Healthcare, Wellness and Wholeness – Compassion and Kindness

Here’s another post with insight and thoughts captured from my reading of Health Care You Can Live With by Dr. Scott Morris, founder of the Church Health Centerin Memphis, Tennessee. The excerpts below are directly from the referenced chapters.

Excerpts From Chapters 15 and 16

Compassion is an intense desire to embrace people in a way that is not the norm in our world today. Through this embracing, we show what the Kingdom of God is all about. When compassion happens, everyone included, whether on the giving or receiving end, is better because of it.

God made room for you. In sending Jesus into the body-and-spirit humanity, God reached out to be connected to you. In compassionate mercy, you were made part of God’s family.

As you continue to discover what wellness means in your own life, ask how you can put on compassion toward others and yourself.

Look at yourself through the same eyes of welcoming love through which God sees you. See the wholeness God wants for you, body and spirit. If God wants it for you, shouldn’t you want it for yourself?

Small habits bring big changes when it comes to health. Read more of this article »

Are You in Sync with God?

My wife recently gave me an iPad as a gift. (Thank you again Janice!) I’ve been using it pretty much every day and found that it’s been enjoyable to use and it also increase my productivity.

About two times each week I find that I need to sync the iPad with my Macbook Pro laptop so that my calendars, contacts and downloaded applications are in sync with each other. Being consistent with this process of syncing my iPhone with my laptop is pretty important or otherwise the right information will not be in both devices.

In the same vein, it’s important that we be in sync with God on a regular basis. Going to church one day a week will not keep us in sync. The best way to do this is by spending time with him daily and especially by reading the Bible. It’s the Bible that helps us understand who God is and what his Son has done for us. We get to know God best by reading about him and spending time reflecting or meditating on the scriptures.

One of the Spiritual Exercises that I have identified for living and abundant life is Abide in Jesus.  Jesus tells us in John 15:5

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  John 15:5

When I abide in Jesus by reading his Word and by praying and meditating on the scripture found in his Word it helps me to stay in step with him… in sync with him, if you will.

When I am in sync with God, life goes better for me… and I imagine life goes better with you too.

Questions to Reflect and Comment On:

How do you stay in sync with God?  How frequently do you engage in this behavior?

Related Resources:

Article – An Introduction to Spiritual Exercises

Blog Post – Walking with God, Running with Nikes

Blog Post – Spiritual Exercises and Physical Activity Principles

Health Care and the Bible. A Framework for Wellness.

Written by Dr. G. Scott Morris, founder of the Church Health Center in Memphis, Health Care You Can Live With puts a human face on the hot topic of health care.  Making the argument that healing—both physical and spiritual—is a key aspect of the Christian faith, Dr. Morris provides a biblical framework for wellness and encourages us through real-life stories of those who found a better life within the overarching love of God.

It’s an excellent read! I began reading the book last night and almost completed it in one sitting. I now plan to read it over a second time. I will share in brief, individual posts the things that ‘jump out at me’ and reinforce what I believe and have come to understand over the years about the connection between health and the Christian faith. Typically, I’ll include short excerpts from the book and occasionally add my own comments. Below is my first excerpt.

“Jesus’ life was about healing the whole person. – the body and spirit – and the church is Jesus in the world.  Jesus’ message is our message. Jesus’ ministry is our ministry.”

“The church can choose to get involved by reclaiming the biblical mandate to bring healing. Individual congregations can choose to get involved by envisioning their role in the health of members and the community around them.  Individual Christians can choose to get involved in changing health care by taking charge of their own health care. And it has nothing to do with what happens in Washington or who is President.”

Questions to Reflect On:

Is your church choosing to get involved in the health of your members and your community?

To what extent have you chosen to be involved in your personal health care?

Additional Blog Posts on This Book

Read all the posts about this book in the category of  Health Care & Wholeness

Subscribe to the feed for just this category:

Health and well-being. What’s the purpose of it?

Health and well-being. What’s the purpose of having it? Why should we desire to be healthy?

John Wesley, founder of the Methodist denomination, would have said that the purpose of good health is to enable us to do the things that God has planned for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10) According to Wesley, our goal should not be to have good health for its own sake but to have health so our bodies can be “fit instruments” so that we can be our best as we live in community and service with others and in communion with God.

“The Christian life of grace and confidence looks to the well-being of the whole [person].  It sets a high value upon health — of body, mind and spirit.  But health is not a terminal value in and of itself.  A
human life is more than a biological episode.  The value of health is to supply an efficient agency for the projects of the total self, to provide a fit instrument for the growth and maturation of men and women in community with others and communion with God.” *

Wesley recognized that the inner aspects of a person – his soul and emotions or ‘passions’ – greatly affected one’s physical health. He regarded the body as system, working together in all it’s parts or aspects. This stresses the importance of attending to our inner selves and certainly issues of the heart. Scripture reminds us of the significance of caring for our hearts.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”   Proverbs 4:23

“A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”  Proverbs 14:30

Another key motivation for believers to care for their health is that the Holy Spirit lives in us.

