Cryptic title, I know: “It” could mean so many things. In this case, “it” means your health.
I was sick for a few days last week and ran through my usual cycle of attitudes. While I’m sick, I’m ticked off that the daily good health I take for my birthright has been snatched away. When I recover, I’m thankful to God for the energy and vitality I normally have. After all, I remind myself, some people feel as bad as I did a lot longer. Some people feel a lot worse all the time. (Just watch the Labor Day muscular dystrophy telethon this weekend.)
Needless to say, my attitude is a lot, well, healthier when I recover than when I get sick. Alas, that attitude doesn’t last, and soon I’m back to taking things for granted again. Which is why I’m raising the subject now, while I’m thinking about it. It’s just too easy to take your health for granted, especially if you’re in your 20s. You need to make an effort to remember what a gift it is.
Can you run? Can you walk? Can you bend over without pain? Whatever degree of health you enjoy, give thanks for it and rejoice in it. Remember that you didn’t have to have this gift, and odds are that some day you’ll have a lot less of it. Savor however much you have now, while you can. Find a way to use it to help someone who doesn’t have this particular blessing in such abundance.
In short, check your attitude to see if it’s better than mine tends to be.
Oh, one more reminder: There’s a glorious body waiting for you that’s better than any you’ve ever had. Christians don’t think about this as much as they did in ages past, when people commonly died young. But the encouraging reality hasn’t changed. For those who believe, healthy or sick, the best is yet to come.
