A Heart For Health

“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” (Pr 17:22 AV)

 

We can understand the meaning here in the most straightforward way.  A merry heart is better than a broken spirit.  That is simple enough.  However, when one considers in what state the soul occupies, the meaning becomes even more pronounced.  The injunction, or to whom this is written gives the final and full application to this proverb.

Only an ill person needs medicine.  Therefore, we are speaking of someone who is experiencing circumstances of an ill-nature.  Solomon is not limiting this situation to physical challenges.  These circumstances can be of the heart and mind.  But note to whom the merry heart must belong.  It is the one who needs medicine.  In other words, the broken-spirited person is the one who needs a merry heart.  It is not those who minister to him.  Rather, they can be the influence that creates a merry heart.  But the choice to have a merry heart belongs to the one who needs the medicine.

Having countless opportunities to minister to people who are in the hospital, I can tell you those who have a merry heart generally do better in their struggles than those who do not.  I have seen identical situations wherein one patience recovers while another fails.  Although there are many factors to consider, a merry heart was one of them.  My own mother, who eventually succumbed to None-Hodgkins Lymphoma, was such a merry heart.  She was a diabetic as well.  I went to see her while she was having a treatment.  For those who are unaware, the patience sits in a chair and is hooked up to a device that administers radioactive medicine to fight the cancer.  This area was not a private room.  In this large room were about a dozen patients or so, all hooked up and receiving their medicine.  By this time, my Mom had lost all her hair.  She had an attractive scarf on.  She sat there, alone, reading a book, doing crossword puzzles, or looking over photos of her children.  As we sat and chatted, I noticed the overall demeanor of some of the patients compared to my mother. Each was in a different stage of their treatments.  Some were positive, some were distraught, and some were simply numb from the reality of life.  However, my mother was an amazing person.  She was the epitome of a merry heart.  If there was something to find funny, she would find it.  No matter the situation.  In fact, I can remember the times when her merry heart failed her.  It happened so rarely that I could list them.  I noticed her merry heart made the experience of chemotherapy more tolerable than those who did not have a merry heart.  Her positive frame of mind and willingness to laugh was the best medicine she had.  The difference was, she chose to be merry while others responded differently.

Here’s the thing.  We can wait for someone to cheer us up, or we can do as David did and encourage ourselves in the LORD.  We can choose to respond to others who are trying to cheer us up and allow our hearts to become merry, or we can reject the efforts of others who are doing their best to make a bad situation a little bit better.  The implication above is the merry heart is a choice we make.  We can choose to live as a victim of our circumstances, or, we can choose to live above them.  We can choose to allow our circumstances to define who and what we are.  Or we can look at those circumstances as temporary and eventually we will defeat them.  My Mom is in heaven right now.  Lymphoma did not defeat her.  She is in victory!  And she went there with a smile on her face.