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

If our motivation for attending to our health is pure before God, it will be pleasing to him. Then, as we call to him to help us with aspects of caring for our bodies, he will hear our cries and attend to them. Psalm 34:15

Questions to Reflect On:

What’s your motivation for having good health and well-being? Do you think that God is pleased with these motivations?

More References on Spirit-Mind-Body Health

Web page – How God Designed Us: Spirit, Mind, Body and Soul

Article – Physical and Spiritual Care for Your Heart

Blog Posts Tagged with ‘Heart’

* Albert C. Outler (a Wesley scholar), Psychotherapy and the Christian Message (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1954), p. 179.

The Faith and Health Connection – Simplifying the Message

Over the past few days I’ve been reflecting on how I might simplify the message I’ve been writing and speaking about. My thought has been that the more concise I can articulate this message, the easier it will be to explain to others and for them to understand.  With that in mind, I thought I’d share this condensed version with you.

An Inspiring Day

As I’ve pulled this together, all my senses have been engaged. I’ve been sipping on a few cups of great tasting coffee, listening to the trickling of the water in our small fountain, hearing the birds chirp, listening to a playlist of soft, instrumental Christian music on iTunes, feeling the warm spring air as it breezes through an open window, and seeing the bright sun shine on the trees and flowers in the back yard. It’s been quite an inspiring morning and early afternoon!

Understanding the Faith and Health Connection

This is, I believe, the essence of the faith and health connection:

Read more of this article »

Key Links in the Spirituality and Health Connection

Spirituality and Health – A Working Model

This is a somewhat creative attempt to capture my ideas on many of the key aspects of the connection between one’s faith and their health.  I used a mind mapping website to create this. It has limitations, but I’m pretty pleased with the connections it allows and the associated graphics.

Any feedback you’d like to provide would be appreciated.

What key components are missing?

Any links not made that should be?

Resources on the Spirituality and Health Link

Article – Understanding the Spirituality and Health Connection

Blog Posts – Spirituality and Health Tag

Caring for Your Spiritual Heart: Weekly Health Scripture and Devotional – Proverbs 4:23

The month of February is recognized as heart month. Valentine’s Day is celebrated on the 14th. During this time of year, many of us are thinking about how we can demonstrate love toward a person we care about or a family member.  It can also be a time to reflect on how we are caring for our own heart.  It’s something God would want us to do. He tells us so the Bible.

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Proverbs 4:23

What does it mean to guard your heart and how do you do it?

We are told to exercise, eat well and manage our stress.  These are all important measures to care for our physical heart as we are regularly reminded by members of the medical profession.  What does our Creator tell us about caring for our heart? For that, we’ll need to look into the Bible, his guidebook for living life?

Guarding your heart means to forgive others who may have hurt you…. to let go of any anger, bitterness and resentment toward another that you may have and to release their hurtful behavior or words they may have spoken to you to God.

Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.  Colossians 3:13

It means being mindful of what you think about.  Our minds and heart are intricately connected.  What we think about affects our inner spirit and heart.  The Bible tells us to think about things that are pure and right and heavenly. When we do this, it creates a healthy environment for the rest of the body.  In almost magical ways, these good thoughts sink deep into our being and have an impact on our nervous system and endocrine system. The hormones that are released in our bodies when we think good thoughts are heart-healthy, as opposed to the harmful hormones that are released when we are thinking negative thoughts.

Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Philippians 4:8

Guarding our heart also means watching what we take into our minds.  What we read and see over and over again will eventually make it’s way into our spiritual and emotional heart.  Reading the Bible on a regular basis will help to get God’s truths into our inner being.  This is healthy.

My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words.  Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. Proverbs 4:20-22

Decide to have a cheerful heart. By attending to your thoughts, forgiving others and daily reading the Bible and meditating on God’s truths, you can more easily have a cheerful mindset. This is health-promoting.

A cheerful heart is good medicine. Proverbs 17:22

I encourage you to be intentional in making these spiritual exercises part of your daily life. As they become habits, your heart will be healthier.  God promises it.

Questions to Reflect On

Are you taking good care of your heart, especially your spiritual heart?

Could you benefit from incorporating one of these spiritual exercises into your life?

Resources for Guarding Your Heart

Article – Physical and Spiritual Care for Your Heart

Blog Posts Related to the Heart

Web Page – How God Designed Us:  Spirit, Soul and Body

Applications for Life: On Your Phone. In the Bible.

