If you look under “healthcare” in the dictionary you’ll probably see the word “expensive,” so wouldn’t it be great to identify some healthcare steps that make for a healthy body, mind, andbank account?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #13 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

Healthcare is a long way from what our forebears endured during the 1800s and earlier. Thankfully, we no longer use leeches to suck out poison, understand germs, 

recognize the importance of hygiene, and have developed a vast array of medicines and medical technology that improve the quality and often the longevity of our lives.

But with this advancement has also come increasing costs—for the meds and med tech but also for health and medical insurance to helps us pay the bills. Consequently, some argue the government should do more, then do more again, taking care of us with socialized healthcare programs that too often trade benefits for liberties.

But take heart, there are costfree healthcare steps we can choose. We shared a few of these steps in the last podcast episode, “Costfree Healthcare 1,” so here we go with “Costfree Healtcare 2.”

What can we do for little or no cost that will improve our health?

1. Avoid Narcotics.53 million Americans, or 19.4% of people 12 and over, used illegal drugs or misused prescription drugs within the last year. Remember the commercial: “This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs”? Sizzling fried egg. Actually, that commercial understated the problem. Hard drugs debilitate not only the brain but every part of a substance abuser’s life. “Using” is unwise, illegal, and unhealthy. 

2. Don’t Abuse Alcohol.If alcohol and tobacco are included, 165 million or 60.2% or of Americans aged 12 years or older currently abuse drugs and alcoho Alcohol abuse slows reflexes, impairs mental processes, increases the risk of several diseases, and often leads to alcohol dependence. It’s not called “Getting hammered” for nothing.

3. Develop a Hobby. Hobbies typically involve collecting, accomplishing, enriching, learning, expressing, developing, preserving. Part of the fun is that we don’t have todo these things. The very “unnecessary” character of many hobbies is evidence of the creative talent we possess as imago Dei, beings made in the image of God. The capacity to develop, arrange, or make is a form of investing ourselves and our values in the Created Order. It’s a God thing, which raises our quality of life.

4. Forgive.The man or woman who does not forgive is the man or woman who is hurt in perpetuity, embittered, and enslaved. Meanwhile, the unforgiven often go on unscathed. Jesus commanded us to forgive “not seven times, but seventy-seven times,” i.e., unto infinity if necessary (Matt. 18:22). Forgiving doesn’t exonerate another; God still brings things to account. Forgiving is a divinely enabled act that releases us. You probably know someone who hasn’t forgiven a parent dead for 25 years. Sad. Unforgiveness is a cancer of the soul. I can’t prove it, but I think unforgiveness is the number one sin in the Christian Church.

5. Avoid Sex Outside Marriage.“Friends with benefits” is a hip phrase communicating the general moral state of our culture. It denotes unmarried friends who have sex-sans-commitment whenever they’re inclined. But sex outside marriage is neither as casual nor as inconsequential as commonly believed. On the contrary, certain pathologies form a scary list of direct and indirect consequences: STDs, unwanted pregnancies and sometimes abortions, broken marriages, and additional psychological, spiritual, and physical forms of duress that can last a lifetime.  

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6. Serve Others.If you’re feeling depressed, down in the mouth, or logy, focus upon someone else’s problems. Then help them. It’s amazing what “Love one another” does to one’s perspective, feelings, and even actual circumstances.

7. Don’t Speed.From our youth we’ve heard “Speed Kills.” It does.

8. Get Married.I’m hard-pressed to argue this one is costfree, but researchers have repeatedly made the case that married people are healthier and tend to live longer than unmarried people. It seems God knew what he was doing when he said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18). Of course, women have always known that men would make a mess of things if left to their own devices.

9. Get a Pet.Again, not sure this is truly costfree, but with the dividends the costs are minimal and worth it. People who own pets live longer, healthier lives. It’s called pet therapy. Go figure.

Our Brownie the Beagle has a philosophy, a consistent one:

--If I say, I’m really stressed…Brownie says, “Let’s go for a walk.”

--Me: Such and such happened and it’s a bummer…Brownie: “Let’s go for a walk.”

--Me: My favorite team lost…Brownie: “Let’s go for a walk.”

--Me: The world is ending as we know it…Brownie: “Let’s go for a walk.”

Moral of the story: If you need near costfree healthcare, get a dog or other pet. Pets are less expensive than Peloton or gym memberships, and they ask very few questions about our problems. They focus on “joie de vivre” – the joy of life.

Costfree healthcare is in our grasp, just a choice or two away. Live without self-induced health problems. Live longer. Deciding to live healthy is a matter of God honoring stewardship. 

Well, we’ll see you again soon. For more Christian commentary, be sure to subscribe to this podcast, Discerning What Is Best, or check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022    

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