Isaiah 55:1-9
It's no secret
that we are becoming a nation full of unhealthy people. According to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a third (35.7%) of Americans are
obese. Carrying an unhealthy weight leads to all kinds of related conditions
like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer -- in other words, most of the
leading causes of death. In 2008, the medical costs related to obesity in the
United States were estimated at $147 billion, or $1,492 more per obese person
than a person of normal weight. And yet,
despite the constant warnings in the media and the pleading of doctors, obesity
rates continue to rise. In 2000, no state had an obesity prevalence over 30
percent, while in 2010, 12 states exceeded that threshold.[1]
Many health
insurance companies, including Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield through the
Presbyterian Board of Pensions, have decided to take another approach, however.
Rather than merely continuing to pay the mounting costs, these companies in
partnership with doctors and nurses are attempting to help people manage their
health, not only through cost incentives favoring preventive actions and
massive doses of information, but also through the personal attention of a
"health coach."[2]
How does the "health coach" work? The patient fills out an online health
assessment based on an annual physical, including blood work. The company
provides an incentive for people to get the exam and fill out the assessment by
lowering deductibles for those who do so. The patient fills out the online form
using the data from the exam. Any red flag numbers that come up are brought to
the patient's attention and he or she is then offered the services of a
"health coach," usually a registered nurse, who will be in contact
with the patient by phone to help the patient manage the problem and make
changes.
The health coach
talks with the patient to understand his or her condition and then helps the
patient set goals for living a healthier lifestyle and/or managing a chronic
disease like asthma or diabetes or a host of other conditions. The health coach
checks in with the patient on a regular basis, offering tips and encouragement
for maintaining better health through things like nutrition counseling,
weight-loss strategies, how to take medication effectively, and advising about appropriate
exercises. The patient isn't required to have a health coach or listen to his
or her advice, but for those who want to find a way out of their current health
situation, the coaches are a valuable resource.
It's hard for us
to make changes in our lives strictly by our own will power. The Bible says
that the spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak. Health coaches are different from coaches for
sports with all the screaming, whistles and pushups, but their technique can be
no less effective. All we need is someone to keep us accountable, to build up one
another knowing that better and healthier lives are ahead if we're willing to
put in the hard work of taking charge of our own health.
A health coach,
even if he or she is only on the other end of a phone line, can make a huge
difference in the life of someone who's struggling physically. One recent study
by The New England Journal of Medicine revealed that patients with
health coaches were able to lose five times more weight than those who tried to
lose it on their own.[3]
A health coach can work for you, too.
What's true for
our bodies is true for our spiritual lives. They are closely linked. Health coaching for the soul is as helpful and
necessary as the coaching one might get from a medical insurance company,
except in the case of spiritual coaching we're not trying to cut down or cut back,
but rather trying to fill up on God's spirit and provision for our lives.
God speaks to
the exiled people of Judah through the prophet Isaiah in a way that sounds a
lot like a health coach talking with a suffering patient. The people are living in exile in Babylon
because of their sin, their sin of unfaithfulness to their covenant with
God. Isaiah insists now that that sin is
now a thing of the past and that Yahweh their God and the God of all creation,
is about to do a new and liberating thing in the life of the people Israel and
in the life of the world. (Isaiah 42:5-9).
And because of this new thing that is to take place as a result of God’s
grace, the people and the whole world are to rejoice. Yahweh is a God of mercy and grace. You could say Yahweh’s got the whole world in
his hands and the future of all humankind will be one of justice and peace
under Yahweh’s rule.
God is advising
them on strategies that will restore their spiritual health and relationships
with God as he prepares to lead them back from exile in Babylon. The people
have long been dehydrated and starving as the consequence of their sin and
banishment to a foreign land. Now God gives them some nutrition counseling
about how to be nourished again.
"Ho,
everyone who thirsts, come to the waters,". God made this promise to Noah during the
catastrophic flood many generations before.
As God did then, God promises to continue to sustain and be with them
(54:9-10). God now invites his thirsty people to "come to the waters"
and drink deeply of God's love for them.
Spiritual
dryness can become a chronic condition for the people of God if they do not
come to the "living water" and drink deeply on a regular basis (John
4). As any health coach will tell you,
drinking at least eight, 8-ounce glasses of water a day will benefit you a
great deal. Regular and sustained disciplines of prayer and engagement with
God's word will also sustain the thirsty soul. God invites us, as he invited
the people of Judah, to come and drink deeply and be refreshed by his love and
his promises.
God urges us to
get off the fast, cheap and easy spiritual diet and instead come to the free
and abundant banquet he offers through his amazing grace. This isn't food you
have to work to be able to afford, but rather the gift of a gracious and loving
God (55:1). Indeed, Yahweh identifies the problem with the people's health:
They are spending their money on cheap, undernourished alternatives and working
hard to sustain a spiritual diet that won't satisfy them (55:2). They were starving spiritually on the diet of
slavery in Babylon when God says to them, "Listen carefully to me and eat
what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food" (55:2). That
"food" is the richness of God's own word and promise based on God's
covenant with David (55:3). As rain falls upon the earth bringing forth seeds
that grow bread for us, so God's Word goes out and sustains his people if only
they will come and eat. It's a word that is never "empty" but always
accomplishes God's purpose (55:10-11).
So God urges us
to change how and what we eat. So much of our diet, both physically and
spiritually, comes packaged as sugary-sweet and enticing empty calories,
whether it's on the shelf at the grocery store, the dollar menu at McDonald’s,
the video store or the virtual store. We grow fatter, dumber and sadder the
more we consume the junk of our culture. It’s so much easier to go through the
drive-thru at Sonic or Burger King than it is to take the time to plan and prepare
a nutritious, wholesome meal. We become
lazy and lethargic. We prefer the fast
food fix over our long-term health and happiness. We prefer the easy stuff that’s slowly
killing us over the hard stuff that will keep us healthy.
God urges us
instead to fill up on bread that sustains -- the Bread of Life, the manna from
God that is there to nourish us daily. It’s the bread that enables us not only
to be healthy, but to share ourselves by helping others as “assistant spiritual
health coaches”. Jesus once said, "My food is to do the will of him who
sent me and to complete his work" (John 4:34). We should embrace the same
diet!
If we're going
to make that change, however, we know that we will do better if we don't try to
make it on our own. We need our fellow Christians to help us in community, and
we need to embrace God's offer to coach us through prayer as we make the
change: "Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is
near ..." (55:6) suggests a sense of urgency; a sense of carpe diem. The time is ripe for repentance and for
restoration. And that’s why we come and
seek the Lord at this table and participate in this meal Jesus has prepared for
us; a meal that is capable of sustaining life and hope; a meal that is free and
without cost for all who seek it. It is
illustrated in the words of one of our favorite hymns, “Guide me, O Thou great
Jehovah, Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty; Hold me with Thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, Feed
me till I want no more; Feed me till I want no more.”[4]
God is, after
all, the expert whose "thoughts are not [our] thoughts, nor are [our] ways
[his] ways" (55:8). If we're going to be healthy Christians, we need a
Coach who knows the best way to make us whole!
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