If you want better health, you have to be disciplined. You have to engage in a healthy diet and exercise. And if you want stronger faith you need to feast on the Scripture (Soul food) and live the Word of God.

Grant Harrison had a brainstorm one day, as he was working at the Innovation Center at the Humana health-benefits company in Louisville. The Innovation Center is a think tank, so Harrison was…thinking. It was dawning on him that health-insurance companies need to change, that they can’t focus solely on health-policy reform. Then the light bulb went on: Humana had to become a “a health-creation company!”

Not health insurance. Health creation! And the goal had to be “to make fun things healthy.” But how to do it?

Harrison thought of bicycles and how they could become a healthy way for people to commute to work, “Fifty percent of people drive to work less than five miles in their cars,” he told Fast company magazine (September 2009) “They could be doing this on a bike. If somebody starts commuting this way, within a year, he or she will have lost 13 pounds on average.” Plus, “when you get people on two wheels, you unlock this feeling of being a kid again.” Biking to work and back. That’s a good way to make fun things healthy.

So Harrison created a system at Humana called B-cycle – automated kiosks that let riders rent bikes at prices that are comparable to mass transit. Out of Humana’s 10,000 employees, 2,400 signed up to use the bikes within the first six weeks. A national rollout will now bring 50,000 bikes to a dozen cities in the next three years. B-cycle is a great example of health creation. And it’s fun as well.

The church is sometimes seen as a divine insurance company, providing protection against spiritual disaster and eternal damnation. You’ve probably seen the church sign that says, “The way some people live, they ought to obtain eternal fire insurance.”

But shouldn’t the church be in the faith-creation business? When the risen Jesus appears to his followers in the gospel of John, he doesn’t ask them to take out an insurance policy to provide protection in the afterlife. Instead, he says, “Peace be with you,” I send you,” “Receive the Holy Spirit,” “Forgive sins” and “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Jesus comes back from the dead to do the work of faith creation so his followers will move forward as strong, healthy and vigorous disciples.

He gives them a bicycle – or maybe a faith-cycle – and sends them out, saying “Ride!” Your faith-cycle is waiting. Get on and continue to be healthy in your spiritual life!