By Rev. Dr. Ed Hird

Christmas Party food is always tasty, too tasty.  Millions sign up for the local gym to try to lose the post-Christmas bulge.  So many well-intended recruits are gone by January 31^st.  My wife Janice really cares for me.  She shows her love by encouraging me to not give up going to the gym year round, eating healthy food, and taking vitamins.  Thank God for health-conscious wives.  Restoring health requires that I practice what I preach.  As a Spanish proverb puts it, a man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.

Going to the gym two to three times a week for the past fourteen years is part of my ‘walking the walk’ in personal fitness.  I feel healthier and younger now than a decade ago, having lost weight in the process.  The Good Book tells us that even the youth grow weary, but they that wait on the Lord shall renew and restore their strength, rising up with wings like eagles, running and not being weary, walking and not fainting.

Part of what changed my behaviour was being rear-ended by a taxi. Dr. Paul Wiggins, while treating my aching back, said to me: “You need a personal trainer”.  The next thing I knew, I was meeting with a personal trainer for six sessions, paid for by our auto insurance company.

Benjamin Franklin once said: “Health is man’s best wealth.”  People often spend their health to obtain wealth, only to spend their wealth to obtain health.   As Boomers are aging, we are sometimes understandably concerned that we may be going backwards in health rather than moving forward.  Many seem to have fatalistically lost hope.  But must aging always be a downward spiral?  God promises to renew our youth like an eagle.  What I am hearing from the Lord is “Don’t give up on yourself.  Don’t give up on your dreams of finishing well.  Why not choose to be fit? Why not choose to be healthier?”

Physical fitness is good, but by itself only goes so far.  The well-known Washington DC author Mark Batterson twittered: “In my experience, physical disciplines like exercise and spiritual disciplines like prayer feed off each other.” Health is elusive.  We are our own worst enemies.  We want to be healthy.  Yet we make choices such as too much food, too little exercise, and self-medication that cripple us and send us in the wrong direction.   As a local Recreation Centre poster put it, “The hardest thing about exercise is to start doing it.”

Edward Stanley said it well: “Those who think they will not have time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”  That is why Jesus asked: “Do you want to be well?”  Why do we resist getting well?  Why do we so often go backwards and not forwards?  Why are we so often tempted to just let nature take its course?  So many people die before their time.  They may keep going physically, but their dreams and hopes have died.  As Mark Twain put it, most men die at age 27.  We just bury them at 72.   My passion is to help a new generation of healthy leaders to discover and rediscover Jesus as the Great Physician who renews our youth like an eagle.

Healthy hearts and healthy minds lead to healthy lives, healthy choices and healthy families.  John said, “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all things may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” (3 John 2)  Health comes through the power of the Holy Spirit.  As Dr. E. Stanley Jones put it:

The Spirit of God is health… A health tendency takes possession of us. We think health. We breathe health; we are health & we give health.

I will never forget the night that Lee Grady, former Editor of Charisma Magazine, prophesied about our former congregation St. Simon’s NV being a well-spring of healing with healing teams being raised up for body, soul and spirit restoration.  Every worship service at St. Simon’s NV, whether traditional or contemporary, has a team ready to pray for healing.  There is no contradiction between prayer, medicine and keeping fit.  All can work together for our health.  My prayer for those reading this article is that we will all be passionate about health and healing at all stages of our lives.

Rev. Dr. Ed Hird, BSW, MDiv, DMin

-previously published in the Deep Cove Crier/North Shore News

-award-winning author of the book Battle for the Soul of Canada

P. S. Click this Amazon link to view for free the first two chapters of our new novel Blue Sky.

“I’m afraid there’s been an accident…”

Sandy Brown and her family have just moved to Spokane, Washington where her husband, Scott, is pastoring a new church. With a fresh start, Sandy is determined to devote more time to her four children. But, within weeks of settling in their new life, the Brown family is plunged into turmoil.

Sandy receives shocking news that her children aren’t safe, which brings back haunting memories of the trauma she experienced as a girl. Then, the unthinkable happens…

A brutal attack puts Sandy on the brink of losing everything she’s loved. Her faith in God and the family she cherishes are pushed to the ultimate limit.

Is healing possible when so many loved ones are hurt? Are miracles really possible through the power of prayer? Can life return to the way it was before?

Blue Sky reveals how a mother’s most basic instinct isn’t for survival… but for family.

If you’re a fan of Karen Kingsbury, then you’ll love Blue Sky. Get your copy today on paperback or  kindle.

-Click to check out our marriage book For Better For Worse: discovering the keys to a lasting relationship on Amazon. You can even read the first two chapters for free to see if the book speaks to you. 

-The sequel book Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit is available online with Amazon.com in both paperback and ebook form.  Dr. JI Packer wrote the foreword, saying “I heartily commend what he has written.” The book focuses on strengthening a new generation of healthy leaders. Drawing on examples from Titus’ healthy leadership in the pirate island of Crete, it shows how we can embrace a holistically healthy life.

In Canada, Amazon.ca has the book available in paperback and ebook. It is also posted on Amazon UK (paperback and ebook), Amazon France (paperback and ebook), and Amazon Germany (paperback and ebook).

Restoring Health is also available online on Barnes and Noble in both paperback and Nook/ebook form.  Nook gives a sample of the book to read online.

Indigo also offers the paperback and the Kobo ebook version.  You can also obtain it through ITunes as an IBook.

To receive a personally signed copy within North America, just etransfer at ed_hird@telus.net, giving your address. Cheques are also acceptable.

-Click to purchase the Companion Bible Study by Jan Cox (for the Battle of the Soul of Canada) in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca 

Indigo also offers the paperback and the Kobo ebook version.  You can also obtain it through ITunes as an IBook.

-Click to purchase the Companion Bible Study by Jan Cox (for the Battle of the Soul of Canada) in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca