Are you healthy? It’s difficult to tell without a test or two.

Dr. Ruth Heidrich is in her eighties. She regularly undergoes self-check-ups because she routinely puts her body through unusual rigorous testing: she runs marathons and triathlons!

Heidrich wasn’t always so healthy.

At the age of forty-seven, she was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. But that terrible test wasn’t the end of her; instead, it strengthened and bettered her.

Heidrich made some drastic changes in her lifestyle, changes that didn’t simply save her from cancer but also named her one of the ten fittest women in North America!

Life tests our physical and spiritual health. It tests us every time we face disability, when the doctor delivers bad news, when we encounter financial uncertainty, when our relationships hit the rocks. No one lives an untested life.

Tests, even the ones we fail, aren’t the end.

Life tests of all sorts can better us, growing both our spirits and our bodies. They can simplify us, humble us, and bring us closer to Jesus as we lean into Him for comfort and wisdom.