How Much Should Christians Focus on Health and Fitness?
The question of how much Christians should focus on health and fitness isn’t just theoretical. I look around and I see more health and fitness issues than ever.
In the classic allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress, the main character, Christian, tumbles into the miry bog, the “slough of despond,” and struggles to get free. But the heavy burden on his back pulls him in deeper, and he begins to sink.
This image pictures what it feels like when we’re sinking in difficult circumstances—when our debts outweigh our income, when past hurts won’t heal, when discontentment marks our relationships, and when the light of heaven seems distant and dim. Discouragement, despondency, pain, suffering—these miry pits along life’s journey can pull us down into our own “slough of despond.”
Christian’s rescue came by the hand of a fellow traveller named Help...and the same is true for you today. Use these resources to find healing for your own life...or to minister help to those you find along life’s journey.
The question of how much Christians should focus on health and fitness isn’t just theoretical. I look around and I see more health and fitness issues than ever.
Like the Japanese art of Kintsugi, in which a potter creates priceless treasures by fusing broken pieces of porcelain together with gold, the Lord fills the cracks in our lives with the glowing gold of second chance.
Despite their "in-control" exterior, men often feel like imposters and are insecure that their inadequacies will be discovered.
The words used for healing in Scripture refer to both physical and spiritual healing. The very idea of healing presupposes an undesirable condition of ill health or brokenness in mind, body, or soul.
Reframing requires us to mentally examine our assumptions, beliefs, and values; to emotionally adjust our attitudes and harness our feelings; and to cultivate new daily habits and routines.
None of us knows if or when we may one day have to sift through the wreckage that was once our life’s treasures.
Even though God doesn’t sin, you may treat Him as if He has sinned. If this is the case you need to go through a process with God that resembles forgiveness. You may need to "forgive" Him.
Although I understand how to get physical rest—by going to bed earlier, taking more time to relax, and slowing my pace—the concept of finding spiritual rest is difficult to wrap my head around.
The dictionary says keeping a journal means recording daily events. I find this basic definition comforting because it means anyone can do it. In fact, you’re probably already journaling without realizing it.
I began journaling during my 16 months overseas. I saw my “thoughts disentangle themselves over the lips and through the fingertips,” a little saying I learned from a mentor who gave me my first journal.