Healing Honor

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.  

Exodus 20:12 (NIV)

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. 

My Father will honor the one who serves me. 

John 12:26 (NIV)

I just finished Why Honor Matters by Tamler Sommers.  This book appeared at just the right time.  

Recently, I had experienced “honor” in a new way in Kenya and was reflecting on its impact and uncertain about what to say.   What was the background to this honor experience?  A quick Google search revealed a new book by an author who also had been struggling.

“Over the past ten years, I’ve come to believe that honor is both real and valuable—indispensable, even, for living a good life in a good and just society. I’m convinced that our collective rejection of honor has come at great cost and that reclaiming it can improve our lives and our society. This book is my attempt to explain why.”

Tamler Sommers

The book helped to expand my interest and reflections.  One concern was an absence of how faith traditions can “contain honor” or even how they “expand honor”.   You need to read the book to get at the dimensions of this important idea.

For me, two other books have addressed honor cultures; Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship and Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion by Father Greg Boyle.  As a reader, I came to see how “honor” takes on a new dimension within this special faith community.

Lastly,  I was reminded in scripture how God “lifts us up”, honors us.   Honor commands family solidarity and promises a new place for our lives together.  Who would want to reject this Great Honor?

Marvin

References:

Sommers, Tamler. Why Honor Matters (p. 5). Basic Books. Kindle Edition. 

Hage, ML Showered with Love

http://2018tenwek.blogspot.com/2018/03/showered-with-love.html

Hage, ML Techniques and Transformation

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/02/techniques-and-transformation.html

Hage, ML Healing Kinships

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2017/11/healing-kinships.html

Healing Conversations

“Here is the Church”

The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

1 Corinthians 12:25-26 (MSG)

Ray Downing, Greg Boyle and Michael Battle/Desmond Tutu all have messages to share about how we are to live in this world.  These authors help us to see a vision of community and healing.  They all have helped me see my life and experiences in a larger context.

What would they say to each other if we got them to sit down together?  I think they would confess their Christian faith, grieve our separations, celebrate forgiveness and call for new communities of healing.  I would love to hear how they understand and see the scripture passage at the beginning of this post.

Can we find voices that together will bring healing to this broken and suffering world?  I have found some.  Will you join the choir?  Will you bring others with you?  Will you share your healing stories?

Marvin

  in Kenya

References:

Photo: https://nextchurch.net/here-is-the-church-here-is-the-steeple-re-writing-the-rhyme/

Downing, R. (2018). Global Health Means Listening (1 ed.). Manqa Books.

Boyle, G. (2017). Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship. Simon & Schuster.

Battle, Michael (2009) Ubuntu: I in You and You in Me Seabury Books, New York

Tutu, D Speech delivered at Duke Chapel by Bishop Desmond Tutu (1986)

http://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/handle/10161/1709

Hage, M. L. (2013). Global Health.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/05/global-health.html

Hage, M. L. (2013). Reconciliation and Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/12/reconciliation-and-healing.html

Wonder

Generation after generation stands in awe of your work;

    each one tells stories of your mighty acts.

Your beauty and splendor have everyone talking;

    I compose songs on your wonders.

                   
Psalm 145:4-5 (MSG)

It all started about 5 years ago, when the oldest of my grandchildren announced she had read  a book, “Wonder”.  Since that time, I received the sequel, “Auggie, and Me” as a Christmas gift from another grandchild and then saw the movie.  When I asked a younger grandchild what was the best part of the movie,  she said “It was“when Auggie made his first friend at school”,  These series of events with grandchildren has lead me to think more about how we see each other.  What is most important?  What binds us together?  Is it about our abilities and competencies?

There are many modern voices, Hans Reinders, Jean Vanier, Stanley Hauerwas, and John Swinton, that have addressed and worked to answer these existential questions.  Another experience just published was from a parent’s perspective -“I am that Parent”.  This is worth a careful read.

For me,  this is a question of being a grandparent and the creation of spaces where we learn and live together; like reading books together.  And maybe an answer is found in the “wonder/mystery” of how we live into the reality of our limited abilities and understanding.  “Friendship” looks like a good place to begin as my grandchild understands.

Poppy

References:

Palacio, R. J. (2012). Wonder (1 ed.). Knopf Books for Young Readers

Palacio, R. J. (2015). Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories (7th ed.). Knopf Books for Young Readers.

Rule, A., I am that parent.

JAMA. 2018;319(5):445. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.21048

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2671471

Hage, M. L. (2012). Awaiting “Good News”

http://healingagents.blogspot.co.ke/2012/12/awaiting-good-news.html

Healing Together

Healing Together at Tenwek Hospital, Kenya

There have been two remarkable recent reports of healing agents:

Tom Brokaw: You Can Find the Entire World Inside Your Hospital, and 

Paul Soloman: What orchestras can teach executives about conducting business

  

These reports remind me of a wonder filled life in medical care.  What is usually the focus of a medical care commentary is physician-patient relationships.  What we read in both of these reports is the beauty and complexity of a healing communities. 

