Take Care of Your Health
I have been working on a very important project at work which caused me to stay back at the office later than I normally would. I put so much pressure on myself to deliver a stellar performance; the project was all I thought about for the past two weeks. I finally finished the project yesterday but in the process of completing it, I neglected my own health: I stayed up late, I ate at irregular hours and I stressed over the job even after reaching home.
This morning I woke up with an unusual feeling in my head. I ignored the feeling and went on with my morning routine. When I finally arrived at the office, I felt my face and neck turning warm. I pushed through the day. By the time 5 o’clock came, I knew I had gone down with a fever. I was holding on for dear life throughout the car ride home. All I wanted was my bed, Panadol, and a warm cup of tea.
In the midst of the traffic jam, my mind began to reflect and I realized one thing: people give so much of themselves to their work, working late nights so that they can get promoted, get high salary, obtain power and high status in society but none of those achievements mean anything if their bodies get sick.
If our bodies get sick in the process of attaining wealth and fame in the world, no matter how much we gain, we will never be able enjoy it. If we get sick, we cannot enjoy life as it should be enjoyed. My senior pastor, Jung Myung Seok, said: “If you misuse your body, your health will crumble; therefore, even if you have good thoughts, you cannot use them. Maintaining good health is that important.”
While thinking about this, I was reminded of something even more important and valuable and that is my soul and spirit.
“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”
1 Thesalonians 5:23
The counterpart of your body is your spirit therefore your body must take action for your spirit
“There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another”
1 Corinthians 15:40
The spirit is the part of us that connects with the Divine Being. Spiritual revelations, realizations and wisdom are all received by the spirit. The soul plays the role of the connector between the body and the spirit; it is the heart, mind and thoughts of the physical body. The soul and the spirit are real. They are not made belief. Why do you think we have sayings like “that person has such a bad aura” despite the fact that he/she has a beautiful physical body? It is because we are not referring to his/her physical body but the state of that person’s soul and spirit.
“It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body”
1 Corinthians 15:44
The life of the soul and spirit is determined by the life of the body. Whether or not you like your physical features is not important, the physical body is precious because it is through the action and deeds of the physical body that the splendor of the spiritual body is determined, and we care about what happens to our spirit because the spirit will exist forever. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart.”
Pastor Joshua Jung likened growing the spirit through the body as a mother who’s growing a baby in her womb. How the mother spends the nine months carrying her baby will determine whether the baby comes healthy or defected.
Image from: http://heavencometrue.com/
Where the spirit will go and how it will spend the rest of eternity is determined by how the body spends the time it has on this earth. When we are sick physically, we need to stay in bed, we cannot meet with our friends, we cannot enjoy the outdoors and sometimes we cannot eat our favourite food. In the same way, when we are “sick” in actions, merits and righteousness, our soul and spirit will live a life pertaining to that and will not be able to enjoy the blessings that God has for them. In whatever we do, we need to always take care of our health – the health of our body, our soul and our spirit.
Let your body be healthy just as much as your heart, mind, and thoughts are healthy!
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