Healing Memories

St. Vincent’s Women’s Hospital, Indianapolis Indiana

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, 

that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

1 John 3:1 (NIV)

“In a church we learn to do ministry together.  We teach each other what Grace looks like and how it feels to be treated like a child of God.”

Douglas Brouwer, September 3, 2006 

Second Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis, Indiana

There are many reasons to write books, tell stories and share facts about this world.  There are books, stories and facts that change our lives and the recent book by Mitch Albom, Finding Chika, does exactly that!  It is a story of how lives change when love intrudes.

What is particularly interesting is the physicality of this healing story.  We see and hear details of the life of Chika - her clothes, her care, and her smiles.  We hear those intimate details of living and by telling them we are all reminded to remember those small but important details in our lives.  Another observation is that her life and death were lived in a very large community.  This is more than  just a “beautiful girl” story.  This book makes it an even bigger story.

What I experienced and saw, as a reader, was how writing and sharing the memories was the beginning of the healing.  It is a reminder that remembering is an essential function of the church.  We begin our Christian stories with a baptized name as a “Child of God” and we are called to live into that name.  What the church does is help us learn together how our stories connect to the larger story of a God’s love.  That is a beautiful story!

Thanks Mitch Albom for sharing and making beautiful healing memories even at times of profound loss.

Marvin

References:

Albom, M. (2019). Finding Chika. HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

How our Brain Makes Memories

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-our-brains-make-memories-14466850/

The Resilient Brain

https://www.dana.org/article/the-neurobiology-of-resilience/

Hage, M. L. (2016). Healing Hate. 

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2016/06/healing-hate.html

Suffering Revisited

Saints Cosmas & Damian meet Jesus 

on the Charles River Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic*

“One trip through a children’s ward and if your faith isn’t shaken, 

you’re not the type who deserves any faith”

Peter De Vries (1959)

It is a big problem for those who choose or are chosen to be at the side of those who suffer.  Whether it is Job’s friends, the families and congregation of Mother Emmanuel AME’s church  or a child’s death, we want answers and responses that will bring justice into a world of injustice and suffering.

In 1961, Peter De Vries told a story of suffering in The Blood of the Lamb.  Now following in that heritage, James KA Smith in his book, On the Road with Saint Augustine, brings us to a well traveled road.  He creates conversations between the words and quests of Saint Augustine and the more current writings of Camus, Heidegger, Coates, and others who have formed our world of beliefs and actions.

This recent reading began when I decided to look at the Book of Job.  Here I found a new translation recently published as well as a play, “The Debate” where in a university cafeteria we find a modern Job surrounded by his friends.  It puts the “university” in its place!

What I was left with was “presence” is not enough.  Presence is important, but insufficient, to face the suffering dilemma.  We need a Grace that comes from above.  We need a Cosmic response and for Christians that is found in the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  That response is still a mystery, but one that sustains us as we wrestle with the realities of suffering.

Thanks be to God for the witness of the Saints.

Marvin

References:

Duffin, J. (2013). Medical Saints. Oxford University Press.

De Vries, P.. (2005). The Blood of the Lamb: A Novel (New edition ed.). University Of Chicago Press.  See foreword by Jeffrey Frank

Hage, M. L. (2013). Suffering.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/02/suffering.html

Hage, M. L. (2014). The Big Why.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-big-why.html

Hage, M. (2015). Well Being

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2015/06/well-being.html

Smith, J. K. A. (2019). On the Road with Saint Augustine. Brazos Press.

Greenstein, E. L. (2019). Job: A New Translation. Yale University Press.

THE DEBATE

Evans, Rachel Held. Inspired (2018) (p. 81). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. 

Healing Time - Part II

“Black Hole” - First Picture

“Can you fathom the mysteries of God?

    Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?

They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do?

    They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?

Their measure is longer than the earth

    and wider than the sea.

                                                    Job 11: 7-9 (NIV)

I had the wonderful opportunity to visit two centenarians this past weekend.  Two women acquaintances, family and friend, in separate locations.  Both were sitting patiently in their rooms with remarkably similar joys and concerns.  It was a holy time.

They both have strong faiths that have sustained them and both shared a peaceful spirit.  They loved the mutual stories of shared time and place.  They had pleasure in the remembered love of their spouses.  They loved being remembered.  

The surprise was their confrontation with the mysteries of time.  They “pondered” the meaning and reality of unlimited time.  They looked forward and “wondered” about what lay beyond the mystery of their next transition.  They both were excited about what that could mean.

So the message of this weekend was a continuation of the grace and mystery of time.  We have been blessed and healed by the generous gift of time.  It is the context for all of the healing that has and will occur.

Thanks be to God, the author of Time that has blessed all our lives,

Marvin

Hage, M. L. (2019). Healing Time.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2019/07/healing-time.html

Lutz, O.  Teachable Moments. How Scientists Captured the First Image of a Black Hole

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2019/4/19/how-scientists-captured-the-first-image-of-a-black-hole/

Healing - Ends and Means

Netflix Documentary Series

“In the final analysis, means and ends must cohere because the end is preexistent in the means, 

and, ultimately, destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends.” 

