Definitions of "Health"

The fall semester has wrapped up. One of the classes I taught this time around was an elective at Eden Seminary entitled "Religion and Healing." As part of the class, I had students write definitions of various words at the beginning and then at the end of the term--one of these words was "health." I thought I would share here a couple of the stronger definitions as well as my favorite definition from the class.

Here's one from a third-year student:
Health involves a condition of wholeness and a sense of well being in a person as it relates to the physical body, the mind and thoughts of the person, the sense of spiritual and communal connectedness to God, and a sense of connectedness to communities built around their lives as well as the lives of others.
I liked this one for the emphasis on constructed communities and relationships.

Here's another pretty thorough one from another gifted third-year student:
Health is a condition or degree of well-being and freedom from suffering and pain. This may include emotional, physical, or mental. The person may be healthy in one area and yet unhealthy in another. It is also determined by the individual person's context and understanding of health for them. For some it may mean a sliding scale which can change quite rapidly determined by their own response to a particularity. It may also be related to their own expectations of what health means. Some people describe themselves as being unhealthy their entire lives when nothing ever appears to be "wrong" with them.
This one's good because it doesn't forget that health means, to some extent, absence of suffering. I also like how clear the definition is about individual expectations.

Finally, my favorite definition from a class member:
For us as Christians, health is an ongoing process which gives us energy and vitality to serve and love others.
This is a lovely way to think of health and reminds me of the charge many pastors give at the end of worship services: "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord." Unlike most of the class definitions, which aspired to be in some sense universal (even when they admitted the influences of context), this definition is clearly instrumental. As Christians, health is nothing but the freedom to love and serve.

I know you didn't take my course (lucky for you!), but would you like to hazard a definition of "health"?