I experienced a first recently. I lost my Grandmother last week. She was 88 years old. She was the first close relative that I have lost in my lifetime. Not bad considering that I am 35 years old. She lived a long life. The last several years were more difficult on her physically but a good life nonetheless. As would be expected, I have thought a lot about life and death since then. Once again I am reminded that we do not own our bodies but rather we rent them for this short period of time we are on this earth (1 Corinthians 6:19).
If you look at the condition of most houses for rent, you will probably find the conditions to be very similar to the condition we find our own health in currently in this country. Maybe we don't take care of them because they are not ours to keep. I find this to be very disturbing. That is nothing more than a lazy cop out to release ourselves from any responsibility. I guess the real question is what is our motivation. My motivation is not singular but includes several factors. One, I feel a since of responsibility to maintain my temple (1 Cor. 3:16). I owe it to God who blessed me with this body to begin with. Secondly, I feel like I owe it to those people who would love to be in my shoes, dare I take it for granted.
My last source of motivation comes from the quality of life that I hope to live. When I was a kid, I was very athletic and active which allowed me to eat anything and everything without the concern of weight gain. I figured that I could just exercise my way to better health without sparing the joys of hamburgers and Twinkies. Now as an adult, I am paying the price. Silent inflammation from years of poor dietary choices have taken their toll. Don't get me wrong, I never was overweight and judging from outward appearances was the vision of health. But somewhere down the line I developed all sorts of digestive issues. I have been diagnosed with IBS, Celiac disease, and have had my gallbladder removed with horrible side effects. I am no longer able to eat anything I want and that will be the case for the rest of my life. Again, this is not a sob story about my inability to gorge on chocolate chip cookies. I am healthier than I have ever been. I just don't get to be care free in regards to food as I was in my younger days. Had I taken care of my temple a little better nutritionally, maybe I could still enjoy some of the foods I used too. My quality of life would be better today.
Doctors are predicting that we will live longer than previous generations. So in other words, we get to stay in this rent house of ours for a little longer. Yet, we are seeing disease and the consequences of unhealthy lifestyles as never before. We may live to be 80, 90, or even 100 years old but the question is about the quality of those years. Do you want to live 100 years but have to have someone change your diapers the last 20 of those years? That will all depend on how you take care of this rented temple of yours. So I encourage you today to look into the future. Your insurance for a better quality of life is not bought with money but with exercise, diet, and the discipline to maintain the temple you have been so blessed to live in.
