A key contributor to your health …

There are some comic strips that are probably more well-liked by adults than children. Take, for example, the enduring “Peanuts” characters created by cartoonist Charles Schulz.

In one Peanuts cartoon Lucy says to Charlie Brown, “I hate everything. I hate everybody. I hate the whole wide world!”

Charlie says, “But I thought you had inner peace.”

Lucy replies, “I do have inner peace. But I still have outer obnoxiousness.”

We smile at that cartoon because many of us would like to agree with Lucy … but deep down, we know better.

We like to say we have inner peace and still be as obnoxious as we want to be.

It doesn’t work that way.

The truth is, what is our internal reality is what eventually shows through, even if we try to disguise what’s really on the inside with a contradictory external behavior.

The Pharisees that Jesus observed were this kind of person — they tried to portray externally something different than the person they were internally, and Jesus called them out for it:

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy — full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too. What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs — beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness,” Matthew 23:25-28.

Not only is such dishonest behavior a serious spiritual problem, it’s also bad for your health. Internal conflict, an internal lack of peace, leads to external expressions of a life racked with stress, anxiety, depression, and even a variety of physical ailments; our physical bodies respond and react to our mental, emotional, and spiritual states. So we find a holistic prescription in the book of Proverbs to redirect us:

“A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body; jealousy is like cancer in the bones,” Proverbs 14:30.

The verse doesn’t say a peaceful heart produces a healthy body, it says it leads to a healthy body. We still need to be good stewards of our bodies in other ways to enjoy good health, but we’ll literally sabotage our overall health when we fail to give serious attention to fostering and nurturing a peaceful heart.

Put another way, don’t think you can enjoy (for the long term) a healthy body while living a life racked with internal conflict. Choosing to live a life with inner turmoil will eventually result in your body reacting to your internal lack of peace.

Want to work on improving your health?

“Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it,” Psalm 34:14.

An enduring peace, an internal peace that can withstand all of life’s circumstances and experiences, is a gift that comes from being a follower of Jesus:

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world,” John 16:33.

“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all,” 2 Thessalonians 3:16.

“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” Isaiah 26:3.

“I am leaving you with a gift — peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid,” John 14:27.

Scotty