I really like fruits and vegetables. I regularly eat large salads and several servings of fruit a day. And I absolutely love fruit smoothies.
I also like to exercise somewhat. When it’s nice weather, I ride my bike to my office, and I challenge myself by going a longer route with a few steep hills (I think I found the only hills in Nokomis).
So if I eat so much good food, and exercise regularly, you’d expect me to be a great example of healthy living, right?
But the problem is that I also really like pizza rolls. And ice cream. And a million other foods that aren’t so good for me. And I also don’t exercise much in the cooler months. So every year, I have to build back up to riding the more challenging hills.
So the reason I’m not the greatest example of health is that I also do so many unhealthy things.
We often feel like the same is true of our spiritual lives. We might be doing a lot of great things, but overall we feel unhealthy because we still do so many unhealthy things. We still cling to our sin.
And it’s not healthy to cling to our sin.
And on one level, we’re exactly right. The degree to which we follow Christ shows how healthy we are as Christians.
But the good news is that our spiritual health doesn’t depend on our goodness, but on God’s grace.
The more we find our identity in Jesus, and not in ourselves, the more we’ll be happy and healthy Christians, and THEN we will do the things that healthy Christians do.