Monthly Theme: Why Wellness?
Reading time: two minutes.
I hope you finished 2021 healthier, wiser, stronger and more energized for ministry than you began a year ago.
Grace Place Wellness is committed to offering all the encouragement and support we can through resources like our books and this blog, and through our online and live events to ensure that you flourish in this New Year.
So, what does that flourishing look like? How do you define wellness?
It’s important to have in mind what your spiritual, emotional, physical and vocational health look like when you’re at your best. Otherwise, like the cat said, if you don’t know where you’re headed, any road will get you there.
Why don’t we start the year with a few of the touchpoints for wellness that I keep in mind? I think these four are the key components of a wellness lifestyle.
A healthy lifestyle begins with self-awareness.
Do you know how to answer the question, “How are you doing?” It takes constant vigilance to understand how your past is affecting your present.
Self-awareness means continually asking yourself questions like, “Why haven’t I slept well lately? How has that affected my mood? My family life? My work? My health?” What do you do for self-assessment?
It can mean asking how the habits you developed in your family of origin are impacting your life today. Or how an argument last night changes your day today. Be alert. We need more lerts.
And self-awareness makes it much easier to find the gospel healing you need.
The second touchpoint is daily refreshment, renewal and healing in the gospel of Christ.
Wellness is remembering every day God’s unending baptismal covenant with you; taking time to pause and letting God just love you, even though you didn’t earn it and don’t deserve it.
It’s being forgiven for the sins of yesterday and learning to forgive others so that you can move forward in the joy of unity.
This is why Jesus came. For you. For healing. For today and for every day.
And healing leads to resilience, the third touchpoint.
We’re in this for the long haul, and the haul of ministry is really long.
Professional church workers learn early on how to manage the weekly cycle, whether in classroom or pulpit. The Sundays and the Mondays just keep coming. Self-care is essential to keep meeting the demands of the next week, and the next…
Resilience is the capacity to recognize how rough last week, last month and last year have been, to find healing and refreshment, and to move forward in the power and the joy of Jesus.
A more pointed way of asking “Are you well?” is to ask, “Are you resilient?”
The fourth touchpoint is the establishment of good boundaries (and learning to stay within them).
Our spiritual, relational, physical and vocational struggles are a warning from our loving Father to set up safeguards for our wellbeing.
As you look forward to the new year, what boundaries will you set for yourself that will help you to flourish throughout the year and finish strong this December?
God bless all of your adventures of faith and service this year.
Thanks for reading.
