Recently I had the privilege of attending a Christian Business Leaders luncheon in which Dr. Keen was featured as the keynote speaker. To the room full of passionate business men and women, she had the opportunity to present on the topic of stress and the impact it has on our health. As she often does, Dr. Keen proved herself to be a deep well of wisdom and knowledge. As her Patient Advocate, I have the pleasure of gleaning small treasures from her wealth of knowledge on a regular basis. However, there was one piece of wisdom she shared during her presentation that has really stuck with me over the past couple weeks.
“Imagine a car driving up a winding, narrow mountain road. On either side, the road falls off into a steep mountain cliff. This car is us, traveling along the road of healthy living. If we veer to one side, we fall off the cliff into what I call unbelief. This is the place where we convince ourselves that God really doesn’t care about our health choices. He will love us no matter what, so it really doesn’t matter if we go overboard on the ice cream because there is grace for that. If we veer to the other side of the road, we fall off the cliff into legalism. This is the place where we begin to obsess over our health choices. We are convinced that happiness and satisfaction can be obtained through being in perfect control of our health”.
If I am being honest, I have fallen off the cliff on both sides on numerous occasions in my own journey towards better health. Even Dr. Keen admitted herself, “Sometimes I look like a five-year-old playing Mario cart, swerving from one side of the road to the other.” I would venture to say that many of us can relate to navigating the roads to health in a similar fashion. We are either all in or all out in our health effort. We make every exception or none. While it seems so easy to fall into this pattern of back-and-forth, I believe freedom is found when we learn to drive in the middle of the road.
1 Corinthians 10:23 teaches that, “All things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial.” I love this verse because it acknowledges the reality of freedom that comes from grace while still pointing to the undeniable responsibility, we must make choices that are life-giving. This truth releases us from the chain of legalism yet still holds us accountable to wisdom.
On which side of the road do you tend to fall off? What truth do you need to receive to make your way back to the middle of the road? Ask the Lord to reveal it to you. He is your Good Shepherd. He cares deeply about your healthy journey and He is eager to guide you along the path of freedom.