Well-being Reaching Perfection

Our home area of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania made national news this week. According to data collected throughout 2011 for the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, Lancaster County PA is the area of the USA where well-being is highest, compared to all other U.S. metro areas.

Gallup and Healthways interviewed 1,000 people a day over the course of last year to collect this data. Every person they interviewed was given a composite score of well-being, which is based on factors in six categories: life evaluation, emotional health, physical health, healthy behavior, work environment and basic access. In the case of Lancaster County, they interviewed 781 individuals, or 0.15% of our population. They then used the composite scores of those individuals to create a composite score for Lancaster County. We scored highest in our nation. People here were pretty excited.

This was great information to be aware of, but there is a growing company of people in our county who are committed to a much greater area of well-being; being healthy in our soul and our spirit, prepared for eternity. And this comes from being intimately connected with our God though Jesus Christ who is building a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

The Bible tells us; “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe“(Heb 12:28). Everything around us that may cause us to feel good today can be taken away in a moment. It is only the kingdom of God within us that will stand forever.

Whether your region of the world scores high or low on the well-being scale, this is all secondary. Let’s pursue the highest calling of all; the calling to pursue the eternal kingdom of our God where well-being will reach perfection.