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

Healing Reports

Sharing Healing News in Kenya*

I just finished two wonderful but very different books about healing described in very different ways and environments.  Both relate to the nature of chaplaincy.  What can be seen in both reports is the critical nature of healing in these different environments.   The first (Cadge, 2013) reports the many faces of chaplaincy in secular academic hospitals and the other (Braestrup, 2008) in the life and story of a chaplain to game wardens in Maine.   The first is an analytical report by a sociologist and the second is a memoir by the author/chaplain.

For me these two reports are helpful to see both the depth, breadth and power of these healing professions.  It is inspiring to hear the impact of these healing agents and the resonance with my experiences is reassuring.

What is clear is that there continues to be a deep need for the integration of our faith and knowledge in the care of those who face the crises of life and death.

Thanks,

Marvin

References

Cadge, W. (2013). Paging God: Religion in the Halls of Medicine (1 ed.). University Of Chicago Press.

Braestrup, K. (2008). Here If You Need Me: A True Story (Reprint ed.). Back Bay Books. 

Hage, M. L., Tetel-Hanks, J., & Bushyhead, A. (1992). When the Bough Breaks--the Blalock’s Story. Duke University Medical Center. 

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

Hage, M.L. (2013). God’s Grace Revisited.  Retrieved from 

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/10/gods-grace-revisited.html

* The story behind the photo.  Mzungu-nyanya Retrieved from http://motown41.blogspot.com/2014/01/mzungu-nyanya.html

Getting Here

Gare du Nord Train Station, Paris, France

Retirement gives you an opportunity to try and understand the “journey/course” of your life.  Generally, it is not possible without some expert assistance.  We are so “close” to our own stories that understanding is difficult.   

George Marsden’s recent book The Twilight of the American Enlightenment: The 1950s and the Crisis of Liberal Belief chronicles the larger story of American life and the course of my life.  His thesis is that the exclusion of religious perspectives from dominant scientific/technologic perspectives left a void in the meaning and purpose in American life. 

My argument, in brief, is that the culture wars broke out and persisted in part because the dominant principles of the American heritage did not adequately provide for how to deal with substantive religious differences as they relate to the public domain.

The task for much of my life was holding onto both a sense of meaning and purpose within the context of the science and technology of medicine.  Fortunately, I received the gifts of community and faith that occurred in both the worlds of faith and science.  

As we all know, the struggle has not ended for our society.  The book ends with an alternative historical perspective from the works of Abraham Kuyper.

Kuyper, by way of contrast, worked from a principle enunciated by St. Augustine: “I believe in order to understand.” Faith preceded understanding, and so faith informed and shaped understanding. Working from this principle, Kuyper insisted that reason, natural science, and methodological naturalism were not ideologically neutral. Even the most technical of natural sciences, he observed, operated within the framework of the faith, or higher commitments, of the practitioner. 

The challenge is to use this “big picture” perspective to continue to live into those higher commitments.  

Marvin

References:

Marsden, G. (2014). The Twilight of the American Enlightenment: The 1950s and the Crisis of Liberal Belief. Basic Books. 

Ibid, p. 165

Hage, M. L. (2013). Seniors. Retrieved from http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/03/seniors.html

Hage, M. L. (2012). Thoughts. Retrieved from http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2012/10/thoughts.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-upholds-legislative-prayer-at-council-meetings/2014/05/05/dc142ede-cf9d-11e3-b812-0c92213941f4_story.html

Hearing Stories

Medical Brigade in Honduras, 2014

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—

    those he redeemed from the hand of the foe

Psalm 107: 2 (NIV)

Sometimes you are unaware of the privilege of “taking a history” and hearing the patient’s story until that is a rare part of your life.   It is one of the realities of retirement.  The recent exception was a week in Honduras with a medical brigade from Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church.  I was able to hear and see people telling their stories with people ready to listen.

At another time in Honduras (1998), I was told that “Being able to tell the story is the beginning of healing”.  What is also true is that it requires a listener and we are all called to be those people as noted by Dietrich Bonhoeffer at a much earlier time (1954). 

“The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love to God begins with listening to His word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them. It is God’s love for us that He not only gives us His word, but also lends us His ear”

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (1954), pp. 97-98

There is another component that happens when you are a part of the story.  This is a special kind of “active listening” that is empathetic.  It is not passive and distant!   It is the heart of healing!

Thanks for the healing power of stories!

Marvin

References

Hage, M. L (2014). Returning.  Retrieved from http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2014/03/returning.html

Hage, M. L. (2013). Difficult Conversations. Retrieved from http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2013/11/difficult-conversations.html