By Joel Comiskey, Living in Victory, 2022
“If you want something to count in your life, it helps to figure out a way to count it.” This commonsense quote applies to sports, business, or personal life goals. It also applies to good health. I’ve found it very helpful to measure my sleep, exercise, and eating each week. I do better at fulfilling my goals if I’m measuring them. Each day, I write down the number of steps I’ve taken, the hours I’ve slept, and whether I ate healthy food (if you’d like to see how I measure my own progress, please see the Appendix).
Measurable progress in achieving and maintaining personal goals regarding eating, exercise, and sleep is essential. A person will unlikely achieve and maintain their required amount of sleep, exercise, and a proper diet for a healthy lifestyle without some measurable form of accounting so they can see their progress and make adjustments. All measurements need to be done under grace, not legalism, with the understanding that a healthy lifestyle is beneficial to victorious living. Only the cross of Jesus makes us whole, not healthy eating, adequate exercising, or getting enough sleep. Grace needs to cover all our efforts, or we end up becoming self-righteous and judgmental.
All people are created in the image of God and are valuable to the Creator. Believers in Christ have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and our lives belong to him. For this reason, we should honor God in all aspects of our lives, and this includes taking care of our bodies.
The spiritual and emotional aspects of life are essential but the physical side is critical and often overlooked in the quest for a victorious lifestyle. Regular exercise, sleep and eating a healthy diet optimize health and help us to live a more fruitful life. Rest is essential to victorious living, and so is proper nutrition, exercise, and getting enough sleep.
And the good news is that soon we will be changed and given new heavenly bodies. Paul gives us a glimpse of this when he says, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:51–54).