Jesus the Healer and The Call to Steward Our Bodies
Trusting King Jesus While Seeking Health
A Strange and Sick World
You and I live in a strange world. Miracles happen every day when new babies are born into the world. But grief happens every day too because people are very sick. Here are some stats that will sober anyone up to this reality:
74% of the country is obese
50 million people have autoimmune diseases
20% of women have PCOS (worldwide)
6.9 million adults 65 and older live with Alzheimer’s disease
34% of young adults are struggling with a mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder
77% of Americans are unfit for the military
~2 million new cases of cancer were discovered in 2024
& maybe saddest of all- in 2022 1.6 million people attempted suicide
Our world is sick, hurting, and broken (but not just physically).
I love Jesus and I believe he’s in control of all things. But, I often grapple with the tension between Jesus being the Ultimate Healer and my responsibility to steward my body.
The Balanced Beam blog is a space to talk about health and wellness through the lens of Eternal Hope in Jesus the Healer.
Why ‘The Balanced Beam’?
The name, truthfully, came from my husband. But it quickly developed a lot of meaning for me. The first meaning to unpack is in the picture of a gymnastic balance beam. I want you to picture yourself trying to walk on a balance beam for the first time. Most likely you’re excited and nervous. You’re probably accompanied by a gymnast trainer walking right by you. They’re holding you up in some way. Maybe your instructor is actually up on the beam with you, keeping you from falling. This picture is symbolic of my life as I learn how to become balanced between control and neglect. The Trinity (Jesus, Holy Spirit, and God) hide in the symbol of the instructor. Helping me, teaching me, and protecting me from injury.
The second meaning of this name is this idea of a beam of light. As we all learned in elementary and middle school, the sun and its light sustain life. Without the sun, life couldn’t exist from a biological standpoint. In root cause medicine, a lot of the approach to healing centers around what you eat. Life sustains other life through the plants and animals that we eat to stay alive. As the sun sustains life on earth, the Son, Jesus, is light and life to all humanity- in a way much deeper than a physical one. Our physical life is one part of who we are as humans. We also have a soul that is either alive or dead. Our soul is either nourished or neglected. So like a plant needs the sun to live, we need Jesus to live.
These two symbols come together to form what I am calling ‘The Balanced Beam.’ This blog is born out of a lot of frustration. This frustration is from seeing myself and others either neglect the body or try to completely control it. Both extremes dishonor the Lord. The Lord is both Creator and Sustainer, so we must honor His creation (us) while trusting his sovereignty and healing power to sustain us. Everyone must face this truth whether they trust in God or not. In this space, I’d love to share my journey with you.
My Journey on the Balanced Beam
In a word, my journey on the balanced beam has been: imperfect. I’m often a very anxious person (some of that stems from health issues and some from not trusting in God). I worry about all the “what ifs.” Have you been there? I’ve grown in my awareness of my tendencies to sway from one extreme to the other. Ephesians 4 talks about how immaturity causes us to be “children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” That was me. This still is me sometimes. I’m far from arriving (as if that is even a thing). I often ask myself, “What would it be like if I was balanced between neglecting my body and controlling my body?”
The Swinging Pendulum Between Neglect and Control
When I say “neglecting” my body and "controlling" my body, this is what I mean. The first manifests itself in the view that I have no responsibility to take care of my body. My neglectfulness says “It won’t matter if I don’t get enough sleep,” “eating junk as the majority of my diet won’t affect me, people have been doing it for years!” Neglect slips in when we forget God’s definition of humanity. Genesis says: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
In the image of God.
We were created to have dominion over the earth and we were given bodies made in the image of God. We shouldn’t take it lightly that we are made in the image of God. 1 Corinthians 6:20 says to “honor God with your bodies.” The context of this verse was a little different than what I’m speaking to, but it shows an important truth: God can either be honored or dishonored by what we do with our bodies. I believe that includes everything from how we fuel it to who we spend our time with.
The second idea -controlling, shows itself through our belief that health, wellness, and healing is totally dependent on our actions. This is a lie. One that dishonors God by totally removing him from the equation. We are called to steward God’s creation, and we are part of that. We are also called to trust God- not just with the good things, but with the hard things too. Like ailing bodies, struggling minds, and unmet expectations.
Our Job is to Steward, God’s is to Heal
You and I live in a strange world. Grief happens everyday but so do miracles. Jesus is the Ultimate Healer. Here are some stats to encourage you with that truth:
Jesus healed a paralyzed man (Matthew 9:1–7)
Jesus raised a little girl from the dead (Mark 5:21–43)
Jesus made blind eyes see just by touching them (John 9:1-12)
Jesus healed a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years straight (Matthew 9:20-22)
Jesus healed a severed ear (Luke 22:50-51)
Jesus healed a man with leprosy (Matthew 8:1-4)
Jesus healed a demon-possessed man (Matthew 8:28-33)
Jesus fed 5,000 hungry people with two fish and five loaves of bread (Matthew 14:13-21)
As we go about our daily routines and pursue healing, we must remember that these stats prove to us that God is the healer. He is so mighty and able to heal. Pursue how you feel him calling you to steward your body, but trust him with your healing outcome.
And lastly, welcome. Welcome to The Balanced Beam Blog. Where we talk about health and wellness through the lens of Eternal Hope in Jesus the Healer. We’ll chat on the fourth Saturday of every month. Talk soon!
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