One of the greatest blessings of growing up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church was learning that our bodies matter to God.
Long before “lifestyle medicine” became popular, Adventists were encouraging principles that research continues to support: eating nourishing foods, exercising regularly, getting adequate rest, avoiding harmful substances, spending time outdoors, building healthy relationships, and trusting in God. These practices improve health, reduce the risk of many chronic diseases, and often contribute to longer, healthier lives.
I am deeply grateful for the Adventist health message.
But somewhere along the way, I think many of us unintentionally began believing something it never promised:
“If I live the right way, I won’t get sick.”
Or perhaps even more damaging:
“If someone is sick, they must not have lived the right way.”
I have had these thoughts, but the health message was never meant to make this promise. Perhaps these thoughts give us the feeling of being able to control our health and prevent bad things. Control I certainly wish I had.
Healthy living changes probabilities. It does not eliminate human frailty.
We live in a world where genetics, congenital conditions, autoimmune diseases, infections, accidents, and aging are realities. Many illnesses are partially influenced by lifestyle. Others are not.
My own story is a reminder of that. I first saw an orthopedic specialist when I was three years old because of problems with my knees. More than fifty years later, I underwent my first total knee replacement. Healthy choices helped me care for my body over the years, but they could not change the structural problems I was born with.
That doesn’t diminish the value of healthy living. It simply reminds us that caring for our bodies is not the same as controlling what happens to them.
Jesus challenged this very way of thinking. When His disciples encountered a man who had been blind from birth, they immediately wanted to know whose fault it was. Was it his sin or his parents’? While this was influenced by their culture and religious beliefs of the time, I still see people asking similar questions today, looking for what the person did to cause their suffering.
Jesus answered, “Neither.” Never did He ask someone coming for healing to confess their shortcomings or sins before healing. Never did he say, “You should have avoided all the cake and donuts.”
Jesus rejected the assumption suffering always has a simple explanation.
As a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I’ve also seen how painful it can be when people believe their illness is evidence they have somehow failed God. I’ve cared for individuals with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, OCD, ADHD, and schizophrenia who quietly wondered if they just needed more faith or needed to pray harder.
Prayer is powerful. Healthy habits matter. Medical care matters.
These truths don’t compete with one another—they complement one another. God often works through physicians, nurses, therapists, medications, surgeries, and researchers just as surely as He works through prayer and the support of a caring community.
The Adventist health message is at its best when it is offered as an invitation rather than a judgment. It encourages us to steward the bodies God has given us, not to assume we know why another person is suffering.
When someone is hurting, our first response should not be to ask, “What did they do wrong?” Jesus never asked that question.
Our question should be like Jesus’ response, “How can I help?”
One day, God promises to make all things new. Until then, we do the best we can to care for our bodies, seek appropriate medical care, pray faithfully, and extend compassion to others.
Perhaps the greatest evidence that we understand the health message isn’t simply found in the food we eat or the exercise we get. Perhaps it’s found in how we treat people whose bodies—or minds—are hurting.
Because while good health is a blessing, compassion (or love for our neighbor) is a commandment.
