A BBC article profiles a Seventh Day Adventist community in Loma Linda, California, where aged residents live an average of ten years longer than the average American, enjoying better health "in their golden years." "The reason for this extraordinary longevity could be rooted in their faith. Seventh-day Adventists make up about half of the approximately 24,000 people who live here. It is a community that follows strict guidelines about food, exercise and rest," it's observed, tying the residents’ well-being to the positive outcomes of their faith.

Possible Preaching Angle:

It's a great story (and we'd all do well to emulate their health habits), but it highlights a growing problem that many people have in their consideration of faith and religion—the idea that belief is only worthwhile when it delivers some kind of measurable benefits for the believer. Whether wealth, health, good feelings, heaven, or some other benefit that "religion" brings, they all can distract us from the point of Christian faith—a relationship with Jesus, whose call to discipleship makes no promises for any kind of short-term well-being, but promises life in the end.