Brothers and sisters, we should not have the concept that we should neglect our body. It is true that we need a mind to suffer and that we need to reign over our body and put it under subjection. But we also should take care of our health if at all possible. It is easy to be loose, and it is hard to exercise care. We have to learn to eat healthy foods and to take care of our bodies in every possible way. When the Lord has a commission and there is a need in the work, we have to sacrifice ourselves. There is nothing we can say about this. But at the same time, we have to employ every means available to us to take care of our body. We have to remember that the loss of one person is the loss of ten to twenty years of the Lord's training. There are not many periods of ten to twenty years in our lives. Many people start out somewhat useful and gifted in their service to the Lord, yet it is hard to say that they will have any usefulness in the ministry. It takes at least ten to twenty years before a person can become useful in the ministry. A person often has to wait ten or twenty years before he can become valuable and useful. Being truly useful is something that happens ten or twenty years later, and we are talking only about those people who are running a straight course. If the course is not straight, even ten or twenty years may not yield any fruit. It is not a simple thing to raise up a person in twenty years. God has to smite him and do a carving work on him many times before he can pass the test. He has to go through sufferings year after year, not just a few years, but twenty years, bearing the cross for twenty years, being dealt with for twenty years, being smitten for twenty years, and suffering under God's heavy hand for twenty years, before he can start to be useful to God. How difficult a task this is! Yet if a man does not take good care of his body, he may be gone by the time he is beginning to be useful. That would be very unfortunate and a great loss.

Once an elderly brother was asked, "What do you think was the most productive period of your life?" He thought for a while and then answered, "Between seventy and eighty years old." Indeed, spiritual usefulness grows with years. The longer we remain in the way of God's service, the more useful we become. We have seen many people who have been ruined, wrecked, damaged, or proven to be of little use along this way. We have seen some whose function blossomed only a little. A few will prove to be useful after twenty or thirty years. But by then they may be ready to depart from the world! It is a pity when a man dies just at the point when he is beginning to become useful! The more lessons a man learns before the Lord, the more useful he is. It is a great loss for such ones to pass away. In taking care of our health, there are many necessary precautions we have to take, many necessary things we have to pay attention to. We agree that we need a mind to suffer, and that such a mind is indispensable. Many times when we are put in a difficult situation, we have to be flexible. But, if at all possible, we should learn to take care of our bodies and should not be loose or careless about our own health.

Workers of the Lord should not eat for taste, but for nutrition. We should eat foods that have a high nutritional value and should eat less or nothing at all of those that have little nutritional value. When it is time for rest, we should learn to rest. We have enough strain upon us already. If we do not know how to rest, our bodies will not be relieved of its tension. If our stress cannot be relieved when we lay on our bed, what is the use of our sleep? It is useless. Many times our sitting down should be a kind of resting. But many people are not restful when they sit down, because they continue to be stressful and tense. A worker of the Lord should be strong enough to bear strain when circumstances make it necessary. At times strain can be as intense as fire. But when we find some time for respite, we should rest. It is impossible for anyone to be tense all the time. We have to learn to relax.