Healing Communities - "For the Greater Glory of God"

"Running Water" in Nicaragua from “Called to Life”

The poor in spirit see and are glad

Oh, you God-seekers, take heart!

For God listens to the poor,

He doesn’t walk out on the wretched.

You heavens, praise him; praise him, earth;

Also ocean and all things that swim in it.

Psalm 69: 32-34 The Message

"Community" usually has a small definition.  Our circle of church family, friends and relatives were defined by a 25 mile radius.  We got our news locally as well as our care.   We still see the value of small and close communities, but are now blessed with global relationships and connections.

Here are some recent observations about our expanded healing communities:

1. The church and faith are global and the context of healing.
2. Those who suffer bring a powerful voice of comfort and courage.
3. Healing is learned best from those with longterm struggles.
4. Their struggles are our struggles and our struggles are their struggles.

So the good news for our struggles in “developed” countries, is that our healing can come from places that we never expected.  Their faith is a testimony to our God who is bigger than our expectations or struggles!

Marvin

References

http://calledtolife.net/what-if-this-is-how-you-got-your-water/

"For the Greater Glory of God" - "Ad maiorem Dei gloriam” - Motto at Georgetown University

Bono’s visit to Georgetown on 11/12/2012

     Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CQpII9d2IY

     Complete version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUZFgBqcYt8

HIPPA and Healing

"Mountain Home”  -  ETSU - October 21, 2012

Jesus said, “Go home to your own people. Tell them your story—what the Master did, how he had mercy on you.” The man went back and began to preach in the Ten Towns area about what Jesus had done for him. He was the talk of the town.  

Mark 5:18-20 The Message

We get some mixed messages when facing disease...”telling & sharing” or “privacy”.   In the United States, we have “legalized” our privacy...”HIPPA”.   In its simplest form, it is about the management of our health information.  The other reality is that our communities are keys to our healing and we can use computer communication to share information on sites like “CarePages”.   

Certainly, churches and church families regularly pray for and with patients who are part of their congregations.  I think we need to be clear about how our faith communities can be part of the healing response.  Susan Dunlap reveals the different styles and looks for the common themes.   Most important is God’s presence in the our lives.  Our faith stories are not just stories of our struggles, but testimonies of God’s healing.  These cyber-communities are our new reality of sharing and reporting God’s Grace!  

Marvin

References:

Rev. Will Willimon,  Jesus’ Health Care Plan

http://podbay.fm/show/261879191/e/1282858380?autostart=1

https://www.carepages.com/

Susan J. Dunlap Caring Cultures: How Congregations Respond to the Sick

Ziebland S.  Wyke S. Health and illness in a connected world: how might sharing experiences on the internet affect people's health?. Milbank Quarterly.  90(2):219-49, 2012 Jun

Rev. John Hage, A Love That Won’t Let You GO, 10/28/2012

http://mppc.net/410623.ihtml

God's Grace

"Hey, I'm Dan and I hear you guys need a ride,"

Dan Todd, Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer

It is not easy to write about “God’s Grace” in the face of disasters and loss.  It is certainly not the words that I hear on the news reports covering Hurricane Sandy.

Despite that reality, I have seen God’s grace in the concerns expressed and organized by and in caring communities.  It happens by preparation, rescue and recovery.  Those realities also occur in our personal lives when we are threatened by “storms” that we name as diseases that profoundly change our ordered and ordinary lives.  

So here is how I would describe God’s grace.  It is that “extraordinary” reality that we see when God intervenes.  It is not about the disaster or disease, it is about the responses we see in the community of faith and those organizations that are the healing agents.  Help us to see the reality of God’s healing and blessings in our communities and our lives even during life’s storms.

Marvin

References

See message by Rev. Ernie Thompson, “Hardships and Blessings”, 10/28/2012 at First Presbyterian Church Wilmington, NC

http://www.firstonthird.org/Sermons/SermonVideos/tabid/189/Default.aspx

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/10/29/173002/tall-ship-lost-1-dead-1-missing.html

Thoughts

“Si on soumet tout à la raison notre religion n'aura rien de mystérieux et de surnaturel. Si on choque les principes de la raison notre religion sera absurde et ridicule.” 

“If we submit everything to reason our religion will be left with nothing mysterious or supernatural. If we offend the principles of reason our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.” (Pensées #173-273)

“Le cœur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connaît point.”

“The heart has its reasons, of which reason itself knows nothing.”