For me, the environment that best represents healing together is found at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya.  I have had the opportunity to see it grow and expand its influence locally and internationally.  People from around the world show up to be part of that community.

Thanks be to God for transformative healing communities.

Marvin

References

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/31/opinion/tom-brokaw-health-care-immigrants.html

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-orchestras-can-teach-executives-about-conducting-business

Tenwek Hospital

http://www.tenwekhospital.org./

Hage, M. L. (2010). The “Telos” for Christian Healing Agents.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2010/12/telos-for-christian-healing-agents.html

Healing Kinships

Reunions

There are mixed responses when you announce that you will be attending a reunion.  Popular forms are family and educational reunions.  For some it is just a nostalgic extravagance.  For others it is a chance to hear both old and new stories that you have shared.  I prefer to see reunions as the later.

This reunion may stretch the definition - It was attending a presentation supporting prison ministry in Grand Haven, Michigan (10/12/17).  The reunion part was hearing Father Gregory Boyle recount many of the stories I first heard in 2012 while reading Tattoos on the heart: The power of boundless compassion.  It was a great reunion.  It was at that reunion I heard an announcement of new stories that will appear this month Barking to the choir: The power of radical kinship.

A more classic reunion, 50 years since medical school graduation, actually began before the formal event with the collection and distribution of a brief histories.  I was impressed with the stories of mission and community involvement.  Even better was their love of their vocation.  When the reunion occurred (October 26-28, 2017) it was a great cerebration.   We are “kin” who shared a common beginning and remain connected to a common purpose of healing.

Thanks, 

Marvin

References:

Humanity for Prisoners

https://www.humanityforprisoners.org/

Boyle, G. (2011). Tattoos on the heart: The power of boundless compassion. Simon and Schuster.

Hage, M. L. (2012). Techniques and Transformation.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/02/techniques-and-transformation.html

Boyle, G. (2017). Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship. Simon & Schuster.

Hage, M.L. (2017) Healing Covenant

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

Healing History

"Singing is praying twice”*

Chance the Rapper

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;

    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

Psalm 95:1 (NIV)

Many of us have just finished watching the 10 part documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick on the history of the Viet Nam War.  For me, the big question was “what was I doing during those years?”.   It is hard to remember the emotions surrounding that time, but it is easy to recall the music.

So beside telling the horrible facts, I was moved by the music.  The music was for me the key to the healing that is possible.  Maybe that has always been true.  The question for us is what are the songs that you are singing today and will they be a part of your life’s story.

For me the answer came October 1. 2017 at a celebration of the 500 year anniversary of the Reformation.  This was a small local effort in Holland, Michigan.  The community came to a beautiful concert hall and sang songs of the church.  The voices may have been older but we sang of healing and life.   This experience demonstrated again the power of the music we have learned and are still learning.

Marvin

References:

*Quote also attributed to St. Augustine

https://relevantmagazine.com/video/chance-the-rapper-on-colbert-singing-is-praying-twice/

https://www.amazon.com/Vietnam-War-Burns-Novick-Soundtrack/dp/B074TY4LKN/ref=tmm_msc_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Hage, M. L. (2013). Healing Music 

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/05/healing-music.html

Hymnody: The Voice of Christian Unity A festival of hymns old and new that are common to all Christian traditions.  http://www.refoholland.org

Healing Covenant

Oldest Fragment of the Hippocratic Oath

“I do solemnly swear by that which I hold most sacred:”

This fall I will attend my 50th Medical School Graduation Reunion.  I was able to retrieve the Aequanimitas 1967 yearbook and the graduation program.  Central to that graduation ceremony was the Hippocratic Oath that was printed on the inside cover of the program.  

The context of the oath begins by the swearing “by that which I hold most sacred” and goes  on to describe our behaviors in relationship to patients and colleagues.  How should we understand that oath today and how it was applied in our professional lives in the last 50 years?

There are overarching descriptions that could be used to describe the changes in medicine during this era: Moving from art to technology; from compassion to contract; and from sacred to secular.  The oath itself has changed as well as its use.  What I believe is central to healing  is the idea of covenant as the first line is sometimes translated .  The covenant between individuals is sworn before God as an oath and that makes it much more than a contract.  That sacred context has been the missing ingredient for many in the healing professions, but there are exceptions as reported in this blog.

In anticipation of the reunion, I am looking forward to hearing the stories of healing that began by taking that covenant oath 50 years ago.

Marvin

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath

First line of The Hippocratic Oath as printed in the 1967 Class Day Ceremony and Honors Convocation

Hage, M. L. (2011). Healing Agent Education.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2011/11/healing-agent-education.html

Hage, M. L. (2014). Healing Ebola.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2014/10/healing-ebola.html