It's not about you
A reflection on Christ-Centered wellness
The first coordinate of The Compass is Being, and the core truth about Being, about existence and our identity is this: It isn’t about you. It’s about Christ. If you consider yourself to be a Christian, this is to be accepted as an unassailable truth, however poorly we live it.
What is it? It is life. Even - and especially - your life.
Another way to say it is that it’s not only or even primarily about you.
The fundamental presupposition of The Christian Life is that there is one God and that we are not Him. Ergo, we are not the center of the world, and our existence, standards, and desires are not of primary importance. Our goal is to lead a Christ-centered life, not a self-centered one. A life that says “Thy will be done,” not “My will be done.”
How does this apply to wellness and the pursuit of a good life? When our understanding is distorted and our priorities are out of order, we and our way of life begin to become disintegrated, leading to dysfunction and degeneration. In other words, when we believe wrongly and live wrongly, the quality of our life suffers, and we suffer with it.
We can’t be truly and abidingly well if we’re not seeking and submitting to the will of God in all places, at all times, and in all ways. The more perfectly we do so, the more perfectly well we’ll be. The less perfectly, the less well.
If you want to live an unfulfilling life, make it about you. Seek your will first. Submit to your own desires and lean on your own understanding. Place your needs above everyone else’s. Serve yourself.
If you want to live a fulfilling life, make it about Christ. Seek His will first. Submit to His desires for you and lean on His wisdom. Place his calling for you above your cares and serve Him rather than yourself.
Make Christ the “why” to your “what.” Be a good steward of your physical and mental health and fitness, of your assets, opportunities, responsibilities, and relationships, not simply for the sake of doing so or for your own pride, but to better show your love for God and your neighbor by living a life of service. I’m not claiming that this is easy. It’s simple, but it’s not easy. If it were, we’d all be saints. But it is needful, and it is beneficial. Our lives and legacies will be the better for it.
Wellness begins with right orientation, not self at the center, but Christ. Only a Christ-centered life is rightly centered. And only a rightly centered life becomes a life of blessedness.
- Remy