Josh Broward
Personal Health Series: Week 1
Healthy Habits: Living Wisdom
It was generally not a good idea to get sick in ancient times. Doctors had some pretty crazy ideas about how to cure diseases.
For example, in cultures around the world, one of the most common methods of treating insanity has been trepanation. The basic theory is that people go insane because there are demons or evil spirits trapped in their heads. How do you get the demons out? Well, you drill a nice little hole as an escape route. Unfortunately, the people tend to loose a lot of blood and maybe some brains along with the “demons.”[1]
And, you all know Charles Darwin, the guy who made the theory of evolution famous. Well, his grandfather believed that sleep could cure all kinds of diseases. Not able to get to sleep? No problem, the cure for insomnia is simple: spinning, lots of spinning. Apparently, Grandpa Darwin would put people on a chair on wheels or something and just spin them round and round until they passed out. Unfortunately, it didn’t cure any diseases, but on the upside, it might have given birth to some great carnival rides.[2]
One of the oldest medical remedies is bloodletting. The theory was that, sometimes, we just have too much blood or too much blood in the wrong places. For the body to regain balance, we have to let that blood get out. So the doctor would cut you and let you bleed out all that bad blood. It turns out that we actually need our blood, so letting it bleed out is generally a bad thing.[3]
Here’s my favorite. 3-4,000 years ago
So the old doctors didn’t always know how to help us get better if we got sick. However, they did know how to stay healthy.
In the 13th century, a group of doctors in
Whosoever shall eat or drink more or less than he should, or shall sleep more or less, or shall labour more or less from idleness or from hardship … without a doubt he will not escape sickness.
An ancient Chinese proverb advises:
He who takes medicine and neglects to diet wastes the skill of his doctors.
Hippocrates, the famous Greek doctor from the 5th century BC, the guy from the Hippocratic Oath, said:
If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.
There is even an old English nursery rhyme which puts it into cute little phrases a 5 year old can remember:
The best six doctors anywhere
And no one can deny it
Are sunshine, water, rest, and air
Exercise and diet.
These six will gladly you attend
If only you are willing
Your mind they'll ease
Your will they'll mend
And charge you not a shilling.
If we summarize all of this ancient wisdom, here’s what we get: balanced food + regular exercise + regular sleep à health.
Today, we are beginning a 5 week series on personal health. We are starting with the basics: healthy habits. Almost everyone almost everywhere has agreed on this for thousands of years. Three basic habits tend to lead to healthy people: good food, good exercise, and good sleep. It’s not a guarantee. Random accidents, diseases, and hereditary issues still cause problems. But we all know that if we put these three basics into our lives, we will tend to be healthier people.
One of the core points of our vision as a church is being renewed by God’s love. In 2008, when our Planning Team was thinking about what this would mean for us as a church, we talked a lot about becoming healthy people and having healthy families. If we come in here and talk about God every week, but then we go out of here and live unhealthy, stressed out lives, we aren’t being made new. We are being made old and worn out and less healthy. Being part of a church ought to help us live better, not make living harder. Here at
But why? Why are we talking about this kind of stuff? We’re a church not a health club. Shouldn’t we be teaching you how to pray or how to read your Bible or tell people about Jesus? Well, yes. And we do that, too. But Christianity is not separated from physical life. It’s not like spiritual life and physical life are two separate things. We are whole beings. We are interconnected. What we are talking about today will help you pray. What we are talking about today is teaching you how to read ALL of your Bible, not just the spiritual parts. Talking about healthy habits will help you tell people about Jesus because you will be living a more abundant, beautiful life, and you will have more energy and joy and peace to share.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said most people’s prayer lives would be greatly improved by a 20 minute walk every day. We are whole beings. We cannot separate our spirits from our bodies. We cannot separate our mission of loving others from our care for our own personal health. How are we going to love others if we are dying inside? How are we going to change the world if we’re just trying to stay awake?
O.K. Let’s pause for a few minutes and look more closely at some of our Biblical texts.
Genesis 2:4b-8, 15
When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land. Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Then the Lord God planted a garden in
The creation story tells a few basic things about health. First of all, God made us as body-spirits. God formed the first human body from the dirt and breathed his life into it making a living person. A “living person” is both body and spirit. We are made “in the image of God” (Genesis
Second, God put the first humans in a garden and gave them work. We are designed for work. One of the great health problems of the modern world is that we no longer work. Sure, we sit at computers and stand in classrooms, but we don’t do real work with our bodies. Exercise is not a natural part of our lives. The farther we get from that garden with healthy food and healthy exercise, the more unhealthy we get.
1 Corinthians 6:12-13, 19-20
You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. …
Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
Our bodies matter to God. Within the whole context, this passage is mostly talking about sex. We’ll talk about that next month, but, for now, we just need to see that our bodies really do matter.
Sometimes, Christians talk like only our spirits matter – like it doesn’t really matter what we do with our bodies. This is actually a heresy called Gnosticism. This is what some people in the church in
Paul says, “Whoa. Hold it there. Your bodies really do matter.” Our bodies “were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies.” Our bodies are “the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in” us. Our bodies are God’s display cases for the world. God lives in us, and the only way the world is going to see God is through us. God has purchased us – body, mind, and spirit – to be his own. We belong to him. So let’s honor God and represent God with our whole beings – body, mind, and spirit.
