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Unbalanced Balancers
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June 12 - Unbalanced Balancers

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The Lord is the strength of my life. Ps. 27:1

Ellen White's December 25, 1865, health reform vision not only set the tone for the missiological purpose of Adventist health-care institutions-it also integrated health reform with Adventist theology, indicating that "the health reform. . .is a part of the third angel's message and is just as closely connected with it as are the arm and hand with the human body"(1T 486).

That insight was both helpful to individual Adventists and crucial in making the connection evident between the lifestyle issue of health and the denomination's end-time theology, indicating that just as our bodies are unified in their physical, mental, and spiritual aspects, so is the Adventist belief system an integrated whole rather than a "herd" of disconnected ideas.

Adventists soon came to think of the health message as "the right arm of the message." That was good. But some preachers and other Adventist believers must have gotten carried away with entusiasm for it.

Thus a few months later Mrs. White carefully corrected any wrong impressions she may have given by writing that "the health reform is closely connected with the work of the third message, yet it is not the message. Our preachers should teach the health reform, yet they should not make this the leading theme in the place of the message. Its place is among those subjects which set forth the preparatory work to meet the events brought to view by the message; among these it is prominent. We should take hold of every reform with zeal, yet should avoid giving the impression that we are vacillating and subject to fanaticism"(ibid., 559).

Unfortunately, balance for many in health reform has been difficult to achieve. Some, James White pointed out, moved too fast on the topic, fell into fanaticism, and brought repreach on both the church and the topic itself. Others failed to advance at all.

For her part, Ellen White struggled over the years with those who "select statements made in regard to some articles of diet that are presented as objectionable-statements written in warning and instruction to certain individuals who wre entering or had entered on an evil path. They dwell on these things and make them as strong as possible, weaving their own peculiar, objectionable traits of character in with these statements. . . , thus making them a test, and driving them where they do only harm"(3SM 285).

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Lord, give us balance in every aspect of our lives. Amen.
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