Today’s devotional begins with a public service announcement (PSA). This is National Triglycerides Day. Triglycerides are a type of fat stored in your blood. If the levels are too high, it can signal other underlying health conditions as well as pushing you into heart disease. A simple blood test will reveal your numbers along with cholesterol levels. It’s called a lipid panel, and we need one at least once a year.
GO GET A CHECK UP!
When I was younger, I never thought of this. As you get older, you start visiting a doctor more often. For me, it all began with my gallbladder taking a dive around 2007 when I was 40. Since then, it’s beginning to feel like driving an old car down the road. You keep looking in the rearview mirror to see if any parts fell off!
Then came the first endoscopy and colonoscopy at 42 due to some after affects of the gallbladder being removed. Well, those of you in that age bracket know how that goes. The scopes have just begun! I’m on my third one now! It used to be that the medical profession advocated the first scope at 50. However, they’ve bumped this up to 40 because of the increased number of colon cancer cases. Let the fun times begin!
Over the last 18 years, I’ve had five surgeries, plenty of blood draw sticks, three scopes, at least 10 IVs, and many tests. And that’s nothing compared to what others have been through. It’s just a part of life for a basically healthy person. Imagine what someone really sick is going through!
Nobody likes to get poked and prodded by a doctor. Some tests are uncomfortable. Others are embarrassing. But the earlier something is discovered, the better the chances of it being treated and cured. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away.
GO GET A CHECK UP!
Guys are the worst about doing this. I don’t know if we just don’t like to admit that we are weak and vulnerable or there is a fear of going to the doctor. Maybe we just think we are too busy. But the results of our negligence are not good.
“Across national and cultural boundaries, men die an average of seven years earlier than women; the disparity in the United States is approximately five years.”1 Dr. Marianne Legato, author of Why Men Die First and a specialist at Columbia University, gives seven reasons for this mortality statistic. Two of those seven reasons are: 1) men have a higher risk of coronary artery disease and 2) men have a “suck it up” mentality when they aren’t feeling right.
Dr. Legato makes a great point. “Our culture may reward stoic behavior from men; disease does not.”2
GO GET A CHECK UP!
This concludes the PSA for today. Now, on with the devotional! John wrote in 3 John 1:1-2, “The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. (2) Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” If our physical health was based on our spiritual health, how healthy would we be? Would we be well and vibrant? Would we be in therapy and rehab? Would we be in the hospital ICU? Would we be in the palliative care room?
While we should care for our physical bodies, our spirit and soul need attention even more. 1 Timothy 4:8 says, “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” The verse isn’t advocating for us to get fat and flabby. It’s simply showing that some can have a far greater preoccupation with their physique than they do with their spiritual walk with the Lord.
Today, make an appointment with the Great Physician. There’s no waiting and an appointment is guaranteed. Ask Him for a thorough spiritual examination. When He walks into the exam room, say, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: (24) And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalms 139:23-24)
1https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/on-men/2008/06/13/7-reasons-men-die-first
2Ibid.
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