Spiritual Health

THERE are always new health theories gaining favor. Television shows and magazines are full of them. The endless variety of these theories seems to portray health as a never-attainable, though ever-desirable, goal held before the human heart to keep it searching vainly through every kind of remedy offered. And this isn't a new problem! In the Bible, Jeremiah laments, ``Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?'' (8:22).

If you've been looking in vain for health and well-being, then the search stops here! There is an attainable health: spiritual health. Christ Jesus, who proved man's spiritual sonship, showed God to be the source of true health and demonstrated that in reality health never fades or falls from the divine standard of perfect well-being. He proved this by healing the sick in his time. By aligning our thought steadfastly with God's view of creation, as the Master illustrated for us in his own life, we also can overcome sickness. Sometimes we are able to do this quickly; sometimes it takes great persistence and patience; but it always occurs in Christly proof of man's real spiritual being.

Most health theories are based on the concept of looking to the human body or the human mind to ask how healthy it is. They take the conclusion reached from this inquiry as the legitimate answer to the question ``How am I?'' But it is not a legitimate answer at all! Even when the physical body seems to report back satisfactorily, its material tale of its condition would deny the divine truth of man's eternal spiritual existence. It is this true, spiritual being of each of us that is always radiant with the full reflection of God's own vitality and strength.

What it comes down to is that health is an eternal quality given to us by God, by divine Spirit. The reason that we never fully feel we have attained health while seeking it through material means is that health just isn't to be found in matter. Health is found in man's spiritual identity as the offspring of God. Until we look for health where it is--in God, Spirit--we can't possibly find true and lasting health. But as we prayerfully look to God for the true definition of our lives, we learn that He expresses in man the perfect health of spiritual being. The Bible teaches that man is created by God in His own image and likeness. In reality, then, we each reflect the perfection of God as our very own standard of Spirit-derived well-being. To prayerfully acknowledge and understand this is to bring the healing law of health increasingly into effect in our experience.

Before I learned of this prayerful means for maintaining health, I suffered from many minor ailments such as regular headaches, indigestion, a stiff neck, and poor circulation in cold weather. These have progressively diminished in my experience, and for that I am extremely grateful. Perhaps a greater benefit gained from learning something of these spiritual lessons is freedom from self- conscious concern with diet, exercise, and other systems of health care. It gave me real freedom when I lost the fear that had kept me anxiously contemplating these in response to the belief that my future health depended on such things.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the author, Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, points us in the right direction to seek a true estimate of our health. Referring to God as Mind, she writes, ``The Science of Mind-healing shows it to be impossible for aught but Mind to testify truly or to exhibit the real status of man'' (p. 120).

The real status of man is unvarying health! Man's health has, in reality, no fluctuating material dimensions. So let's look for health--and find it!--where it is, in divine Mind, not in matter; in God, not in the body. We'll feel the liberating and healing effect of doing so in more spiritually active, and healthier, lives than we've ever known before.

BIBLE VERSE

The eternal God

is thy refuge,

and underneath

are the everlasting arms.

Deuteronomy 33:27