Mental illness. We either have it or we don’t. Right?

I recently came across a thought that perhaps everyone suffers from some form of mental illness. Then the very next week, I sat with a couple friends. And one of them said that very sentence. Everyone probably suffers from a mental illness.

I don’t know if it’s actually true or not. But I wouldn’t be surprised.

Physical illness. It’s a fact that everyone will suffer from a physical illness during their lifetime. That’s typically what ends most lives. So we must be aware that we most likely will endure pain and suffering, at least for a season.

Spiritual illness. Some don’t ever stop and consider that they must care for their soul. The one part of each person that will live forever. The soul will live for eternity. And each of us has a choice as to where our soul will spend eternity. Heaven or hell.

Let’s think about this.

God created our human bodies. He created us in his image. What does that mean? After all, he doesn’t have a human body. He can’t die. He is perfect. He has always lived and will always live. He created the entire universe and everything and everyone in it.

Being made in God’s image means that we are made to be like him. We were created to be a visible likeness of God. God is invisible, and we’re his visible representative. How well do we represent him?

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In whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? Job 12:10

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These human bodies that God created are finite. They won’t last. Oh. Some bodies have lasted over one hundred years. But that’s not so typical these days. Our bodies will break down. They will fail. Organs and limbs and parts slow down or stop working. Our five senses may become distorted.

These bodies were created to house our true self. Our soul. Our spirit. Our physical bodies are temporary shelters for the part of us that will live for eternity. It’s hard to grasp. We spend so much time maintaining this temporary shelter. We trim and we fatten. We color and we bleach. We strengthen and we weaken. We breathe in and we breathe out. We grow and we shrink. These physical bodies. We think they’re so special. But the special thing really is that they’re not meant to last forever.

Oh. These bodies are a work of art, all right. The Master of the Universe created these mortal bodies to serve him while we are on this earth. He didn’t plan for them to last forever. He has a permant body planned for each of us, if we surrender our lives to him. A new body will be given to us in the far future, when he creates the new heaven and the new earth. So for now, these bodies are the only ones we have. Let’s care for them.

These temporary shelters of our soul will fail. Our hearing will diminish. Our eyesight will dim. Our muscles will atrophy. Our steps will falter. Our minds will fail. But our soul will live on. Just as our physical bodies are mortal, our souls are immortal.

All the while this is happening, we must be strengthening our soul. I have to ask myself. Do I make sure I spend as much time strengthening my soul as I do strengthening my body? I feed this temporary body fruits and veggies, among other things. What do I feed my soul? Is my soul diet filled with junk food? What do I fill my heart and mind with? Do I ever trim the fat from my unhealthy soul? Do I exercise my soul? The part of me that will live forever. How healthy is my soul?

The soul of a human is the only part that is made to last for eternity. We feed our soul by building faith. We must guard our soul from Satan’s advances. He’s out to get our soul. We must fight for the health of our soul by digging deep into God’s Word. We must refuse to give ourselves over to Satan’s control. We must surrender to God and not give Satan a fighting chance. Oh. He’ll fight all right. But eternity is a long time to spend with someone who hates you. Jesus loves us. Spending eternity with him will be heaven on earth.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17