We require balance in our priorities, which sometimes must come by the admonition of those under whose authority we live. I recently met a retired stockbroker who devoted most of his waking hours to a program to extend his life. He followed a complex diet and exercise regimen diligently. He had it all on computer and thereby kept exact record of every morsel he ate and each calorie expended. Some evidence exists to suggest that being slightly underfed, minimizing fats and meats, etc., are efficacious to extend life. If this is true, does God require such a preoccupation as his? Not at all! Such a consuming pursuit of physical life makes an idol of it.
Though our physical lives are precious and may be too lightly esteemed by our society and by ourselves, we should remember that the even the best physical life we enjoy is distorted; it is abnormal due to original sin. Paul reminds us that "outwardly [physically] we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day ... So we fix our eyes not on what is seen [our bodies, for example], but on what is unseen. For what is seems temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Cor. 4:16b, 18) Neither medical nor non-medical methods of preventive medicine, therefore, should anticipate being able to do more than slow down the natural deterioration that is our lot since Eden.
Excerpt from "How Would God Have Us Practice Preventive Medicine?"
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