ILLNESS BY ACCIDENT OR HEALTH BY DESIGN?

When it comes to health, it would appear that there are only two choices: illness by accident or health by design.

There seems to be a prevailing belief system within our culture that sees illness, sickness and disease as being a game of chance over which we have little influence; someone else is dealing the hand:

1. You get an infection because a bug that is going around chooses you as a potential home, and if you are unfortunate enough to be exposed to that micro-enemy by a carrier passing by who sneezes in your general direction, then you are out of luck - sneezes and snuffles are just around the corner.
2. Mental malfunction is the result of chemical imbalance within our brain, over which we have no control.
3. Cancer is just a game of chance; the uncontrolled growth of a tumour that has mysteriously housed itself in its new home - the sufferer.
4. And now the concept of genetic predetermination and that if you are one of the unlucky ones to inherit a gene for a particular malady - then it is just a matter of time until that malfunctioning gene is going to produce a malfunctioning body.

An underlying philosophy to this type of thinking is that disease and illness come from the outside, invading to get inside, to create the damages of warfare inside the unfortunate territory that has been invaded: you. Such is the philosophy of illness by accident.

This philosophy has its own set of behaviours that result. If the problem comes from the outside, and if the illness is produced by a foreign body, then the best ways to manage these problems are through methods of guerrilla warfare - chemical, physical or otherwise. Drugs to destroy the invaders, or to suppress the signs that the enemy is present; heroic surgeries to remove the unwanted guests.

This at first appears to make good sense, after all when you are in the middle of a battle ground you want some outside help so call in the hired troops.

But, maybe if there had been some wiser choices made prior to the arrival of the unwanted guests - perhaps if a careful program of border protection had been carried out earlier - maybe the invaders would have turned away to look for easier prey elsewhere.

Is there an alternative? There is a counterculture that sees the development of illness from another viewpoint. Illness does not come from the outside in, but from the inside out.

1. An infection can only occur when the host allows the invasion to happen - if the defence mechanisms are sleeping, switched off or dormant.
2. The chemical production in the brain is a manifestation of our thoughts, feelings and experiences, and not the other way around.
3. Potential cancers are appearing and disappearing within each body continuously, but when the body fails to recognise and manage the impending problem then the tumour can be allowed to expand, spread and wreak havoc.
4. And genes only express themselves in the context of the environment in which they are working: get the environment right, and the right genes will be expressed, get the environment wrong, and the wrong genes will be expressed.

This alternative philosophy leads to its own set of behaviours - if the internal environment of the human body determines which illness and sicknesses will be allowed to express themselves then to control and change this environment is the key to reducing the dangers from potential maladies. Such is the idea of health by design.

The spiritual parallel to these divergent viewpoints would be the idea that Satan is the external cause of all our trials and tribulations, as opposed to our tendency towards sin being the internal path to falling and failure. If life is going bad, it must because Satan is on the rampage. If life is going well then Satan has gone to work elsewhere? Few of us would doubt that Satan is out there awaiting the weak and the unprepared. His job description is to separate you from your Creator, by whatever means he can. But it is, more often than not, our response to the insinuation, deception and suggestion that Satan surrounds us with, that determines whether his tactics win or lose. When Jesus was being tempted in the desert He had to proactively resist the Devil. But the mere presence and antics of Satan does not necessitate your doom - the choices you make because of or preferably in spite of more often than not determine the outcome.

Similarly in terms of illness, there are viruses 'out there' which, if they get a stranglehold inside your body, will kill you. Many of us could easily spiral into a depressive, compulsive or even addictive pit, if we don’t possess strategies to resist the cascade. Cancer appears to be an ever-increasing thief of loved ones. Most of us have at least one genetic flaw that could potentially rob us of our quality of life. But most of these scenarios are preventable if we get the context of our life in order.

So what action steps do we undertake to ensure health by design? The Bible teaches us that we are spirit, body and soul and it is imperative that we keep these three dimensions in balance...

Prepare spiritually: As much as our culture would like to think spirituality is an optional accessory to our lifestyle; all the symptoms of our sick society point to a disconnected race; one crying out for some sort of reconnection.

1. Stay connected to your Creator: God is ultimately the source of any healing power in the universe - so stay plugged in.
2. Run with the pack: Animals that stray from the herd due to isolation or injury are the most susceptible to attacks from the outside. Protection exists in a well structured community - join one.

Prepare physically: We are not physical beings having occasional spiritual encounters, we are spiritual beings having a physical encounter.

1. Make sure you take care of the transport vehicle you have been provided with to walk this physical journey. This means: exercise regularly, diversely, enjoyably and interestingly; and, eat like Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses, Daniel, Jesus (but maybe not John the Baptist).
2. Service and maintain the machine: One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is healing - this does not just refer to a medical practitioner armed with a prescription pad, and probably refers to more than just prayer ministry. Find some “healers” that you can respect who will help to mentor you in caring for your engineering.

Prepare mentally: The mind is a battleground where healing or illness can be the victor on any given day - barrack for healing.

1. Take captive every thought: What a challenge! To have conscious control and censorship of our thought processes is a key to overcoming jealousy, anger, hate, resentment, selfishness, greed, pride, fear, guilt, lust…
2. Junk in… junk out: What an old cliché, but what an accurate metaphor. Carefully choose what information, atmospheres, and imagery that you are absorbing. Eat a junk food mind diet and expect a fat, sluggish and sickly brain and immune system.

Don’t settle for illness by bad luck - start working towards health by good planning - start preparations today.