Do you have vitality?

This word was once commonplace – used to describe an individual who was in the full exuberance of life, ready with energy, drive and purpose.

According to word usage statistics from Google.com, it peaked in use during the years 1914-1915, one hundred years ago, right during the First World War.

So what happened to all the vitality? Did it disappear with the coming and going of decades? Did the Great War destroy it?

The word itself has been replaced with others… energy, strength, fitness… they mostly describe health, but none of them have quite the same impact. Vitality, not just of health, but of outlook, has left our culture.

People expend energy on entertainment, on achievement, and sometimes, though rarely, on religious ideals. However, they rarely shine with vitality while pursuing the cause of ultimate good, God's Kingdom.

It just isn’t as popular for young people to be “vital” anymore. A certain languid lethargy accompanies the cynicism and skepticism of our era. Sigh.

Maybe, just maybe, there is a way to turn back the clock. Still learning from the mistakes of the past, but regaining a pureness of mind that accompanies true vitality.

Vitality, so you can run with the horses

The Bible is full of people with vitality.

One of my favorite feats of vitality is that of Elijah. He was at Mt. Carmel and had just finished doing battle with the evil priests of Baal, who served Queen Jezebel, after God had accepted his sacrifice and rejected theirs. Then God lifted a drought that had plagued Israel for years, and Elijah sent a messenger to warn the King that the rains were coming (1 Kings 18:1-46).

So King Ahab hopped in his chariot and headed for home, but Elijah ran the entire length of the Jezreel valley (nearly 28 miles)… in front of the king’s chariot. We’re talking, faster than horses here!

It takes a lot of vitality to out-run a bunch of highly motivated horses, which is a helpful visual when reading a famous verse in the book of Hebrews, “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

The apostle Paul also had a significant degree of vitality. In the town of Lystra an angry mob executed him by stoning. As he lay lifeless outside the city and the disciples gathered around to attend to him, he got up! Not only that, but he went back into the city (Acts 14:19-20). Being revived from death requires a dose of God-given vitality, but it also took a courageous character to choose to re-enter the town full of angry citizens.

Staying faithful to God, obeying his commandments, and enduring the attacks of the Adversary, Satan, requires vitality, perseverance, and drive.

Vitality, a state of mind

Some historical figures were also known for their vitality. Winston Churchill is a key example, and that vitality helped him to face numerous dangers and challenges during the course of his life.

“According to many who knew him, Churchill in his younger days shone with vitality; it was as though, in Dame Rebecca West’s words, vitality ‘had been sluiced over him from a bucket,’” (David Mason, Churchill 1914-1918, pg. 6).

If you’ve ever had to deal with a chronic illness, you’ll know that vitality often sounds like a far off destination you dream of visiting, but you never quite get there. Yet physical strength isn’t the only measure of vitality, a vital outlook is just as important, no matter what our energy level is.

“We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body,” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10).

Developing vitality is an important antidote to the pressures that the god of this age (Satan the Devil) throws at us!

With God’s help, we can’t be beat!