The Three-Legged Stool
Good morning. The three-legged stool has been used to illustrate quite a few things through the years, pretty much anything with three essential components. It is an especially useful illustration when those three things are interdependent, each one relying on the other two to be fully effective.
One way that this illustration applies is to relate to the fully functional human being. We are, each and every one of us, made up of three essential aspects of our person, and each aspect exists at its best when the other two are also fully functional.
Those three aspects are physical health, mental/emotional health, and spiritual health. If you remove, or even lessen, any of the three, the three-legged stool flops over (the three-part life fails to properly function).
From your own experience you know this to be true. When you are mentally/emotionally not doing well, you will suffer physically and spiritually. When you are physically not well or too tired, you will also suffer in your spiritual and mental/emotional health. And when you have ignored or violated your spiritual health, you will soon feel negative effects in your physical and mental/emotional sides.
Last Sunday I began the first of a three-part sermon series called “Breathe.” The focus of the series is how we need to make adjustments in our lives to “take the pressure off” and live better, healthier lives. The healthy life is reflected in the health of all three aspects mentioned above.
The primary scripture refence is found in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
God is the Father of compassion and the source of comfort. His comfort exists in strengthening as well as in soothing ways.
Ultimately, when we care for all three aspects of our lives in appropriate and healthy ways, we are able to relax. We are able to take a deep breath and be certain that God is in control, and we are going to be okay. Philippians 4:6-7 describe this result: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and humble petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
May the stool you sit on today be sturdy and well cared for!
Vern