we need to learn to live a healthy life. Let me give a brief testimony. In my youth I never received guidance on how to live a proper everyday life at home, or on how to eat properly. I never knew what health and nutrition meant. Moreover, due to my hard-working disposition, I frequently went beyond what I could bear. Eventually, in 1943 when I was just thirty years old, I already had a serious stomach ulcer due to my excessive labor. After that, I became seriously ill with tuberculosis. I had ruined my body to such an extent.
As soon as I was sick with tuberculosis, I knew that I needed an extended period of recuperation without disturbance, or else I would die very soon. At that time it was common in China for people to eventually die due to inadequate rest. Therefore, I made a painful decision to put aside all my work and responsibility. After two and a half years of quiet rest, I was fully restored in my body, and in 1946 I was able to stand up and minister again. From that time until now, I have been laboring continually for over forty years without having had any serious illness again.
During the period of my recuperation, I was under the supervision and care of some of the saints from Chefoo who were nurses and doctors. It was through their teaching that I learned a great deal about health. Since then, I have been living according to the knowledge of personal health which I had learned. This is why until today I am still healthy and strong and able to minister here.
I will mention a few simple points here, hoping that all of us will be sure to remember them. While I have not been strictly abiding by all these points in all these forty years, I have been practicing them most of the time, so even until today I am still very healthy. First of all, you should pay attention to your diet. Do not eat or drink carelessly. You should absolutely avoid fatty meat and red meat. Do not say, “I love pork leg with all its fat, so I eat a lot.” If you indulge in eating unhealthy food, you are committing gradual suicide. According to my experience, among the different kinds of meat, fish is the best, chicken is next, and then lamb and beef; it is better to avoid pork because it does more harm than good. The Bible can never be wrong. Leviticus prohibits the eating of pork (11:7) because it has no profit. Moreover, try your best to avoid any food that is deep-fried. If you have to eat some, try your best to remove the skin and eat only the meat. Some people especially love to eat the skin of fried chicken. By so doing, they are cutting short their life expectancy. Third, do not eat too many sweet things. Fourth, avoid eating any heavily-seasoned food. Salted food is the worst. While you are still young, learn to eat food without grease and heavy seasoning, and over a period of time you will be accustomed to it.
Furthermore, while you should avoid overeating, you should not allow your stomach to be empty. Do not think that because you are still young, you are strong enough to hold yourself up. Eventually you will fall sick. I am really concerned for a certain brother who loves the Lord. He has been laboring for the Lord faithfully, but because he is overly fatigued, the level of his white blood cells has gone up too high. Now he is in the hospital getting emergency care. Of course, I believe that the Lord will heal him, and we should also pray for him. I mention this as a warning to all of you. Do not think that since you are still young and have inexhaustible energy, you can use it excessively all the time. We must always remember that we are limited.
In addition, be sure to drink sufficient water—at least twelve big glasses every day. Water is for the cleansing of our whole system; taking plenty of fluid keeps our system cleansed all the time. A study which was done in America on the young soldiers who were killed in the Vietnam War found that more than one-third of them had blood vessels that were blocked. This indicates that they did not eat properly and had taken in too much fat, so that even in their twenties and thirties they already had the problem of clogged blood vessels. American foods are very nutritious, yet the probability of Americans having high blood pressure, heart disease, and strokes is also quite high. We should take this as a warning. Therefore, it is good to drink some water after each meal.
In addition, you must have at least half an hour of exercise every day. Any kind of exercise will do. You may practice shadowboxing, or you may jog or walk. Furthermore, there is no need to be so regimented; just let your body move around a little bit. After a meal, spend ten minutes to walk. Walking is in fact the best exercise. I spend at least half an hour walking every day. Whenever I feel uncomfortable, I stand up and take a walk, and after fifteen minutes of walking I feel comfortable again.