                                                                                                     Martin Luther King, Jr.

Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding,

                                               Proverbs 3:13 (NIV)

There is a new Netflix series, “Diagnosis” that uses the power of social media to bring hope and healing.  It is a powerful documentary of healing using a new means of healing that complements the traditional.  It is a search for medical wisdom.

So what about the components of the search of this healing process?  An essential component is the relational nature of the process.  Healing happens in the context of others.  It does not exist as an end without the presence of others.  There is an integrity of the healing intent and the outcome.

Medically, we always try to identify the costs of the means as well as the intended outcome.   We will rescind treatments that are worse than the disease.  We make healing promises, it is the reason we take oaths.

Healing means and ends are part of our communal lives.  This is the basis of the trust that is essential in the relational nature of our quest for healing.  You will see these lived stories in the wonderful series “Diagnosis”.

Thanks,

Marvin

References:

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2010). “The Trumpet of Conscience”, p.59, Beacon Press

Diagnosis, from the New York Times

https://www.netflix.com/title/80201543

Ranard, B. L., Ha, Y. P., Meisel, Z. F., Asch, D. A., Hill, S. S., Becker, L. B., … Merchant, R. M. (2014). Crowdsourcing--harnessing the masses to advance health and medicine, a systematic review. Journal of general internal medicine, 29(1), 187–203. doi:10.1007/s11606-013-2536-8

Hage, M. L. (2016). The Search for Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-search-for-healing.html

Hage, M. L. (2017). Healing Covenant.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2017/08/healing-covenant.html

Imber, J. B. (2008). Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine (1 ed.). Princeton University Press.

Healing Psalms

 

Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; 

thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

Psalm 32:7 King James Version (KJV)

A recent sermon series was delivered based on the extended reflections of Walter Brueggemann.  What was meaningful was it was not just the sermons, it was the liturgy.  We sung the psalms.

The question for me was how have the psalms been critical in my life?  The answer is that they have been a source of healing.  They have been present in times of lament, times of celebration and times of reflection.  

In October 2012, I was asked to give an OB/GYN Grand Rounds lecture at East Tennessee State University   I chose as a title, “Pause, Reflect, Heal”; the words that had been placed on the doorposts of each patient room.  Those words were based on the Hebrew word “Selah” that is found at the end of many of the Psalms. 

That lecture was transported/translated into “Selah Rounds” while at Tenwek Hospital, Kenya.  Briefly stated, the clinical team would Pause/Pray on entry to the patient’s room, Reflect on the clinical information and look for the healing connection with the patient, family and community.   It would be repeated multiple times as we went by the bedside of each patient.  Frequently, we would be interrupted, surprised and sometimes saddened as we returned to that ritual.  Each day another connection would be added to the care narrative.

What I have learned, is that “Selah” can happen in the psalms of our lives.  It is an ancient and beautiful directive to our healing.

Thanks be to God, Selah

Marvin

References

Brueggemann, W. (2002). Spirituality of the Psalms. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.

Hage, M. L. (2013). Selah

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/04/selah.html

Hage, M. L. (2013). Rounds are Over!

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/09/rounds-are-over.html

Healing Time

“A Moment of Healing”

In the beginning God created….

Genesis 1:1a (NIV)

There is a time for everything,

    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

It is difficult to describe “healing” and “time“ together.  These are two big ideas!  Let’s start with a brief review of the idea of “time”.  

“Time” commonly means chronological time and is a linear concept.  It is how we measure our lives, our “autobiographical time”.  This is the “time” that can have tyranny in our over-scheduled and busy lives as well as how we tell our stories.

Another idea is “biological time” this a cyclical time and is the basis of the rhythm of life.  It is studied as the discipline of chronobiology.  This “time” names the seasons of our lives and nature.

There is time, as understood by astrophysicists, who see it as a “space time” construct.  This space time is a mystery for most of us.  It is really a BIG idea.

There is another idea of time that is kairos.  This Greek word has many translations.  Here I will use the idea of God’s time.  This time is a mystery that is central to our lives together.   It is sometimes referred to as “deep time” or “God’s slow time”.  It can be found in those moments of Sabbath.

When we put together the mysteries of “healing” and “time”,  I believe we have a better idea of the nature of healing.  Healing as experienced in our lives is not manipulated or measured by our common understanding of time.  It is a mystery that is received as a gift and recurs in the different seasons of our lives.  It is seen best when we “slow down”,  name and celebrate the gift.  We know this time of healing when we see it!   If you want to hear about healing time, check out Kate Bowler’s conversation with John Swinton.

Marvin

References:

Rovelli, C. (2016). Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (First Edition ed.). Riverhead Books.

Forger, D. B. (2017). Biological clocks, rhythms, and oscillations : the theory of biological timekeeping. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Hage, M. L. (2017). Sabbath Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2017/02/sabbath-healing.html

Swinton, J. (2018). Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefullness, and Gentle Discipleship (Studies in Religion, Theology, and Disability) (Reprint ed.). Baylor University Press.

