Lenten Peace

                                                                   

                         

Sunflowers - 2014

Mimi Hage  

 

 

Lenten Peace Quilt - 2016

First Presbyterian Church,  Holland, Michigan

Personal Photo

And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

                                                                        Revelation 22: 2 (NIV)

What does “Peace” look like?  Would we know it if we saw it?  These are pressing Lenten issues during these times of fear, chaos and destruction.

An answer found me in the “Lenten Peace Quilt” - “peace” begins with the small actions of each of us.  For me, It was also brought to life in the “Sunflowers” of my granddaughter’s artwork.  It is the same peace articulated in the book, “Beauty will save the World”.

The current events remind us of small answers using the power of sunflower seeds.  Sunflowers have deep meaning in the Ukrainian church.   It is an amazing story that brings a powerful nonviolent response to the reality of conflict.

So as we pray for and with Ukraine for Lenten peace, may we act with courage to be a witness to the promise of abundant resurrection life.

Marvin

References:

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

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

Zahnd, B. (2012). Beauty Will Save the World: Rediscovering the Allure and Mystery of Christianity. Charisma House.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict: How The Sunflower Has Become A Symbol Of Resistance And Solidarity

https://www.firstpost.com/world/russia-ukraine-conflict-how-the-sunflower-has-become-a-symbol-of-resistance-and-solidarity-10428271.html

Hage, M. L. (2020). Finding Joy.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2020/01/finding-joy.html

Becoming Better Grandparents

 

But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  Luke 18:16 (NIV)

I just finished reading a “children’s book” - at least that is how it is disguised with wonderful illustrations and stories from children.  I became aware of this book after hearing the author give a presentation on the January Series from Calvin University.  I was left with a lingering question of how this applies to my grandparent status?  I looked back at my musings on this blog and for new information to integrate.  Here is one example:

“We have the ability to create bonfires of belonging wherever we go. We can also lose this gift if it isn’t carefully tended to. Together, we can help remind one another of our place at the fire.”

The wisdom of children made me very grateful for the blessing of children in my life.  It comes in the form of unexpected gift of chocolate-covered strawberries and a first date to a restaurant eating “tater tots”.  It comes with interrogation; “What is your favorite drink”?  It comes with doing paint by number and hearing, “It doesn’t have to be perfect.”. 

The “back nine” of life has some wonderful grandparent surprises!

Marvin

References:

Montague, Brad. Becoming Better Grownups (p. 86). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Calvin University January Series

https://calvin.edu/directory/series/brad-montague

Hage, M. L. (2015). Healing Grandparents.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2015/10/healing-grandparents.html

Hage, M. L. (2016). Healing Mission.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2016/10/healing-mission.html

Plans

 What’s the plan?

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, 

“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

Planning seems different for me this year particularly in the context of the Covid pandemic.  Can we really make plans?  Are plans only for the young?

I just finished two books that address “planning” from both an institutional and personal viewpoint.  These two authors with Duke University Divinity School ties are not naive about the difficulties.  What I think each author would agree with is that the God we worship does provide the Grace and Love that sustains us.  What is always in question is our responses to a God that is chasing after us.  

We engage in God’s work when we find the connection with our specific gifts.  The good news is that God’s plans are not age or or pandemic dependent realities.

Thanks be to God for the promise of plans for our lives.

Marvin

References

Jones, L. G., & Hogue, A. P. (2021). Navigating the Future. Abingdon Press.

Bowler, K. (2021). No Cure for Being Human. Random House

Hage, M. L. (2016). Healing Mission.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2016/10/healing-mission.html 

Lived Life Lessons

 The Vigeland Park

Oslo, Norway

“Tenderness IS tending to the other”

Father Greg Boyle

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:   

Philippians 2:5 (NIV)

It is no small task to compose a curriculum.  It is also well known that what transpires  frequently changes from what was written.  The question of content becomes more problematic  if the material presented is controversial. 

Then here comes Greg Boyle’s new third book, The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness.  It is similar to his prior descriptions of his ministry at Homeboy Industries. (Click and hear from this community).   With this book, we get closer to the essential components of the “curriculum”.  He describes how much he has learned and seen.  He makes the case that the healing results are most connected to the extravagant tenderness lived within that community.

The invitation is extended to all to become part of a community like Homeboy Industries where extravagant tenderness becomes the catalyst to healing life lessons.  It becomes a way of living that is more than what is written.

Thanks be to God for these lived life lessons.

Marvin

References:

Boyle, Gregory. The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness (p. 221). Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

Hage, M. L. (2016). A Healing Curriculum.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-healing-curriculum.html

Healing Authority

  

“Changing our views”

Cloud Gate - Chicago Millenium Park

 “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ 

you find yourselves cared for.” Matthew 5:7 (MSG)

“Because being moral is crucial to maintaining important relationships and being part of a community, recovery from moral injury is not an individual achievement. It is a relational process that restores our sense of worthiness to be loved, sustains our families and communities, and nurtures creativity, curiosity, and a love of beauty and life.”

Rita Nakashima Brock, from “An epidemic of moral injury”

When I first began medical practice, medical authority was unquestioned and it seemed like “authority” was good.  Unknown to me was that  the “authority” I inherited was partially the result of white male privilege.  As my professional path continued more authority rested on the merits of the scientific method and the rewards its technology brought to patients.  In the 60’s we began to hear the phrase “Question Authority” and  in the information age we all have tools to challenge that authority.

