Healing Q&A

Therefore 

if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, 

if any comfort from his love, 

if any common sharing in the Spirit, 

if any tenderness and compassion, 

then make my joy complete

 by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

Philippians 2:1-2 (NIV)

If you have had a recent interaction with the healthcare system, you may have experienced an encounter where you respond by filling out a survey, providing a list of medications and/or helping someone “filling in” a computer screen.  One question you may have to respond to is “Do you have any health beliefs that may interfere with your health care?”  

I need to confess that I have been part of this reality that can ask the wrong question as well as hide physicians (and others) behind the technology.   What if the technology helped us ask “better questions” or helped us “listen better” to the answers? 

We know that the patient’s story and it’s telling is a primary care response.  What we also know is that our faith communities help us all to tell our stories and can be a community that listens.  It is a place where we can ask the healing questions and provide that primary care that is too easily lost in our anonymous and lonely planet.

What if the questions were, “Is your faith important for us to understand during your treatment?” or “Will your faith community be part of your care?”.   What if the answer was that your church is a critical part of your care and your healing faith?

Marvin

References:

Hage, M. L., & Brouwer, D. (2013). Becoming a (Healing) Agent of Jesus. Retrieved from http://www.dougsblog.org/2013/01/

Shuman, J., & Volck, B. M. D. (2006). Reclaiming the Body: Christians and the Faithful Use of Modern Medicine (The Christian Practice of Everyday Life) (1 ed.). Brazos Press

Koenig HG. The spiritual history. Southern Medical Journal.  99(10):1159-60, 2006 Oct

Mueller PS.  Plevak DJ.  Rummans TA. Religious involvement, spirituality, and medicine: implications for clinical practice. [Review] [147 refs] Mayo Clinic Proceedings.  76(12):1225-35, 2001 Dec.

The Arc of Healing

“A New Day Promise” at Lake Michigan

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, 

and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.  

Genesis 9:13 New International Version (NIV)

“It is a strange glory, the glory of this God.” — 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, London Sermon, 1933

It is easy to get caught up in the 24 hour news cycle and recycle that leads us to a belief in the triumph of destruction and suffering in the world!  Can we still believe in the Genesis promise that destruction will not win and that wholeness will prevail?

When I hear the word “healing”, I usually find a deeper and more complex story.  It takes time to listen and understand the nuances.  Many times it is story of forgiveness.  Sometimes it is a story of resistance in the face of evil. 

I recently finished the book by Charles Marsh, Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  It is not just a story his life, but a record of complex events that made his life a testimony to a “strange glory”.  What was central is a deep belief that recognizes the sovereignty of God even in the most difficult times!  What is divine is how his testimony continues to bring healing and  gives us courage to live faithfully in a broken world. 

We can sing along with John McCutcheon “Alleluia, The Great Storm is Over” and claim the promises of a faithful God.

Marvin

References

Marsh, Charles (2014-04-29). Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (p. 2). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

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

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

http://www.folkmusic.com/lyrics/great-storm-over

Heaven and Healing

“They don’t believe me, do they?  

Colton in “Heaven is for Real”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. 

He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.   John 11:25 (NKJV)

Popular reports of “near death experiences” describe a kind of bliss that reports a profound healing that is named heaven.  How can we understand this depth of of this healing?  

Sometimes words and images fail us and we find an answer in music.  For me, those answers are in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem and in Jonathan Elias’s Prayer Cycle.  When listening to these works, I feel a kind of peace that is mysterious and deep.  There is a reality that is not found in images and words.  It is an awesome experience.

But is that enough, when we are faced with death where the pain is so deep and the circumstances so tragic?  This is where reality challenges our faith.  What sustains me is a community of faith that will sing and recite what we believe together.  It is for me where life is sustained and healing and heaven are found.

Marvin

References

Heaven is for Real: The Motion Picture http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/heavenisforreal/

Andrew Lloyd Webber: Requiem

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/lloyd-webber-requiem/id389885292

Jonathan Elias: Prayer Cycle

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-prayer-cycle/id158477839

Hage, M. L. (2011). The Mystery of Healing. Retrieved from http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2011/04/mystery-of-healing.html

Hage, M. L. (2012). The Awe of Healing. Retrieved from http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/01/awe-of-healing.html

The Limits of Healing?

“Tell us please, what treatment in an emergency is administered by ear?"....I met his gaze and I did not blink. "Words of comfort," I said to my father.” 

― Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone

Gracious words are a honeycomb,

    sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.  

Proverbs 16:24 (NIV)

In the world of healthcare, we continue to struggle within the limits of science and the reality of disease and suffering.  We all know about death and taxes!

What got me thinking about this dilemma was a recent professional conversation regarding a possible repeat cardiac surgery in a drug addicted patient.  It brought to mind a previous patient’s report from over 20 years ago by Lewis Grizzard in two books, They Tore Out My Heart and Stomped That Sucker Flat  and I Took a Lickin’ and Kept on Ticking (And Now I Believe in Miracles).  The dilemma was the same, but what Lewis Grizzard taught me and what he learned was that although death and suffering are certain, there are other dimensions to our lives that transcend those realities.

