Why a Blog on 'Health'?

Why am I writing about health on a website which is clearly about discipling and missions?

Well, firstly, teaching on health is a big part of discipling believers and nations.  

Secondly, Catalyst Ministries is about stimulating action and effecting change, and people's health is certainly an area where action and change are needed. 

Thirdly, in order to be as effective in our lives and ministries as possible, we owe it to ourselves, and to the blood Jesus shed for us, to be as healthy as we can be. 

Lastly, as Christians, we should be an example of wisdom and awareness of health and environmental concerns.  Rather than lagging behind, we should be leading the way in these important issues as good stewards of our bodies and the earth God gave us.

Are those reasons enough to whet your appetite?

I hope so, because 'appetite' is what a lot of this is about.  I don't know about you, but I have a good one.  I'm a petite person but I can 'eat like a horse' and I enjoy my food.  'Appetite' can be a great thing!  However, appetite also has to be directed if it is to remain a great thing.  Our appetites extend beyond food.  We have well-developed appetites for all that is convenient, fast, packaged, colourful, well-advertised, and popular.  We have developed appetites for processed products that are mass-produced by large companies and sold to us in one convenient place called the 'supermarket'.   And along with our appetite for processed food loaded with fats, sugar, artificial sweeteners, colours, preservatives and chemical names we can't pronounce (if we even bother to read them), we have developed an appetite for ignorance and apathy.  After all, most of us, if we are honest, do not want to know what is in our food, where it came from, what has been done to it, or how it got to us.  We just want to eat and get on with life, preferably without thinking too hard, or knowing too much.  ‘Ignorance is bliss’, the saying goes, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Our ignorance, apathy, and subsequent lack of change and action makes a major contribution to society, but it is not a positive one.  Ignorance contributes to the increase of serious diet-related illnesses such as diabetes, heart ailments and cancers, with a third of children now being overweight or obese.  Ignorance contributes to factory farming where literally billions of animals annually are subjected to and suffer from grossly inhumane conditions and treatment.  Ignorance contributes to the continued use of dangerous pesticides causing cancers, autism, ADHD and neurological disorders.  Ignorance is allowing dangerous exposure of farm workers and their communities to these chemicals.  Ignorance is contributing to the exploitation of the poor as farmers’ livelihoods are devastated by the wealth of large companies who then employ them on low wages.  Ignorance contributes to literally tens of thousands of tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year.  Bliss?  I think not!

Discipling nations is about teaching others who God is, what he is like, and his way of doing things, in every area and sphere of society.  That includes education, the family, agriculture and conservation, business, the media, and arts and entertainment to name a few.  But how can we disciple others unless we first allow ourselves to be discipled?  Discipling reaches into every area of life.  It does not just affect the spiritual side of life, it affects the mental, emotional, physical and social.  It includes the issues of health, the environment, the living creatures God put on this earth, and fair treatment of workers.  It includes the food we eat, the injustices and corruption behind the food industry, and how we treat the temple known as our body.

It is time for ignorance and apathy to end and be replaced with knowledge and action.  It is only by knowing the truth and caring enough to do something about it that we can bring change to our own lives, and subsequently to the world around us.  It is time we developed a healthier appetite for righteousness and justice, for God’s way of doing things in our world.  Food is so easily forgotten as it goes into our mouths and down through our alimentary canal.  Maybe that is why we pay so little attention to its importance.  But the food we put in to our bodies every day has a major impact on us and society.  Ignorance seems so much easier, more comfortable and enjoyable, but more and more people are wanting to know the truth and are asking the questions we should all ask.

The food on your plate came from somewhere.  Where did it come from?  How far did it travel?  What happened to it in the process?  Whose lives were affected by it?  Was cruelty involved? What is in it?  Will it do your body good or harm?  Who is profiting from its purchase?  Our lives are often too busy for us to consider these matters.  But unless we stop and allow the Holy Spirit to get beneath our skin and talk to us about these issues, we will carry on with life with full stomachs, blind hearts, and often waning health.  Not only that, but we will have contributed to the continuation of the injustices being committed by the food industry, and the continuation of ignorance and apathy through the generations.  After all, what is important to us we will pass on to our children and others.  If we don’t care about these issues, neither will they.

Got an appetite yet?  I know I have.  I have an appetite to see God’s people full of knowledge and wisdom about living in health.  I have an appetite to see them caring about themselves, others and the environment in the way God designed.  I have an appetite to see them leading the way in good stewardship of their bodies and the earth.  I have an appetite to see them being examples people can follow and leading the way in these important issues that affect people the world over.  You can help disciple nations.  You can help change the world.  Look down.  It begins with something as simple, and yet as important, as the food on your plate.