A Healthy Dose of Spirituality?

How far will you go to get healthy? Maybe the best medicine isn’t the kind you get from a doctor or a vitamin store.

Being healthy and living up to one’s full potential is trending these days. The popularity of gym memberships, vitamins and supplements for the mind and body, and dieting is on the rise. Technology has even taken advantage of this trend, with devices catering to the health-conscious lifestyle. Society’s quest for a better, healthier “you” has even led to an interest in an unlikely area—spirituality. The seemingly awkward relationship between health, wellness, and spirituality has been promoted by many, including some you might not expect.

Occasional articles and reports from the medical community suggest that one way to relieve stress is to make a connection between spirituality and health. Since religion is typically thought of as occupying only a “corner” of people’s lives, but not something that correlates with a healthy physical lifestyle—like exercise, for example—to hear health professionals recommend a healthy dose of spirituality to go along with diet and exercise is a surprise indeed!

One reason for the endorsement is because spirituality is no longer synonymous with religion (if ever it was). Spirituality has been given many definitions, and it is now often associated not with any specific belief system, but often simply one’s journey to find meaning in life and connecting with something bigger than yourself. This fluid definition is one reason why medical professionals and people who don’t claim to be religious—even atheists—are known to endorse “some kind of spirituality.” This raises a question: Does just any flavor of spirituality benefit health, and should this be the ultimate goal of spiritual pursuits and belief?

The world has many varieties of spirituality to offer, and you could even create your own to suit your needs, as many are suggesting. Some will say to “take your journey,” “find yourself,” “connect with the world,” or even just “do some yoga.” While this “create your own blend” of spirituality can seem attractive, we should think twice before embracing it and leaving religion behind altogether.

Interestingly—and even ironically—the etymology of the word religion itself implies a connection between religion and spirituality. “The word’s Latin roots are re-, meaning ‘again,’ and lig-, meaning ‘join’ or ‘connect’ (as in the word ligament). Thus the common translation of religion is ‘to join again,’ ‘to reconnect.’ If this derivation is correct, then the word religion suggests the joining of our natural, human world to the sacred world” (Michael Molloy, Experiencing the World’s Religions, 2013, p. 5).

This gets at the heart of spirituality as defined in the Holy Bible, which contains the way to true spirituality and its resulting physical, mental, and emotional health benefits. The Bible clearly states that “God is spirit” (John 4:24) and that He created the physical world, including all human beings, through His spiritual power (Hebrews 11:3). The book of Genesis reveals that mankind enjoyed close contact with the Creator at the beginning (Genesis 1:26–2:25). Yet because of sin—disobedience to God’s laws—mankind has been cut off from God for a time. Human beings have been largely separated from that life-giving Spirit because of continual sinfulness (Isaiah 59:1–3). True spirituality involves connecting with the true God—the One who created all life in the first place. Any brand of spirituality that falls short of this lacks real substance and ends up hurting more than it helps.

True spirituality also involves repentance (Acts 17:30). It involves acknowledging where we came from and embracing our purpose here on earth. It involves a desire to live the way of life exemplified by Jesus Christ when He lived as a human being nearly 2,000 years ago (1 John 2:6; Matthew 4:4). Once a person does connect with God through this process and continues to grow spiritually in righteousness, he or she can experience not only the health benefits of true spirituality, but ultimately eternal life (1 Timothy 4:8; 1 John 2:25).

If you would like a healthy dose of true spirituality, order your own free copy of Twelve Keys to Answered Prayer, or read it right here at TomorrowsWorld.org.