“If you have your health, you have everything.”
I have heard this over and over again all through my life.
I have even accepted it as wisdom.
But, it’s really not true.
Don’t get me wrong……..health is extremely valuable. We all want to be healthy. You really can’t appreciate health until you lose it………or until you deal with someone who has lost it…….or with someone who has much more of it than you. You can’t really appreciate health until you get old. In the last few years I have dealt with all of these situations.
Health is a really big deal……… perhaps the most important thing………in this temporal world. But, in the face of eternity, health is inconsequential. In paradise, we will all be perfectly, eternally healthy. We will be at our physical peak……..maybe in our mid 20’s. Our weight will be just right, no pain, no weakness, no disability, no suffering. Not only will our cholesterol be just right………it will be irrelevant.
So, if you take the long view, we will spend eternity in perfect health…….. except for our extremely brief stint here on Earth. This, of course, assumes that you get to paradise. For those who don’t get to paradise, I can’t promise you eternal health. In fact, the best descriptions of “non-paradise” are discriptions of physical suffering…….. eternal unhealthiness at best……..or black nothing at worst.
What it comes down to is this. From an eternal perspective, we can be either healthy or unhealthy. And it will have nothing to do with our weight, our cholesterol, or our blood pressure. It will have nothing to do with whether we have heart disease, cancer, mental illness, arthritis, or physical disability today.
It will be the result of a simple binary choice that we each must make. Because, like it or not, paradise is a conscious choice that is completely in our hands. You either accept forgiveness from Christ………or you reject it. You either recognize Christ……or deny his divinity. One choice leads to paradise. The other leads to non-paradise. One choice leads to healthiness. The other leads to unhealthiness.
So……..the only really important question that you need to answer at your annual checkup is this one:
Are you saved?
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”
Jesus, NIV
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord ,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Paul, NIV
I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.
Isaiah, NIV