What Is Health?

By Cindy Williams, RN

Coordinator, Health Ministries

Denis Waitley, author of The Psychology of Winning, said; “Time and health are two precious assets that we don’t recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted.” 

Most of us spend very little time, if any, thinking about our health. We simply live our lives. We take care of the urgent and necessary things on our to-do lists. Until something happens. We discover a lump, catch a nasty virus, injure our back, or even experience something simple like an annoying sliver in our finger or stub our toe on the table leg. Taking care of the problem suddenly becomes a priority and our focus changes — at least for a time.

What is health? When I ask my high school health class students to define health, they often look at me blankly. Surely their teacher knows what health is! They give me answers like “not being sick,” “not hurting anywhere,” or “being able to do what I want.” I do not think these give the whole picture although they are certainly a part of health.

I believe that health is more than the absence of disease. Genesis 1:26 and 30 say: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…. God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” “Man came from the hand of God perfect in every faculty of mind and body; in perfect soundness, therefore in perfect health.” (My Life Today, page 131) We were created in the image of God, perfect in every way, our mind and body functioning perfectly. Perfect health.

We are now more than 6,000 years after creation. Our minds and our bodies are not perfect. The effects of sin and our own choices have left their mark on us. But there is hope! Desire of Ages, page 1 says: “It was His (Jesus) mission to bring to men complete restoration; He came to give them health and peace and perfection of character.” Re-creation, bringing us back to perfect health, has come at great cost to our Creator. Maybe it is time to honor His sacrifice by valuing our health and considering how to preserve it.

This article is part of a continuing series of health during these COVID times. For other articles, please see www.uccsda.org/healthministries.

Photo by Jenny Hill on Unsplash