In 1948 after Brother Nee resumed his ministry, he gave us some statistics. He said that due to the lack of knowledge about nutrition and due also to the poor living situation, out of the more than twenty co-workers who died at that time, only one was killed by the Communist Party, while ninety percent of the rest died of tuberculosis. Brother Nee said that it was for this reason that he went into the pharmaceutical business, for which he was condemned and opposed so much that he had to stop his ministry. He said that if it was wrong for him to go into business, he was forced to do so because he was just like a widow forced to remarry for the survival of her children. He went into business because he could not bear to see the co-workers dying one by one of malnutrition. As he spoke this word, everyone in the meeting, including himself, wept. Before that time I had never seen Brother Nee shedding tears. In fact, that was also the only time I ever saw him weeping. At that time I was sitting beside him, and I also wept. (The Economy of God and the Mystery of the Transmission of the Divine Trinity)
要學習好好過健康的生活。我說一個簡單的見證。我年輕時從來沒有在生活、起居、飲食方面受過指導。什麼叫作健康，什麼叫作營養，我一直不懂。你們也知道我的性格，作工非常賣力，常常過了我所能擔的。至終因着我勞力作工，在一九四三年，我才三十歲出頭，就得了嚴重的胃潰瘍；之後，就生了很嚴重的肺病。我是把我的身體，蹋到那樣一個地步。
一生了肺病，我就知道自己需要長期靜養，否則很快就會死。那時我在中國看得很多，許多人因着休養得不夠，結果就死了。所以我痛下決心，放下一切責任和工作，靜養了二年半，終於把身體完全養好。到了一九四六年，我開始站起來盡職。從那時起直到今天，我可以說再也沒有生過重病，一直勞苦四十幾年。
我在靜養期間，乃是在煙台一些作護士和醫生的聖徒監管、照顧之下。因着他們的教導，我學會種種健康的講究。往後，我的生活就照着在靜養期間，從他們所學得那些健康常識，所以直到今天，我還健康、強壯的在這裡盡職。
我題出幾個簡單的要點，盼望我們眾人一定要記住。這四十多年來，我雖然沒有絕對遵守這些要點，但大部分都照着實行，所以直到今天還很健康。
首先要注重飲食，不要亂吃亂喝，肥肉、紅肉絕對要禁口。不要說，我最喜歡蹄膀、肥肉，所以吃得多。不該吃的亂吃，那是慢性自殺。按我的經曆，肉類當中，魚肉最好，雞肉其次，再來是羊肉、牛肉；最好不要吃豬肉，那是害處多於益處。聖經的話永遠不會錯，利未記禁止吃豬肉，因為那沒有益處。再者，油炸的東西盡量不要吃。如果一定要吃，也盡可能把外皮剝掉，只吃裡面的肉。有的人就是喜歡吃炸雞皮，那是自折壽命。第三，甜的不要多吃。第四，口味太重的不要吃；鹹的最不好。最好從年幼，就學習吃清淡的食物，時間一長就會成習慣。
再者，飲食要注意不可過量，也不可空腹。千萬不要以為自己年輕，可以撐一撐，結果就會撐出病來。我很關心某位愛主的弟兄，他很忠心的為主勞苦，但是因為疲累過度，以致白血球過多，住院急救。當然，我相信主會醫治他，大家也要為他禱告。我題出來乃是作眾人的警戒，不要以為年輕，精力無窮，就輕易的過度使用。我們一定要記住，自己是有限的。
此外，水一定要喝得夠，每天最少要喝十二大杯，千萬不可少。水對我們是全身的沖刷；喝得多，全身就能一直被沖刷。美國曾以越戰陣亡的青年戰士作研究，發現他們身體的血管有三分之一以上被阻塞。這就證明他們的飲食不對，油脂吸取太多，以致才二、三十歲，就有血管阻塞的毛病。美國的食物很營養，但相對的，他們得高血壓、心臟病、中風的機率也很高。這是我們應當以為警惕的。所以每餐飯後，最好都能喝點水。
此外，每天最少要有半小時的運動，時間不能再少了。什麼運動都可以，如練拳、慢跑、散步等，也不必按規矩，總歸身體要動一動。平常吃過飯，也要花十分鐘走走路；散步是最好的運動。我每天至少走動半小時以上；我一覺得不自在，就起身走走路，走十五分鐘就舒暢了。
一九四八年，倪弟兄恢復盡職時，曾說了一個統計數字。他說，同工們就是不懂得營養，同時那時生活也真是窮苦，結果二十多人當中，除了一位是被共產黨殺死的以外，其餘十分之九是生肺病死的。就是因這緣故，他去作生化藥廠的生意，為此受到極大的定罪和反對，甚至停止盡職。他說，如果他作生意是錯，也是不得已，因為他就像一個寡婦，為着孩子的生存，迫不得已改嫁。他作生意，乃是因為看不下去同工們一個一個因營養缺乏而故去。說到這裡，包括他自己在內，全場大哭。我從未看過倪弟兄落淚，那是惟一的一次；當時我就陪坐在他旁邊，也跟着落淚。《神的經綸與神聖三一輸送的奧祕》
