Beyond WebMD

I finally ventured over to the public library this weekend, advancing my personal research efforts beyond the ubiquitous WebMD. I walked away with about 8 books, each cloaked in primary colors and screaming “the answer” in brazen white letters. Some were books on autoimmune diseases and others were books on inflammation in general. Each of them resembled a diet guide, and I felt as though they were all silently and simultaneously trying to persuade me even as I deposited them in my car. They still seem a bit…overzealous…as they sit there on my shelf. I don’t like to look at them.

Some have been helpful, others have not. Each one contradicts and refutes its predecessor; I understand why Beatty wanted the books burned in Fahrenheit 451. It is easier not to confront the ideas than to sift through them. The most frightening part is that every time I read one of these books I want to go to GNC and spend money. I guess that I spent a lot of time thinking about how I might prepare my body for action.

What about my mind? I find more breaches in that wall than in the obviously compromised body. How can I prepare it for the battle that continues to rage? I Peter I says:

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Verses 20-21 tell me that Christ was revealed to me so that my faith and my hope might be in God; verse 13 tells me to take an action in response. I am to "set" my hope on the grace that will be mine at the revelation of Christ. That means that, when I am tempted to put my hope in the bone scan that I'm having tomorrow, I must actively "set" my hope on Christ. The truth is that there is life beyond WebMD and beyond even the prodigious feats of modern medicine; there is life beyond this broken body and weak mind, and I am ransomed from the futile ways that teach me otherwise. I now wait, groaning with all creation, for my adoption as a son--the redemption of my body. For in this hope I was saved.