Text: Phillipians 3:4b-14 (Isaiah 43:16-21; John 12:1-8)
Wellness is not a state of being as much as a constant seeking of balance on the journey. We do not achieve wellness as much as maintain it. Anyone who has lived long enough knows this to be true. As we move through time and space, everything changes. What seemed to work in one phase of life no longer holds up in a new phase. Every cell in our bodies changes every seven years. There are, however, characteristics of wellness that we need to insure are a part of our lives as we move through the changes of life. First, we must attend to our relationship with God. It is this relationship that can provide what we need to face the uncertainty of the journey. Isaiah is speaking to a people who had lost everything and found themselves to be strangers in a strange land. None the less, Isaiah encourages the people to seek God’s strength even in the wilderness. In John’s Gospel, Mary recognizes the importance of investing in Jesus while he is present. The reading from Phillipians encourages us on what to value on the journey. Things will come and go in life, but constantly seeking God’s promised future invites us forward to what lies ahead with hope. Wellness is about how we make the journey from where we are to this new thing God is about to do. How are we seeking, investing and valuing this time so that we might move well into what lies ahead?