Balancing Wellness

Balance is extremely important when moving around. Try riding a bicycle – or even walking – without it. A young lady I know well lost access to half her balance apparatus when the tumor was removed from her right auditory nerve, and the nerve with the tumor. Now it is quite a challenge for her to walk, especially down steep stairs.

Balance is an important aspect of wellness as well. Wellness is not achieved by one factor alone, but by achieving balance among a number of factors. In previous reports, I have paid a lot of attention to the impact of diet on wellness because that is so often the most neglected factor. This month, let’s take a look at wellness from a broader perspective. For the dedicated student, more detail is available on my website, especially at “The Wheel of Wellness.”

Relationship with God is of the utmost importance to wellness – the first of the Ten Commandments is “You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:3) After a lifetime of searching for meaning, King Solomon finally concluded, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth,” (Ecclesiastes 12:1a) and, “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13a)

Another very significant factor is relationships with other people. This factor is illustrated in the Lord’s Prayer, in the expression “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12) Another aspect of relationships is summarized in the word love; I John 4:7, among many others, tells us “Love one another.” Paul in I Corinthians 13 stresses the importance of love in our relationships.

Some of the other factors I have identified are attitude, rest, and activity, as well as intake (diet and other environment).

Meanwhile, I welcome your questions and comments. Having seen my wellness challenged by cancer in 1996 and continuing to see others suffering have convinced me that it takes some action on our part to achieve the wellness that God desires for us. I believe that the promise of Exodus 15:26 (“If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord Your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer.”) will often apply even today. And when it does not, then with the disease that God allows, He will provide the grace to bear it as He did for Paul (II Corinthians 12:9).