I hate un-health. It makes no difference to me whether it is physical, emotional or spiritual. Un-health is sickness and I hate it.
Please note, for the record, that I do not hate the un-healthy person, just the un-health. If someone has physical cancer, I don't hate them...just the cancer. The same principle is true with emotional and spiritual sickness. Also, please note that I hate un-health in me as much as anyone else.
And while I'm being honest, it drives me nuts that people choose to stay unhealthy. Why would anyone choose to stay sick? If your friend came to you and said, "I've just broken my leg (see that bone sticking through the skin), and I've decided not to go to the doctor," you'd call them on the carpet. You'd make them get into your car and you'd drive them to the ER yourself. Why do we just put up with emotional and spiritual broken legs?
For the purposes of this blog entry, let's set aside sickness in the physical sense and focus on emotional and spiritual un-health.
I know people who used to be unhealthy and refused to stay stuck there. Over years they've applied the principles of scripture (which is the best place to find healing) to their lives. They've done the hard work of scrubbing out the dark areas of their souls, inviting the Master Soul Cleaner to disinfect and deodorize. I'd like to think that I am one of them. (Though like everyone else, this is a lifetime process...you'd be surprised at how many cracks and crevices there are in your soul!) But freedom, hard won, is sweet...and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
On the other hand, I've known people who have been "healthy" (or have they?) and slipped slowly - sometimes quickly - into the sea of unhealthiness. Their thinking slowly shifts away from the truth of God's Word, and they seem to lose their way. Why? Why would anyone give up freedom and health, and exchange it for sickness and bondage?
Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" The human condition never gets better. The flesh never gets better. There is no cure for our hearts which have mastered the ability to be deceitful.
We have an incredible capacity to lie to ourselves about ourselves. Pause and think about that statement for a moment. Don't miss the point.
Because there is no cure for the heart, we must be constantly working to keep the heart healthy. It will always move toward sickness. People get unhealthy when they either stop trying to stay healthy OR they stop using the Word of God - which is unchanging - to measure their health.
In an orchestra, the concert master (usually the first chair violin) tunes their instrument to a standard pitch (440-A I'm told...I've never been in an orchestra). The oboe (which is the only instrument that is never out of tune) usually provides the pitch. Then, the orchestra tunes to the concert master.
The Word of God is our concert master. We must constantly adjust our instrument (heart) - which has trouble holding its pitch - to the pitch of the concert master. When we use any other standard, we get sick...infected by the siren lure of sin. And any thought or pattern that doesn't align itself with scripture is ultimately sin.
I believe God calls us to be RUTHLESS CHRISTIANS. We are called to ruthlessly - relentlessly - attack the un-health in our lives. The enemy is constantly on the prowl, deceiving...usually a pretty easy job because according to Jeremiah we have a natural bent toward self-deception.
It is a constant battle and too many Christians have given up...or are lying to themselves (that danged deceiving heart) about their spiritual health.
What about you? Can you take a moment to be ruthlessly honest with yourself?
But don't stop there. Do something about it.
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