Applications for smart phones are all the rage. It’s amazing the number of new applications that continue to be created for phones like the iPhone. According to a recent advertisement in the Wall Street Journal, there are ‘over 100,000 applications for just about anything.’

Smart Phone Applications

Over the Christmas holiday, both of my young adult sons visited me and I enjoyed getting up to speed on how they were using the various applications on their phones. I suggested to my older son that he search and see if a dictation application was available for his iPhone and sure enough he found Dragon Dictation which is made by the same company of the software I occasionally use to capture my thoughts and blog posts and articles such as I am doing now. He has since found the use of that application very practical and convenient.

The advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that I’ve seen on a few occasions reads — “New year. New resolutions. New apps.” As I thought about this advertisement I tried to think of a parallel comparison that I could make for a blog entry. What quickly came to my mind was the fact that God has given us a guidebook with literally hundreds of thousands of principles that he would want us to apply to our lives, in the form of “applications.” With that in mind I thought this might be a helpful reminder for you to consider what biblical ‘applications’ you might want to re-address during this new year.

Over the course of the last several months I have frequently referred to a poster presentation that I made last June at the annual meeting of the Society for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University. For that presentation, I identified 41 Christian principles that I believe are health promoting. I thought it might be helpful to again refer to that document and encourage each of you to review those principles and see if you might identify some aspects of your faith that you might benefit from addressing in a more intentional way.

Biblical Principles

Just as the various applications on your mobile phone might assist you in aspects of your day-to-day life, many very important principles of the Christian faith have been provided us by God so that we might be able to live a full and rewarding life. Consider these few examples:

• Believe the Bible is truth.
• Receive God’s love.
• Believe in God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
• Believe the Holy Spirit lives in you and empowers you.
• Remain connected to Jesus.
• Spend time in God’s presence.
• Do not worry or be anxious.
• Forgive.
• Renew your mind with God’s truths.
• Humble yourself before God.

The listing above is just a partial list of many key principles that God has provided us in the Bible to direct us in how we’re to live our lives.

It’s a new year. I suspect many of you now are a little more serious and have a deeper resolve to live life in alignment with values they are very important to you. As many of you may have recently downloaded new applications for your mobile phones, I encourage you also to spend a little more time reading God’s guidebook for living, the Bible, so that your resolve to apply his many principles for living a more abundant life in 2010 might be strengthened.

Questions to Consider:

What faith-related principles do you resolve to continue to practice in your day-to-day living?

Are there any biblical principles that you’ve not attended to over the last few years that you want to incorporate into your life?

Related Scriptures:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Psalm 139:23-24

Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind. Psalm 26:2

Related Resources:

Article – His Instruction Manual: Our Guidebook for Living

Poster Presentation – The Spirituality – Health Connection: Why It Exists addressing 41 health-promoting principles of the Christian faith and 194 scripture references.

Wholeness: Wellness Devotional and Scripture 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

Lately, I have found that I’m frequently using the word wholeness, and since the byline of this ministry is “teaching spiritual truths for health and wholeness,” I thought it would be a good idea to explore what wholeness means.

Wholeness

Used as an adjective, the word whole comes from the Greek words of holos and holokleros meaning all, entire and complete. These two words come from the noun holokleria meaning completeness.

In the biblical context of health and wellness, wholeness might mean being well in spirit, mind and body.  In Paul’s letter of encouragement to the Christians living in Thessalonica, he addresses an aspect of their wholeness when he prays for them:

“Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.”   1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

Spirit, Soul and Body

Paul refers to the three major aspects of man’s being – his spirit, soul and body.  We are not beings of separate and distinctively different components, but a whole person.  We are a spirit who has a soul that lives in a body.  All of these aspects of man are inextricably interwoven. To be whole, to be complete, each aspect of a person must be well.  When any aspect of our being is not well, the other aspects are adversely affected.

Medicine today focuses on the care for a person’s body.  Physical health is important so that we can function and do the things God would want us to do with our body. Being physically active, eating well, getting enough sleep and being addiction free are some of the more important things we ought to do to care for our bodies.

It’s also important to care for our soul – to manage our emotions the best we can, to monitor our thinking patterns and to make healthy choices.  Our soul-life is impacted by our spirit and the ‘gateway’ through which this primarily happens is in our mind.  I think this is why Paul reminds us that we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds. (Romans 12:2) Our mindset and our thinking patterns can truly and radically transform us. For the good or for the worse.  For life or for death. The only way we can understand the key truths of life is to be exposed to what God’s guidelines for living are as found in the Bible. The Bible holds the keys to being whole and living well. We must not only understand God’s principles, we must live them to be whole.

