Lots Of Things Come In Threes

I was at the gym on the stationary bicycle this morning… killing myself… when Joel Osteen came on the tube. I immediately felt guilty that I hadn’t found a church for the morning (remember that I’m on travel). Anyway, Mr. Osteen spoke exclusively on one topic… physical health. What he said resonated with me because it is something that I have long held as a belief. There are three components to health: emotional, physical, and spiritual. The camera panning his massive audience revealed another massive detail… the massive size of his typical parishioner. He talked a lot about balancing these three areas for success.

It seems that throughout my life I have felt that I was doing well in only one (sometimes two) of these aspects at a time. When going through a divorce with my first wife, I was only healthy in the physical sense (except I still chewed tobacco). I was an emotional wreck and my faith was tested. Practically any snapshot that one could take of my life would show me succeeding in one area, struggling in another, and completely bombing the third. In truth, I have been out of balance.

I am a Type A personality. I enjoy competition and thrive under stress. I have a high threshold for risk and manage to come out ahead… particularly over time. Currently, I am working to improve my physical health by training for an Olympic triathlon for next summer. I am pretty emotionally stable if I can stop thinking about all the cut-and-run assholes. So, I’m doing a self-evaluation and realize that my spiritual health sucks. Okay, so what to do about it? First, I’ve signed up for a daily devotional to be emailed to me and I resolve to actually read it. If I can make that a regular part of my life, I’ll be well on my way to some spiritual health. Sweet.