If you ask any young person what happiness is, he will most likely tell you about the prospect of personal growth and about the goals and plans whose fulfillment will bring him the joy of bliss. Or he may say that happiness is being loved and valued, or having parents who do not quarrel.
But if I ask the same question of people of retirement age, they will all answer unequivocally that happiness is being healthy and having nothing that hurts.
Although health is neither the foundation of happiness nor one of the bricks in our little house, its presence creates comfort and warmth and allows us to think calmly about other things as we plan a happy life.
Why can health not be a component of my happiness? Because it is something that can be lost at any time, regardless of my plans for life. Health may be lost through a viral illness, injury, accident, disability, mental disorder, an unhealthy lifestyle, sinful addictions, self-harm, and many other causes. We invariably begin to value what has been irretrievably lost. If my happiness rested on my health or the health of my family and household, then when that health is lost, my bliss collapses with it.
Health and family are additional sources of joy and pleasure that beautify life and fill it with meaning and satisfaction, but when they are lost, they cause immeasurable pain to the heart and anguish to the mind. If my little house rests on such a temporary foundation, I risk its collapse, after which recovery may be impossible or extremely difficult.
Health is given to me as a gift by my Creator when I enter the world. If I have no congenital defects or hereditary diseases, my body develops according to the ordinary laws of health. This initial endowment, given to me in childhood, sustains me into middle age, protecting me from various ailments and building my immunity to all kinds of diseases. But if I do not understand the need to safeguard my health, one day I may realize that it has suddenly run out and that a season of ailments and diseases has begun. They now cling to me from every side and spoil my life. If I hasten this process through ignorance and an improper lifestyle, I may cause chronic diseases to become my best and most faithful lifelong companions at a very early age, unwilling ever to leave me.
To prevent such a prospect, I am offered eight layers of insulation for my little house of happiness, called the Laws of Health.
The physical well-being of each of us is governed by universal laws that protect us from harm and misfortune. It is worth knowing these laws and building our lives within their boundaries. When problems arise in my body, I am usually offered treatment and products for healing or therapy. But it would be wise first to learn the cause of my illness and examine my lifestyle according to every one of the laws of health.
In our day, a healthy lifestyle has become a trend, and everyone who feels so inclined talks about it. Yet many folk healers do not even know that laws governing this healthy lifestyle exist—laws that operate in the life of everyone who pursues health and bring consequences upon those who violate them.
I think every sensible person understands that illness is not caused by a deficiency of pills or medications in the body. Unfortunately, many people want to use precisely these means to restore their health quickly or eliminate emerging ailments. They do not even ask why they became ill. Meanwhile, the enemy of souls plunges the world into ignorance regarding the laws of health and replaces them with human discoveries and achievements.
Does a joint hurt? We will replace it with a prosthesis.
Do you have a fever? We will bring it down with pills.
Does your throat hurt? We will remove your tonsils.
Do you have cancer? We will give you chemotherapy.
But perhaps I should first consider what is wrong in my life and, after identifying the cause of the damage to my health, return to God’s standards.
The following often happens: when I examine myself in the light of the laws of health, find what is wrong, and correct it, my well-being is restored. The body activates its natural mechanisms, and the illness goes away.
It is also worth noting that nature and health are not blind forces filled with random patterns. They are God’s instruments through which our Creator governs our bodies, giving them what He considers necessary. Sometimes a sick person who desires to return to the laws of nature and live in harmony with its Creator receives Divine healing as a gift from the Lord and understands that a miracle has taken place in his life. He then begins to treat his body more carefully and care for it tenderly.
The eight layers of insulation that together, in their complete integrity, constitute the laws of health are called:
1. Fresh air.
2. Pure water.
3. Sunlight.
4. Proper nutrition.
5. Temperance and abstinence from harmful things.
6. Rest.
7. Physical activity.
8. Faith in God.
If I want to be healthy, all these components must be present in my life in complete harmony with one another. If even one component is removed or replaced with a counterfeit, illness will not be long in coming. It will attach itself to the body like an invited guest and begin dictating how I should suppress its symptoms and flare-ups.
The purpose of this lesson is not to belittle medicine, but to turn the mind toward the natural, original, Divine laws that operate in every person’s life in the same way and promote health.
If I begin drinking pure water instead of contaminated water, it renews my body, and the Lord works together with this process, bringing about great changes within me. The same is true of every law. A law operates regardless of my status in the world and applies equally to all people. It protects from illness those who observe it.
If, for example, I faithfully observe all seven laws of health but do not believe in God or entrust my life to Him, then the eighth law will read this way in my life:
8. Faith in the devil.
And he will make sure to ruin my life and make me very unhappy as he sees fit, even though he may leave my health untouched.
The Creator has reserved within my heart a special, God-sized place for Himself. If that space is not occupied by the Lord, the enemy of souls immediately fills it with anything he can and begins to reign in my life, giving me a claim to death and anguish of soul.
Faith in God is also the foundation of my health. The Lord Himself directs all the other processes of life, performing miracles of grace and healing.
Health is worth possessing and preserving. When the time of old age and the sunset of this temporary life arrives, it is better to meet that season in a healthy and happy body than in a hospital bed, dependent on doctors and medications.
And love brings special meaning to all the laws of health, writing them upon my mind and heart.
Bible verses for this chapter:
Exodus 16:26; Hosea 6:1–2; James 5:15–16; Matthew 12:15; John 5:6; Romans 12:1–2; 1 Corinthians 6:19–20; Isaiah 58:6–8; Malachi 4:1–2; Acts 3:1–8, 12, 16