Finally, since we are first and foremost a spirit, our spirit must be well because this aspect of us is our core.  When God breathed into Adam the breath of life, he became a living being. (Genesis 2:7) It is the spirit of man that gives him real life.  We live out this life and interact with the physical realm with the five senses of our body.  And it is deep in our soul that our emotions and our minds impact our our choices and subsequent physical behavior.

We are sinful by nature. We inherit a spirit of death and this sinful nature as it is passed down by Adam’s original sin. (1 Corinthians 15:22) Before salvation, our ingrained habits and lifestyle choices give us certain natural tendencies.  Our life experiences contribute to our personalities.  After salvation and we are born again spiritually, our challenge is to allow the Spirit of God to transform us into being the kind of person he calls us to be. We must consciously choose to have an attitude of submission to God and a dependence on him to become whole, starting with our spirit.

Being Transformed and Becoming Whole

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, God’s Spirit, his Holy Spirit, begins to live inside us.  As we willfully allow, our spirit is affected by the Holy Spirit.  Our spirit begins to take on the attributes of the Holy Spirit.  This new nature will begin to affect our soul.  Our entire mindset about God, our self, others and life can be transformed. Our thought patterns can become different. In turn, we can radically change many of our emotions and how we react to life circumstances. As we are guided by God’s principles as found in the Holy Bible, our resulting choices and behaviors will become more and more in line with how God wants us to live.  This is how we become sanctified and holy. This is how we become a complete or whole person in spirit, soul and body.

So often, we try to make major changes in our life on our own strength. We leave God out of the picture. You can not achieve a good degree of wholeness in your own strength and abilities.  The type of transformation that brings a sense of wholeness can only be done by the one who created you – by God himself. If we are to be whole, we must invite God into the deepest part of who we are – into our spirit and into our soul – so that from the inside out, we can be transformed into the type of person God wants us to be.

Our spirit, soul and body are constantly interacting together, as a whole, as a complete person.  That’s the way God designed us.  And Paul, inspired by God’s Spirit, shares the secret to being whole.  It’s God himself who can change us through and through, in our entire being, if we desire this and ask him to.  Paul tells us that “the one who calls us is faithful to do this.”

Questions to Reflect On:

To what degree are you whole in spirit, soul and body?

What behavior changes might you be attempting to make in your life?  Are you trying to change from the outside in, or from the inside out?

Are you asking God to make a transformation first in your spirit, by the power of his Spirit?

Resources on Wholeness

Web Page – How God Designed Us – A Three-Part Whole

Article – God Wants You Whole

Wellness Coaching -  Faith-based one-on-one coaching to assist with behavior changes

Depression, Osteoporosis and Faith – Understanding the Connection

What the Research Says

Osteoporosis is the most widespread degenerative disease in the developed world, afflicting 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men over 50.

Despite the accumulating evidence for a connection between depression and decreased bone density, official authorities, such as the US National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization, have not yet acknowledged depression as a risk factor for osteoporosis, due to the lack of studies in large samples.

A study of several research efforts including thousands of people by Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers has shown a clear connection between depression and a loss of bone mass, leading to osteoporosis and fractures. The results, say the researchers, show clearly that depressed individuals have a substantially lower bone density than non-depressed people and that depression is associated with a markedly elevated activity of cells that breakdown bone (osteoclasts).

What the Bible Says

God inspired writers of the Bible to share his truth and principles about the connection between our emotional and spiritual health and our physical health.  Take a look at the following verses related to this topic:

“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Proverbs 17:22

“A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones .“  Proverbs 14:30

“Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.  This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.” Proverbs 3:7-8

“My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.” Psalm 31:10

What You Can Do

Seek to have a cheerful heart.

If you’re carrying bitterness towards someone, forgive them.

Have a reverential fear of God and his principles, and turn away from evil and sin.

If you’re jealous towards someone, ask God to take that nature away from you.  Be content with what you have and trust God to provide for your most basic and deepest needs.

If you are a believer in Christ, turn to God in a more dependant and surrendered way and allow his  Spirit to have more influence and control of your thought life and attitude.  Ask him to change you… to transform you from the inside out. (Romans 12:2)

As we walk with God in a personal way, following his commandments and principles out of love, we are able to become more and more like his Son, Jesus.  This transformation brings us greater inner peace, gentleness and joy. This often goes hand in hand with good physical health.

God seems to make it pretty clear in the Bible – the guidebook he has given us to live by.  Perhaps this is the best explanation concerning the link between depression and bone health.

Questions to Reflect On

What has your experience been regarding depression and bone health?  Can you personally see a link between the scriptures listed above and your health?

Related Resources

Article – Forgiveness

Article – His Instruction Manual … Our Guidebook for Healthy Living

Article – Spirituality and Your Health – Understanding the Connection

God’s Promises – Scriptures related to depression from InTouch Ministries