|
A FREE EXTRA DECADE OF LIFE #2
IT’S NOT WHAT YOU EAT . . .
I don’t suppose I’ll get mailed any free passes for
saying this on the radio, but if you want to enjoy a real Hawaii bargain,
you can’t do any better than to tour the Polynesian Cultural Center on
the north shore of Oahu. Last time I checked, it cost just a frugal $35
to enjoy a full day of touring the seven sections — Samoa, Fiji, Tahiti,
New Zealand, Tonga, Marquesas, and Hawaii — see an IMAX film on The Deep
Sea or Polynesian Odyssey, experience the canoe pageant, and then cap
off your day watching the breathtaking evening program, Horizons, with
its cast of more than 100 island dancers.
More than a million people every year go through the turnstiles at PCC,
this amazing tourist attraction which is run by the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. But it must be duly noted: you don’t have to become
a Mormon in order to enjoy the experience! Oh, there’s a tourist bus which
will take you over to the nearby LDS Temple, where you can see a video
explaining church doctrines. All of the people staffing the Polynesian
Cultural Center are members of the church, including the guy at the Samoan
village — maybe the funniest natural comedian some of us have ever seen
in our lives. And I’m sure that our Mormon friends would be happy if some
of the 27 million tourists who have visited the center would say: “This
is incredible! I’m going to find out more.” But you can go to Oahu, buy
a ticket, see the shows, eat the food, leave, and fly back to wherever
you came from . . . and never again give the LDS Church a second thought.
And the people who have designed this wonderful PCC experience have deliberately
set it up in exactly that way.
Well, why do I give this unsolicited Tuesday plug to a church not my own?
Well, here’s the reason. We’re in much the same canoe all this week, as
we began to study yesterday. I shared with you details from an incredible
new book, just off the press, entitled Live 10 Healthy Years Longer, by
Word Publishing, and written by Jan Kuzma and Cecil Murphey. And this
book’s 20 chapters reveals secrets of the “Live-Longer Lifestyle,” as
researched for several decades by people studying a control group of more
than 27,000 people.
Now, all 27,514 in the study happen to be Seventh-day Adventist Christians
. . . just like I am. And the reason they live nine, or ten, or 13 years
longer was because they live by the principles of their church: no smoking,
no alcohol, no drugs, eight glasses of water a day, a largely vegetarian
diet, etc.
But the point to note is this — and it’s why I gave you that Polynesian
Cultural Center commercial a moment ago. Anybody, anywhere, who would
like to do the same thing — experience the “Live-Longer Lifestyle,” and
add ten or so years to their life — can do it. The Adventist Church doesn’t
own these ideas. They aren’t patented. In fact, these two wonderful writers,
Jan Kuzma and Cecil Murphey, make this very confession:
“If you’re wondering if this increased longevity is available only to
those of the Adventist persuasion, we want to assure you that it has little
to do with being an Adventist and everything to do with the Adventist
lifestyle — adapting the health practices we have identified. The way
we live makes the difference in our health and in our longevity.”
Now Kuzma happens to be an Adventist. He’s followed
the “Live-Longer Lifestyle” principles pretty much all his life. Cecil
Murphey, his co-author, is a Presbyterian. After years of clacking together
on computer keyboards with Jan Kuzma, a devout Adventist, Cecil’s still
a Presbyterian! But when he went into the hospital for the second time,
not too many years back, he realized he had some problems. Ulcers, 25
pounds of extra fat. Blood pressure in the “high normal” range: 140/80.
And the doctor said to him: “Congratulations. You are now going to be
a chronic ulcer patient. I’ll be seeing a lot of you.”
And Murphey said to himself: “No, you won’t either.” And he realized that
he could “visit the Adventist village,” so to speak, see the canoe pageant
and the evening floorshow, without joining the church. So he began a program
of running and walking, soon getting up to 35 miles a week. Blood pressure:
110/60. Weight: normal. He’s got that Live-Longer Lifestyle down pat.
And guess what? He hasn’t been to the doctor in the past ten years.