(Pensées #277)  Blaise Pascal(1623-1662)

Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician and philosopher, addresses the assumptions of both his worlds...worlds that seem to exclude each other!   That was a long time ago!  So how are we to address this tension in our world?  Where is the credible and grande “middle” space?  

It is said that French is the language of “Love” or maybe the secret is how it creates that space in our lives.  What is that space like?   What words or behavior convey that sentiment?  There is no question that it is a critical element in our lives.   

I have been the recipient of a “Love”.  It was and is a gift.  It was not words per se, but the lives that have been shared because of a faith.  It was and is a deep connectedness and commitment found in the hearts of others.   Mystery and reason live together in a space created by that “Love”.  There is no conflict, just gratitude!

So in our world of facts and evidence, let us continue to make room for mystery and reason in a space made in and by that “Love”!

Marvin

Healing Words

Rosetta Stone

Reçois favorablement les paroles de ma bouche Et les sentiments de mon coeur, O Éternel, mon rocher et mon libérateur!  Psaumes 19:14 Louis Segond (LSG)

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.  Psalm 19:14  NIV

I am in the midst of trying to relearn another language.  It is a challenge to find the right words!  More importantly, it has been an intense and difficult time in our global village of finding the right words!   “Words” seem to have a power that we have never seen.   The power seems to come in that we can share the words to a wider audience at speeds we have never experienced. 

In our Western culture, the “first test” applied to the exchanged words is the “truth” test and in healthcare, we have come to believe that our first obligation to patients is to tell the “truth”.   Another obligation is to use words that are “healing”.    This standard does not deny “truth”, but it means our words and our hearts have another purpose that we need to consider and get right.  

In a recent email from a dear friend, I got a clear report about his care in the face of metastatic cancer.  The facts were clear, but more important was how he was cared for by providers whose hearts were as important as the reported facts.  

In what ever language or culture, we need to find those healing words and hearts.  Healing words have and will connect us and they are “good news” to a suffering world.  

Marvin

References

Here is a current example of other healing conversations:

http://www.onbeing.org/program/next-christians/4839/audio?embed=1

"Burnout" and a "Path Report"

A recent publication(8/20/12) in the Archives of Internal Medicine published from the Mayo Clinic reports that up to 1/2 of all physicians surveyed have symptoms of burnout.  This looks like an increase as compared to earlier reports of 1/4 of physicians.   What is more alarming is the authors know of no specific effective recommendation.

“Unfortunately, little evidence exists about how to address this problem.”

I think there are answers that look at “well being”.  Here is the conclusion of a reflection by Dr. Sharon Dobie,

“Seasoned clinicians who still love their work know that there is a path. It is well worn, if quietly traveled, by those of us who know that relationships with patients do have mutuality. Our patients and we know that they add to our lives. We both know that we have grown in self-awareness, in part because of the lessons learned in relationships with our patients. We both know that our interactions go best for both of us when we are mindful, coming to an encounter fully present and attending to the dynamic process happening around the narrative presented by the patient. The path is there. It is time to show it to our students and to teach them how to walk it, instead of simply trusting that they will discover it after some frustrating years of fearing they are lost.”

“Equipping Healing Agents: Sustaining Vocation” is a “path report”  that should be available at Amazon in September, 2012.

Marvin

References

http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1351351

Dobie S. Viewpoint: reflections on a well-traveled path: self-awareness, mindful practice, and relationship-centered care as foundations for medical education. [Review]  Academic Medicine.  82(4):422-7, 2007 Apr.

"Green" Healing Agents

 

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
    the world, and all who live in it; 

Psalm 24:1 (NIV)

A modern social virtue has been identified in the “green” movement.  How do we act as good stewards of the resources entrusted to us?   There are a lot of answers that address those resources that are external to us; but what about us, what sustains us?  

Whether we are in ministry or medicine, our communities have invested a great deal in our training and support.  How do we most effectively, efficiently and sustainably care for this investment?  In reality, most of the effort has been in addressing the “unsustainable”.   What hasn’t been addressed is what is sustains us as healing agents.

In the soon to be published book, “Equipping Healing Agents: Sustaining Vocation” the gifts that we have received as a part of God’s creation are addressed.  It is not a self-help or book on professionalism.  It is about a wider view of what has been given to us as we follow our vocation and how those gifts sustain us.  

Marvin

"Green" Jesus is retrieved from http://www.cfact.tv/2012/06/20/christ-turns-green-at-un-earth-summit-literally/