Article February 21, 2005 Issue

A WHOLE NEW VIEW OF WHOLENESS

By Mark Swinney

"HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW." For many in the world, that phrase describes the transient, changeable nature of health—and even of life itself. It's scary that health can disappear at any moment, and often for unknown reasons. Wouldn't it be great to find the path to health that never vanishes and can't be taken away?

I used to think of health as a personal possession, sort of like individual hair color. Like many people, I thought of it in terms of "your health," "her health," "his health," "my health," Looking at it in this way, of course, means that at any moment some people might have good health while others don't. But then I got a fresh look at what health actually is.

My fresh perspective came about unexpectedly—as I began to learn about the nature of God and of myself as God's creation. I read in the Bible, "As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting" (Ps. 103:15-17).