Yet another post with insight and my thoughts from my reading of Health Care You Can Live With by Dr. Scott Morris, founder of the Church Health Center in Memphis, Tennessee. The excerpts below are directly from the referenced chapters.
Excerpts From Chapters 17, 18 and 19
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:12–14
Put On Humility
People see humility as a sign of weakness, rather than a positive trait. Humility is a sign of strength. It means you do not first think about yourself at every turn. It means you don’t become consumed with what you need before you think about what someone else needs. Humility says, “I care about my neighbor, and I am strong enough to put my neighbor’s needs first before I take care of myself.”
Pride is the American way. We obsess over being able to tell people what we’ve accomplished and what we’re sure we can do. Pride leads us to block people from having a place in our lives.
Working on humility is a daily experience.
Jesus humbled himself. He set aside the glory of being God to move into our neighborhood and be one of us. Jesus set aside his glory for you.… You are made for a relationship with God. Jesus came to show us that relationship.
Don’t measure your worth by what you can do or what you look like or what other people think about you. See who you are in God’s eyes.
True humility is about being grateful for God’s grace in your life and reflecting it in your relationships. True humility recognizes that everything you have comes from God. True humility frees you from a pointless search for something to be proud of.
Put on humility toward yourself and take the next step toward wholeness of body-and-spirit. It will be good for your health.
Put On Gentleness
Gentleness is a choice. To people living in Philippi, Paul wrote, “Let your gentleness be evident to all.” Philippians 4:5
Jesus brought us the Kingdom of God without using force. Jesus brought the Kingdom of God and lived its reality in every encounter. That added up to meekness and gentleness. It’s not always easy. People push my buttons just the way they push yours.
Gentleness may be tender, but it has purpose. Gentleness is a way to approach another human being in a manner that communicates respect and care.
More things unite us then divide us, but we too often focus on what divides. We find fault. We pass the blame. We draw lines and dare someone to step across. We arrange our systems to prove we are right!
Gentleness does the opposite. Gentleness thinks the best of someone, hopes for the best, encourages the best.
How are you doing at thinking the best of yourself? Perhaps you blame yourself for some difficult situation, and this keeps you from moving to the healing waiting on the other side. Perhaps you think of yourself in judgmental terms. Perhaps you are the first one in line to criticize yourself.
You know what happens to your sense of well-being when someone else is harsh with you. The last thing you need is to inflict this on yourself.
As you strive to make healthy choices, to find what brings joy to your life, and to understand that wellness is not just the absence of disease, you’ll have some rocky moments. You’ll say things you wish you hadn’t said and do things you wish you hadn’t done. Put on gentleness toward yourself and receive God’s grace in those moments. It will be good for your health.
Put On Patience
Most of our impatience has to do with not getting what we want fast enough. We want it, and we want it now.
What if patience means putting up with the sometimes exasperating choices of others, even enduring wrong, because you are waiting for God to bring about change?
Patience is about waiting on God. We wait not for God to do what we think God should do, but for the fullness of God to be revealed. We wait–expectantly–for God’s Spirit to manifest in our circumstances and relationships.
When the time comes, God moves. The point of patience is not to wait without complaining for what we want to get, but to wait expectantly for what God wants to give. Through patience in relationships, we share God’s grace with each other. Through patience in suffering, we open ourselves to new ways of experiencing God’s presence. Patience gives God’s time a chance to be fulfilled.
Wellness does not happen overnight. You may need to form some new habits when it comes to the food you eat, your activity level, the nature of your relationships, and attitudes toward your work. This takes time. A “hurry and get healthy” approach seldom leads to better long-term health. Be patient with the time it takes, and remember that God does not say, “this is what wholeness looks like, so go do it.” God is with you on the journey. We are whole body-and-spirit beings created and loved by God.
Rejoice in what God brings about in your life because of compassion and mercy. Treat yourself with patience. It will be good for your health.
My Comments
In these three chapters, Morris continues to talk about the importance of demonstrating the qualities mentioned in the Colossians verses above as we live out our lives as Christians. The people we may serve in our various ministries can gain an appreciation of who Jesus is as we demonstrate these characteristics in our lives.
Developing these character traits within is also good for our own health.
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