But now we have moved from “question” to “rejection” with threats and real violence.  We have our conversations limited and witness reports questioned.  We have all felt a deep loss that is described as moral injury.  The real problem is not the diagnosis of moral injury, but the prescription.  Can we build new understandings and relationships that will promote well being?  Who will be the partners in the health care responses?   

One encouraging recent example comes from the state of Colorado.  The Colorado report emphasizes the importance of partnership, dialogue and listening as the modus operandi of faith communities with the healthcare institutions.  Trusted relationships are repurposed to address pandemic challenges.

Professional privileges have always been contingent on the relationships to those we serve.  For faith-based providers (healing agents),  practice begins in the community of faith.  It is the foundation for healing authority.  

Marvin

References

Brock, Rita Nakashima An epidemic of moral injury. The Christian Century.  

September 1, 2021

Williams JTB; Miller A; Nussbaum AM  Combating Contagion and Injustice: The Shared Work for Public Health and Faith Communities During COVID-19.

 Journal of Religion & Health. 60(3):1436-1445, 2021 Jun.

Hage, M. L. (2011). Gift Reflections

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2011/10/gift-reflections.html

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

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2019/06/healing-cultures.html

Hage, M. L. (2021). Listening Again.

https://healingagents.blogspot.com/2021/04/listening-again.html

Timing Connections

North Carolina Sea Turtles

“If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.” 

African Proverb

There is a time for everything,

    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

It was an odd coincidence!  After remotely listening to a sermon on “Belonging”, I switched live-streams and was introduced to a new book by psychologist, Lisa Miller, PhD, “The Awakening Brain”.  The book addresses the neuroscience of our “connectivity”.  In this book the spiritual dimension of our lives is examined with scientific rigor in a personal memoir format.  One of her fascinating  recurring experiences is the synchrony of events.  She makes the argument that there is an underlying “time” reality that connects us with each other and the world around us.

I have lived within the reality of obstetric time - obstetric seasonality and circadian rhythms.  Most of my interest was “within” not “between” individuals.  But now, there is a new approach in obstetrics!  “Centering antenatal care“ is a group care model designed to improve obstetric outcomes using facilitated support groups.   It has worked well within specific demographic groups.  Could it be that there is a biologic power of deep connectedness that maximizes obstetric outcomes?  Maybe that synchrony is the mechanism of action.

For me, this strategy for healing goes beyond the individual to the power of a connected community.  They have the power of healing.  It is what communities of faith have done in building deep spiritual connections.

Thanks be to God for timing connections,

Marvin

References:

Hage, M. L. (2011). Faithful Minds.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2011/05/faithful-minds.html

Hagerty, B. B. (2010). Fingerprints of God: What Science Is Learning About the Brain and Spiritual Experience (Reprint ed.). Riverhead Trade.

Miller, L. (2021). The Awakened Brain. Random House.

Wolchover, N.  Scientists Discover Exotic New Patterns of Synchronization

https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-discover-exotic-patterns-of-synchronization-20190404/

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

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

Hage, M. L. (2019). Healing Time - Part II.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2019/09/healing-time-part-ii.html

ACOG Committee Opinion No. 731 Summary: Group Prenatal Care. Obstet Gynecol 2018;131(3):616-618

Healing Memorials

  

Plague Column - Pestsäule 

Vienna, Austria Dedicated 1694 

“Art in Lockdown”

Collage by Nathan Wyburn 

The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; 

anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”   

So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. 

Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.  

Numbers 21:8-9 (NIV)

In 2016, I was introduced to Pestsäule, the memorial monument to “one of the last big plague epidemics in Europe”.   It was a short introduction that seemed remote to my experience.  Now, I have a new appreciation of the importance of memorials particularly as they relate to the uncontrollable events in our lives.

I would suggest that we have some real work ahead to respond and create icons of the Covid19 pandemic.  The United States used existing memorials to remember 400,000 deaths with flags, lights and songs.  We have told stories of lives lost on social media as we all recounted how our lives have changed.   How will we capture in a more permanent way the meanings of these moments?  What icons will work across the multiple cultures effected by this pandemic?  Where will the new art and knowledge take us as a world?  It could be a time of great creativity, a pandemic renaissance.

Healing memorials are effective places of active remembering that help us see and create in new ways!  So even as the “endgame” is still unclear, memorializing the healing responses are a critical component of this pandemic’s history.

Thanks be to God for places and images that heal.

Marvin

References

Plague Column, Vienna

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_Column,_Vienna

Joe Biden holds memorial for 400,000 Americans who have died of Covid-19

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/19/biden-coronavirus-memorial-us-deaths-ceremony

Sonnevend J. A virus as an icon: the 2020 pandemic in images. Am J Cult Sociol. 2020 Oct 6:1-11. doi: 10.1057/s41290-020-00118-7. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33042541; PMCID: PMC7537773.

Art in Lockdown

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-the-incredible-art-created-in-lockdown-11987230

How Pandemics Wreak Havoc—and Open Minds

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/how-pandemics-wreak-havoc-and-open-minds

Hage, ML(2021). All is Grace.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2021/01/all-is-grace.html

Kofman, A; Kantor, R; Adashi, EY

Potential COVID-19 Endgame Scenarios: Eradication, Elimination, Cohabitation, or Conflagration?  https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2781945