Live WellSample

What is Wellbeing?

Wellbeing can be defined as having good mental health, high life satisfaction, and a sense of meaning or purpose. Generally, it just means feeling well, and while we might think of our physical, emotional, spiritual, relational, vocational, and financial wellbeing as separate areas of life, they’re all interrelated. You can no doubt think of times in your life when a lack of wellbeing in one area of your life impacted your wellbeing in other areas.

The great news is that wherever you find yourself (well or not so well), wellbeing isn’t just a modern, trendy, pop-psych idea. It originates in the heart of God. The word wellbeing doesn’t appear in many translations of the Bible, but the key Old Testament word, shalom, normally translated as peace, is better translated wellbeing in every area of life. The word shalom appears 250 times in the Old Testament, and the Greek equivalent, eirene, appears over 90 times in the New Testament. God has always had a perfect plan for our twenty-first century wellbeing, and that should change our perspective on mental health, physical fitness, and every other aspect of wellbeing.

God’s design for our wellbeing can be traced right through the big story of the Bible. It’s the story of original wellbeing in Eden, lost wellbeing when humankind fell into sin, promised wellbeing as God’s people looked forward to the coming Messiah, restored wellbeing when Jesus died and rose again for our freedom, increased wellbeing as He changes us into greater and greater likeness to Himself, and perfect wellbeing which we’ll enjoy in eternity with Him. We live between the first and second coming of Jesus – somewhere between restored wellbeing and perfect wellbeing. That puts us in the blessed position of enjoying increasing wellbeing as we continually surrender our lives to Jesus.

It’s helpful to look at the life of Elijah – anointed, heroic leader – as we consider our wellbeing today. Astonishingly, right after the height of his ministry and influence, when he was seemingly invincible, we see Elijah crippled by fear and thoughts of suicide. Elijah plummeted from a phenomenal high to an unbearable low because he was just human, like us. There’s no suggestion that he’d fallen into sin of any kind. He was just physically worn out, which made him particularly vulnerable to fear (his arch enemy, Queen Jezebel, had threatened to kill him). Every area of Elijah’s wellbeing was compromised. He was physically exhausted, emotionally depleted, spiritually intimidated, relationally isolated, materially destitute, and vocationally defeated. Thankfully, Elijah’s story doesn’t end with him begging for death. God begins a wonderful process of replenishment, restoring Elijah’s health and readying him for another ten years of life and ministry.

God created humankind to flourish on this planet and to enjoy sweet fellowship with one another and with Him. Despite the devastation that sin has caused in our lives and throughout the world, there is hope: increasing wellbeing is possible as you draw near to Jesus, your Healer and Redeemer.