Bowler, Kate Podcast (2019) John Swinton: The Speed of Love

https://katebowler.com/podcasts/john-swinton-the-speed-of-love/

Healing Cultures

First Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, NC

But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,

    what God is looking for in men and women.

It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,

    be compassionate and loyal in your love,

And don’t take yourself too seriously—

    take God seriously.

Micah 6:8 The Message (MSG)

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, 

will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

John 14:26 New International Version (NIV)

I just finished three books that address moral quests within our American culture. The question for me was what moral quests have been formative in my life?  Has it been a theme or an event?  How does it connect with the cultures around me?  

A critical influence was another earlier book by Jonathan Imber, Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine.  He described the waining theological influence on the practice of medicine.  My response has been a search for a personal and professional moral foundation.  This blog has been part of those explorations.  

That brings us to “trust” in those around us and in God.  Do we really live out “In God we Trust”?  The answer is clear each Sunday in the  congregational confessions.  That confession along with forgiveness is the basis of a healing trust.  A “glue” that holds us together in a world that wants to pull us apart from each other and God.  

So what brings us together and brings peace in our culture wars?  I think it is more than what we believe and what we do!   We need the magnet of the beauty that God has left us!  That beauty is what brings us to together!  The “awe” in and of our lives is all around us; a wonderful gift not of our own making.

Marvin

References:

Brooks, D. (2019). The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life. Random House.

Haidt, J. (2012). The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion.

Irving, D. (2016). Waking up white: And finding myself in the story of race.

Imber, J. B. (2008). Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine (1 ed.). Princeton University Press.

Hage, M. L. (2012). Burdens and Benefits.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/01/burdens-and-benefits.html

Hage, M. L. (2017). The Beauty of Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-beauty-of-healing.html

The Saturday of Light

Spire of Notre-Dame

(July, 1962)

Cross in Notre-Dame de Paris after the fire 

(4/15/2019)

The fire of Holy Week 2019, Notre-Dame de Paris, brings attention to a long history of church fires and their origin in hatred and separation.  What does it mean for a “people of the resurrection”?  

One answer appears in our confessions that happen as we state our belief in all the events before the resurrection.  That event appears in the Apostle’s Creed, “he descended into Hell”.  We so often miss this part of the Easter story!  This was the message of Kate Bowler in her Lenten reflection, “The Harrowing of Hell”.  She tells it better, so take a listen!

So the triumph of Easter is not just triumph over death, it is also the promise of triumph over evil and all of “Hell’s Fires”.   In the city of “lights and shadows” the world has seen the Light that overcomes the darkness of Hell.  What a healing word of Hope that we can celebrate this “Saturday of Light”.

Marvin

References: 

Personal Photo from when I first visited Notre-Dame de Paris

CBC News,  Macron Promises to Rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral after fire, seeks international help.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/notre-dame-paris-fire-1.5098604

Willimon, W,  Arsonists at Play: Church Burnings in Alabama

https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2006-04/arsonists-play

Bowler, K.  The Harrowing of Hell

https://katebowler.com/the-harrowing-of-hell/

Hage, M. L. (2013). Resistance/Resilience.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/08/resistanceresilience.html

Resilient Improvisation

Reverend Marvin Chandler

I just finished a book, Type R: Transformative Resilience for Thriving in a Turbulent World.  It was one of many books addressing the realities of what seems like in an increasingly chaotic world.   The name of the chaos changes depending on the context, but in healthcare it is usually described as “burnout”.    Is it the pace of change?  Is it “moral injury”?  What ever it is called, we all have seen and lived it.  

One week later, I heard another voice, Mary Ann McBidden Dana, the author of God, Improv, and the Art of Living.  There is a similarity to Type R in looking for answers but the approach and the basis of the response is different.  It is “improvisation”!  How could that be in world of plans and schedules?

I recalled a wonder filled moment in 2006, when I met Rev. Marvin Chandler in Indianapolis, Indiana.  It was on a Sunday evening at 6 pm when I visited Second Presbyterian Church.   It was The Jack Gilfoy Trio with Rev. Marvin Chandler playing effortlessly at the piano.   It was awesome.  I really didn’t know his story, but found it in a recent PBS documentary that revealed a life of improvisation   Other people had been moved by his life story.  Check out the documentary, “Reverend Marvin Chandler: Open to the Moment”.

What is central is a search for meaning and purpose in our lives.  The answers are as complex as our lives.  There are “BIG” ideas and real lived experiences as we all look to “connect the dots” and create some beautiful music in the moments of our lives.  We  need to connect our lives to these larger ideas and the lives around us. Those responses are more improv than planned.  

Marvin

References:

Marston, A., & Marston, S. (2018). Type R: Transformative Resilience for Thriving in a Turbulent World. PublicAffairs.

Dana, M. M. (2018). God, Improv, and the Art of Living, Eerdmans.

Reverend Marvin Chandler: Open to the Moment 

https://www.pbs.org/video/reverend-marvin-chandler-open-to-the-moment-cial78/

Hage, M. L. (2013). Resistance/Resilience.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/08/resistanceresilience.html