code that is meant to be impossible for us to work out unless we are really clever. It is there for all to read but we will ‘get it’ best when we ask for God’s help. After all, he promises to give us the Holy Spirit to teach and lead us. So the goal for all who have chosen to follow Christ is to grow spiritually healthy and become more like Christ Jesus himself. What does that look like?
- ‘His (God’s) divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ’ – 2 Peter 1:3-8
- ‘For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong’ – 1 Corinthians 1: 25-27
- ‘Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus’ – Philippian 3:13-15
- ‘So you should continue to trust God all the time. Then you will become stronger as a believer. You will become completely how you should be. You will not need anything more’ – James 1:4 (Easy English Bible)
These verses from God’s Word are spiritual food to help you grow to spiritual maturity. There will be trials for that is part of the journey. Here’s a song from Stuart Townend (sung by Kristian Stanfill) that may inspire you towards that personal goal of becoming mature, ‘attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ’: In Christ Alone
For more reading: Resolution – Connect4Life