I guess it reminds me of the Christian magazine, entitled Ministry, which
my own Adventist church sounds out free of charge, not only to its own
pastors, but to clergy of any denomination who want it. And they say right
there in a note on page three: “Take a look. If there’s something that
works for you, use it with our compliments. If there are some articles
in here that are just plain too ‘Adventist,’ just not useful for you and
your congregation, tip them in File 13 and just keep on truckin’, praise
the Lord.” So that’s certainly where we are on this Tuesday.
Well, all this Polynesian canoe talk just gives us a few minutes left
to describe what this amazing new book tells us in Chapter Two. The title
is marvelous: “Get an Attitude!” And these two writers, Jan and Cecil,
remind us of something very important: OUR MENTAL STATE AFFECTS OUR HEALTH.
They tell the story of a man named James, who built up a huge 40-million-dollar
fortune, only to lose it all in the crash of ‘29. He was so worried he
couldn’t sleep; he developed a nasty case of shingles. He checked into
a hospital, and was so depressed he was literally writing goodbye letters
to his wife and son, figuring he wouldn’t last the night. And then he
heard some people singing in the hospital chapel: “Be not dismayed, whate’er
betide, God will take care of you.”
And this James wrote later:
“I felt as if I had been instantly lifted out of the
darkness of a dungeon into warm, brilliant sunlight. . . . I felt the
power of God as I had never felt it before. . . . I knew that God with
His love was there to help me. From that day to this, my life has been
free from worry. I am seventy-one years old, and the most dramatic and
glorious minutes of my life were those spent in that chapel that morning.”
James’ full name, by the way, was James Cash Penney
. . . and Mr. J. C. Penney lived to be a happy 95. Of course, you know
that he died a billionaire.
This book builds on that story to tell us all that attitude can literally
define health. They cite a British 10-year study of 57 women who had all
had mastectomies. Twenty-four of those women had an attitude of “It’s
all over; may as well accept it.” Within the decade all 24 were dead.
The others, those with a fighting, optimistic attitude . . . ten years
later, every single one of them was still alive.
And we discover, reading this book, that if you just have an attitude
of optimism, you’re going to have less illness; you’re going to be less
likely to get a cold; you’re going to have an improved immune system.
In fact — get this — just the practice of thinking about love can increase
levels of salivary immunoglobulin A for some people, and of course, that’s
part of our immune system which protects us from infections and illness.
Here’s a great list of nine things every single one of us can do to improve
our attitude, to deliberately choose a philosophy of optimism:
1. Smile often. Laugh a lot. Spend $35, by the way, and go hear that comedian
from Samoa. You’ll get well in a hurry.
2. When you face problems, tell yourself, “This will pass.” And you know,
friend, that’s true. Jan and Cecil tell us about a woman who would have
problems jump in her lap. But she would just say to herself, “Hey, five
years from now, will I even be remembering this? No way.” And she’d move
on.
3. Develop a support network. Friends, family, a small
group of people you know at church.
4. Condition your mind. And I’ll tell you something: memorizing Bible
verses is a fantastic way to do that. Some of us have been reading Proverbs
lately, and every single page has just verse after verse which can help
you to look up, not down.
5. Learn to forgive. Some of you know we just did a three-week radio series
on holding grudges and learning to forgive, and the Bible does say, flat
out, that revenge and envy can hurt your health; they can rot the bones.
So of course, the flip side is true as well. You can only be optimistic
if you forgive others and leave their fate to your all-powerful God.
6. Learn to experience the power of love. Good advice.
7. Think of yourself as a child of God. Remember this verse:
“If God be for us, who can be against us?”
That’s Romans 8:31.
8. Break your negative-thinking habit. Now that is tough, but it can be
done. Jan and Cecil suggest that you resolve, for a 21-day period, that
you simply will not think negative thoughts. Make it like a quit-smoking
campaign, and see what a difference it makes.
And finally: 9. Think of yourself as being more than your body. You’re
a person with thoughts and emotions as well, and friend, God wants for
the whole man, the whole woman, the whole YOU to be well and happy and
fulfilled.
|