Lewis Grizzard died after his fourth heart surgery(1994), but his life and reports still bring healing words to those who suffer and are with them.  The healing continues and I have every reason to believe that will continue.  These are holy words of comfort and healing.

Marvin

References

“Hope” Sculture by Robert Indiana as reported Chicago Tribune November 2, 2011.

Verghese, A. (2010). Cutting for Stone (1st ed.). Vintage Books.

Grizzard, L. (2010). They Tore Out My Heart and Stomped That Sucker Flat. NewSouth Books. Originally published in 1986

Grizzard, Lewis (2011-12-04). I Took a Lickin' and Kept on Ticking (And Now I Believe in Miracles). Green E-Books. Kindle Edition.  Originally published in 1993

Hage, M. L. (2012). Healing Words. Retrieved from http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/09/healing-words.html

The Big Why

It was while reading Phillip Yancey’s Where is God When it Hurts?, that my daughter (age 5) quickly said “right here” when asked the difficult question as posed by the title.  Now, Phillip Yancey has another book, The Question That Never Goes Away,  This last book, provides first hand reporting of the mega-disasters of our time as well as his own confrontation with pain and mortality.  

The faithful answers to suffering and evil continue to challenge and paradoxically propel faith into action.  We are called not just to tell the stories, but to be present with those who suffer.  For Christians, we are also called to work for justice and peace.  We believe that God’s love will overcome evil and suffering.  

After a lifetime of experience that includes more than usual amount of suffering. my answer, like my daughters, is still “right here”.  It is not a naive response.  Like Yancey’s recent report, it is a response tested in the reality of a broken world.   It is a question that will continue to test all of us.  May we continue to see the presence of God in our lives and be that presence to those who suffer.  

Marvin

References

Yancey, P. (1977). Where is God When It Hurts? Zondervan Publishing

Yancey, P. (2014). The Question That Never Goes Away. Zondervan.

Hage, M. L. (2011). Mega-disasters. Retrieved from http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2011/03/mega-disasters.html

Hage, M. L. (2012). God’s Grace. Retrieved from http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/10/gods-grace.html

Another Healing Place

Omaha Beach Cemetary

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Matthew 5:9 (NIV)

Yesterday, the 6th of June, 2014, we were reminded of the great sacrifice 70 years ago on the beaches of Normandy.  What was amazing to me was the focus on reconciliation and the pursuit of peace.

When I first visited Omaha cemetery in 1962, I was 21 and was moved by and identified with the young men who gave their lives on that beach.   Last year, I began to hear a larger dimension of the pursuit of peace when I visited the Memorial de Caen - Centre for History and Peace.  The goal was not just winning the war, but it was about winning the peace.  That goal continues to be a challenge in the world.

Today, there was another lesson from this place when we saw previous and current adversaries greeting each other on the beaches of Normandy.  We learned again that peacemaking is not just a history but a struggle that continues.  Let us all pray and work for peace.

Marvin

References:

http://www.c-span.org/video/?319831-1/dday-70th-anniversary-international-ceremony

Hage, M. L. (2011). Peace from above. Retrieved from http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2011/01/peace-from-above.html

Hage, M. L. (2013). Healing Spaces. Retrieved from http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/11/healing-spaces.html

Healing Purpose

Is there no balm in Gilead?  Is there no physician there?

Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?

Jeremiah 8:22 (NIV)

Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.

Luke 17:33 (NIV)

It seems to be a recurring theme in the news…reports of “lostness”, alienation, and uncertainty about the purpose and meaning in our lives.  Even the idea of the “telos” of healing is at risk in a post-theological age.  There is a missing dimension in our lives that is not filled by things or with technology.  

What is central to the “lostness” is the aloneness of individualism and the mythology of the a zero sum culture…I win/you lose, I succeed/you fail, mine/not yours, etc.  What if we believed that when we lose our life, we really gain it!

In the memoir, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Olympics, we hear the story of competition but also see a reality of how losing oneself is redeeming.  This is a personal story of Joe Rantz but also a story of the gentle mentoring spirit of George Pocock, the designer and builder of the boat.  Here is one of the many lessons of George Pocock:

Perhaps the seeds of redemption lay not just in perseverance, hard work, and rugged individualism. Perhaps they lay in something more fundamental— the simple notion of everyone pitching in and pulling together.

The big question is what is that larger goal, that “telos”?  Do we find it in our own strivings?   For me, the healing purpose or “telos” is no easy prescription but a call to our vocation as healing agents. We have been called to bring a wholeness to a fractured world that we are part of.  We need that other “outside voice” that gently reminds us and calls us again and again to a “telos” beyond our quick solutions and simple prescriptions.  The paradox is that we find that “telos” for our lives in the witness of the “others” in our lives.  It is in our suffering together that we find healing and for Christians, it is the example of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  

Marvin

References

Brown, D. J. (2013). The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (First Edition ed.). Viking Adult.

Brown, Daniel James (2013-06-04). The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (p. 123). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.. 

Hage, M.L. (2010). The “Telos” for Christian Healing Agents. Retrieved from http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2010/12/telos-for-christian-healing-agents.html

Hage, M. L. (2013). Resistance/Resilience. Retrieved from http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/08/resistanceresilience.html