Orthopraxy requires an ongoing commitment from us, repetitive consistency in applying the truth to practice.  Without that repeating commitment to applying truth, truth’s hold on our practice fades.  If we do not make such a necessary commitment to practicing truth, self-doubts or the doubts of others around us should challenge whether we still value or even believe those truths.  Beyond the daily repeated commitment to applying it, the practice of truth solidifies our experience and expression of it.  On earth we cannot exhaust truth due to our limitations and the fall.  Each time we apply truth in practice, we inch closer and closer to the full benefit of the truth in our lives.  Whether we apply this to a deeper understanding of Gods truth at a spiritual level or deeper understanding of physical health, we need to practice and get better at living out truth.

                Such repetitive choosing to follow truth does not come natural as competing values and drives of life draw one away from such consistency.  Often the first misstep away from pursuing the application of truth is subtly easy, yet each further step away from right practice becomes easier and easier.  Good habits long practiced erode to leave behind bad habits eating away at health.  One finds it easier and easier to devalue truth, rationalizing bad choices.  Rationalization erodes one’s beliefs that truth was ever really truth in the first place.

                Instead, at each crossroad of decision, truth must be rechosen as choices to do otherwise are offered.  We must be committed to repeating the right choice each time it is offered.  Each meal must be a decision to pursue health.  Each interaction with others must be a decision towards healthy relationships.  Each lifestyle choice, whether habit or conscious decision, must be rechosen over and over.  In some cases, a single laxity may undo even years of prior consistency.  For example, infidelity to a spouse will lead to relational destruction or a life-long illness and a small indiscretion in alcohol could break years of sobriety leading to a vicious cycle of destruction.  In other cases, the consequences may develop over time.  More and more processed foods degrade years of healthy eating.  Months of inactivity degrade strength and stability.  Regardless of the resulting timeline of consequences, at the heart of the matter lies a need for repetitive commitment to choose rightly.

                In contrast, the practice of truth deepens our experience and expression of it.  The initial encounter with a truth requires a learning process in which we are changed.   For example, learning that sugar is unhealthy in even moderate quantities changes the way we view different foods as we see patterns of behavior and connected effects that we did not notice before.  As we limit sugar by repeated choices against it, other insights present themselves and a greater understanding of its adverse effects grows both consciously and unconsciously.  The increasing benefits of limiting it drive us to a greater commitment of avoiding it in addition to pushing us to search for other truths that might change our health when applied in a similar fashion. 

                We do not start out life with a fully developed natural predisposition to knowing truth and practicing it in regard to whole person health.  We begin with appetites of hunger and instinct and are taught the knowledge, values, and habits of parents and society.  Hopefully, these sources of knowledge provide some reasonable start towards truth regarding our health.  Remaining at the rudimentary level of appetites and instincts will not serve us well.  We must grow by pursuing truth and its application with the very doing of truth leading to more truth.  The more we practice, the more we understand its nature.  The more we do this, the more we can enjoy its fruits and the more we can share its fruits with others.

Next in this series… What Is Included in Practice?

Footnote:

                While beliefs should be practically identical between individuals since we all live in the same reality, each person’s values will differ to some extent.  There can be some legitimate space for different preferences between individuals. There can be legitimate space for different preferences in the same person at different stages of life.  These differences are with the realm of being good as long as they submit in each person at each stage of life to the values of our Creator as revealed to us in the Bible.