Incredible Men,
Most Christian men know one half of Psalm 103. "He forgives all your sins." We quote it, we lean on it, we build our whole faith on it. But keep reading:
"Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases."
— Psalm 103:2-3
We stop at forgiveness. We rarely finish the verse. But God didn't just deal with your soul — He addressed your body in the same breath. And Peter tells us exactly how:
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree... by his wounds you have been healed."
— 1 Peter 2:24
Your health is very important to God. Jesus took a beating for your health. Not just your eternity — your health. That's the anchor for this whole month.
This is the beginning of a four-week series on Incredible Health. And before we go one word further — this is not about shame. I'm not writing this to make you feel bad about where you're at. Most men aren't taking care of themselves for one simple reason: ignorance. Nobody ever sat them down and told them the truth.
So here's where we actually are, men. Heart disease is still the number one killer of American men — not cancer, not accidents, heart disease. Over 680,000 Americans die from it every year, close to 1,900 people a day. Nearly 4 in 10 American men are classified as obese. Roughly 1 in 8 Americans are living with diabetes, and if you're carrying obesity, your odds of diabetes almost quadruple. Anxiety disorders now affect over 42 million Americans, and a lot of us are walking around medicated — for depression, for anxiety, for sleep — without ever once asking why.
Medication doesn't fix a source. It manages a symptom. For some men in some seasons, it's necessary, even lifesaving — I'm not knocking that. But if you're on something and you've never once looked at what you're eating, how you're sleeping, whether you move your body, whether you're numbing out with alcohol every night — you haven't found the source. You've just turned the volume down on the alarm. It's what we put in our bodies and our minds that's driving most of this. Not all of it — some of it is real chemistry that needs real treatment — but a lot of it is simply what we eat, how we move, how we sleep, and what we let run through our heads day after day.
Our excuses start to sound so good we start believing them. I'm too old. I'm too injured. I don't have the time. We say it enough times and it stops sounding like an excuse and starts sounding like a fact.
Every man I've ever met has a lot of problems — until he has a health problem. Then he only has one.
Your health is a sign of self-respect. It's your business card before you ever say a word. You cannot expect anyone to respect you if you don't respect yourself enough to take care of the one body God gave you.
And that's the deeper truth underneath all of this: your first responsibility to God is to take care of the only body you have. You are not getting another one. This isn't a rental. This is the vehicle you've been assigned for the entire mission, and how you maintain it will either extend that mission or cut it short.
So where do you start? Small. Today.
Here's the short list — nothing complicated, no 90-day program, just the basics most of us have simply stopped doing:
• Sleep — actually get it, prioritize it
• Protein — 1 gram per pound of your ideal body weight
• Water — drink it, all day
• Eat nothing that comes out of a package
• Walk — aim for 10,000 steps a day
• Sunlight on your face — no sunglasses
• Ease up on the alcohol
Pick one, two maybe 3. Do it today. Not all seven, not perfectly, — just show up for one before your head hits the pillow tonight.
If you're reading this and you know you need more than a list — if you need someone to actually walk this with you — reply to this email. I'm not selling anything, i'll do it for free. We'll set up a call and get you pointed in the right direction. You don't have to figure this out alone.
No one has ever laid down at the end of their life and regretted taking care of themselves. Not one man. Let's make sure you're not the first.
With you in the fight,
Pastor D
You're receiving this email because you matter to God — and you matter to me. Whether we've met or not, I'm for you, I believe in you, and I'm praying that you step fully into who God created you to be. I consider you an Incredible Man — not because you're perfect, but because you're called. Called to live with conviction, lead with integrity, and stand firm when life gets hard. The word incredible comes from the Latin incredibilis, meaning "not believable." It describes a man who lives differently — set apart, grounded, and unwavering.
I'm grateful you're here.
