In my journey toward rest and life balance, the themes of nutrition, exercise, sleep, and mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being have consistently resurfaced—and I expect they always will. Today, I want to bring two important concepts into the discussion: life span and health span.

To keep it simple, life span refers to the total number of years we live—our chronological life. Health span, on the other hand, refers to the quality of those years. While we all want to live long lives, we often put most of our focus on life span and far too little on health span.

Modern medicine—surgeries, drugs, and treatments—can often extend our life span. But that doesn’t guarantee an increase in our quality of life. Health span requires something more: a long-term commitment to preventive care and lifestyle choices that protect and nurture both body and mind. It’s about avoiding habits and patterns that undermine our ability to live a long, vibrant, and productive life.

Many of us have watched aging parents, family members, or friends live long lives but suffer from debilitating conditions—cancer, dementia, and other chronic diseases—that diminish their quality of life. The toll is heavy, not only for the individual but also for caregivers, whether in assisted living facilities or through long-term home care. It costs time, money, and emotional energy.

Of course, caring for our loved ones is a sacred responsibility. But what if we shifted more of our energy and focus from simply extending life to improving the quality of those years? Sadly, health span doesn’t seem to be a priority in much of today’s healthcare system. Many of the practices that improve health span—like diet, sleep, movement, stress management, and meaningful connection—are personal choices that don’t generate profit. That means they often go under-emphasized in mainstream medicine.

Thankfully, more voices are beginning to speak up. Advocates for health span are growing in number, though the fight against cultural inertia and industry-driven norms is uphill. Still, it’s a fight worth engaging in, and I’ll be writing much more about it in the coming months.

As I reflect on health span, I’ve also been thinking about its spiritual counterpart: spiritual health span.

Too often, we treat salvation as a one-time event. We might say, “I got saved,” and then carry on with life as if that moment alone defines our spiritual journey. That’s like focusing only on a “spiritual life span”—salvation without pursuing depth, growth, or maturity.

But spiritual health span isn’t satisfied with “just making it to heaven.” It calls us to actively embrace and live out our relationship with God. It’s about ongoing transformation, discipleship, and witness in a world searching for meaning and hope.

Just as nutrition, exercise, rest, and emotional balance improve our physical health span, our spiritual health span is nourished by a consistent intake of God’s Word—studying it, meditating on it, and obeying it. We “exercise” spiritually by practicing disciplines like prayer, fasting, giving, serving, evangelizing, and using our spiritual gifts. We grow by loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength—and loving others as ourselves.

We should all strive to finish our spiritual journey well. As the writer of Hebrews exhorts:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1–2)

The Apostle Paul echoes this in his words near the end of his life:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)

Yes, our physical bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and we’re called to steward them well. Scripture even offers promises of long life to those who follow God. But ultimately, He is sovereign. The number of our days is in His hands.

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