Proverbs 3:7-8, 13-18
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones. …
Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. For wisdom is more profitable than silver, and her wages are better than gold. Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. She offers you long life in her right hand, and riches and honor in her left. She will guide you down delightful paths; all her ways are satisfying. Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her; happy are those who hold her tightly.
In the end this discussion about health is all about wisdom. Are we going to be wise or foolish? Are we going to think about long term success or short term pleasure or profit? Will we focus on today or prepare for tomorrow? Wise or foolish?
Wisdom will give “healing for your body and strength for your bones.” Wisdom is better than silver or gold or rubies. “She offers you long life in her right hand, and riches and honor in her left. She will guide you down delightful paths … Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her; happy are those who hold to her tightly” (Prov. 16-18).
Be wise, church. Hold tightly to wisdom. Wise living will make you happier, healthier, and more effective in God’s mission. Don’t be foolish. Be wise. If you live wisely and healthily, you will help us all to be a loving community that changes our world.
Do you want to be healthy? If you want to SEE health, start with the three basics.
SLEEP: Scientists and doctors have studied how much sleep the average person needs. Adults need 7-8 hours of sleep every day. Students need between 9 and 11 hours of sleep every night.[5] Not sleeping enough makes us irritable, bad students, and – get this – hungry!! If we don’t sleep enough, it upsets our body’s hormone balance, so we eat more to compensate for sleep.[6] Want to lose weight? Get a full night of sleep! Also, as a bonus, getting enough sleep increases your energy and decreases your stress.
EATING: There are two basic rules about eating – hunger and balance. Eat when you are hungry – only when you are hungry, only as much as it takes to be full. (This is hard to do, but a real key to healthy eating.)[7]
Second, balance. I’m going to call in some outside help to explain this one. Emma told me even Cookie Monster is getting healthy. (View “Color Me Hungry” game on www.pbskids.org.)
If you eat well, you will have more energy and be sick less. It just works.
EXERCISE: Remember, we were made for a garden with lots of body-building work to do. Nowadays, we don’t live in gardens. We live in 15 story apartments, and most of us don’t have any physical work to do. But we need to simulate that garden lifestyle with some regular exercise. We need about 30 minutes of exercise every day. It’s great if you get it all at one time. That will help your heart. But if you don’t have time to do a real work out, then fit it in bit by bit. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Get off the bus one stop early. Park in the farthest part of the parking lot. Do a little bit here and there to get a little more exercise. Use your body as much as you can all day long.
If you do these basics (Sleep, Eating, Exercise), then you will probably SEE better health. It just works. Our bodies were made for sleeping well, eating well, and exercising well. When we work with this natural biological wisdom, we are healthier, happier, and holier.
But this kind of a sermon can lead many of us to feelings of judgment or shame. We walked into this room today with all different types of bodies and all different types of histories. We all have the bodies we have today due to a wide variety of factors. Some of those are within our control, and some aren’t. We need to finish up today with little bit of science and a lot of grace.
First, the science. There really is an “obesity” gene. It’s called the FTO gene. People with one FTO gene are a little more likely to be overweight. People with two FTO genes are 60% more likely to be overweight. Also, a host of other factors beyond our control influence our weight levels, such as: our eating style as children, our stress levels (partly in our control), our parents’ eating habits, our spouse’s eating habits, our natural metabolism, or – get this – biologically less sensitive taste buds (so that we need more sugar or fat to really taste it).[8]
So you know how some people can eat anything and still not get fat? Don’t you hate that! Well, some other people’s bodies actually work against them in the weight category. It’s not a life-sentence to obesity, but it does mean that some people really have to work harder to lose weight – sometimes a lot harder.
Now, the grace. Wherever you are right now is O.K. We all got to the sizes and shapes we are now through a variety of blessings, curses, and choices. The key issue is not where we are but where we are going. God loves us just as we are. God wants us all to become healthier, and we all have room to grow here.
As a community, we have the beautiful opportunity to journey toward health together. We can work on it together. Instead of going out for ice cream, maybe we’ll go for a walk. Instead of bringing a bag of chips to the party, maybe we’ll bring some fruit. Instead of going to that midnight movie or working super late, maybe we’ll encourage each other to be a bit more boring and get a good night of sleep.
God is calling us to health, to wisdom, to abundant living. How will you answer?
[1] “10 Mind-Boggling Psychiatric Treatments,” posted
[2] Ibid.
[3] “Bloodletting,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodletting. Downloaded 9.22.2009.
[4] Angela Porter, “Curious Cures from History,” http://www.null-hypothesis.co.uk/science/strange-but-true/item/medicinal_plants_ancient_knowledge_discoveries. Downloaded 9.17.2009.
[5] “Sleep,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep.
[6] This is based on a report from the
[7] For more on listening to our bodies’ hunger signs, read Judy and Arthur Halliday, Thin Within: A Grace-Oriented Approach to Lasting Weight Loss, (Nashville: W, 2002).
[8] Ibid, 88-92.
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