Here’s more insight and thoughts captured from my reading of Health Care You Can Live With by Dr. Scott Morris, founder of the Church Health Center in Memphis, Tennessee.
Excerpts From Chapter 3 – “Health Care Rides the Technology Wave:”
We no longer see the huge forward leaps of medical technology we saw 50 or 100 years ago… Yet we continue to pour vast amounts of money into a system that is not making people healthier.… A system that leads to improved health of Americans would impact the pocketbooks of almost everyone working in healthcare. A healthier population means fewer pills, fewer tests, and ultimately, fewer dollars spent on technology and pharmaceuticals. In the process of creating an industry based on technology, we lose sight of the fact that healthcare is supposed to be about health.
So what system would make people healthier? Understanding what it means to be well–body and spirit. And developing behaviors and lifestyles that focus on what works, not on what is broken. That’s the essence of prevention.
Technology absorbs the time, talent, and resources we need for keeping us healthy – it generally isn’t needed until we break. Childhood Obesity
Take childhood obesity as an example.… Because of our love affair with technology, we are failing to give children hope for their futures. While we debate how to give them access to technology in the event that their bodies break down–and they will – we overlook giving them the love and joy and self understanding essential to real health the whole person. While we are at the top of the chart when it comes to technology, we’re at the bottom of the chart when it comes to prevention.
The heart of a healthcare system that focuses on keeping you well–preventing bodily breakdowns–requires a return to the belief that caring for people’s health is a helping profession, not big business – research would shift away from technology and drugs to early treatment of disease through primary care.
We need a system that makes people healthier and happier – full of joy and love. That’s a huge corner to turn at this point in time.
Responsibility of Churches and Christians
Churches – and individual Christians – can get back in the game by reclaiming their own understanding of wellness and care that promotes health for themselves and their communities. You don’t have to buy into the belief that technology is the answer to everything. It’s not. You can value what technology brings to your health without getting sucked into thinking that technology is the heart of healthcare. It’s not. Individual choices make a difference. Your choices make a difference in your health (my emphasis). You can turn the discussion away from questions of costs and systems to questions that connect you to God in the way God means for you to be connected. Then you can truly begin to care for your health.
Questions To Reflect On:
How are you attempting to influence the way your doctor and health care system care for you?
On your next visit to your primary care physician would you be comfortable asking him to explore possible emotional and spiritual issues that might be at the root of your illness before he/she suggests that they run another “test” on you?
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I appreciate both your comments. And Morris’ book gets at this concept and tells us how we are to care for our bodies, all for the glory of God.
Greatly put Jakckie. We gotta take care of our temple (body) but also have to be careful not to worship it.
Well I might not be comfortable asking him to explore possible emotional and spiritual issues with me but I do take control of the visit. I don’t just let him tell me what to do. We have discussions and I’m the active participant.
I truly believe the worst part of the health of Americans is the way we (they) eat. There is way too much carbs/sugar/ and chemicals like High Fructose Corn Syrup in the diets of most Americans. I don’t even want to think about what the farm industry is putting into the food that we consume (even the so called healthy food).
The biggest thing I hate about technology is the fact that it has made so many American sedentary instead of active.
But also where is God is all of this? Does anyone sit down to a meal of McDonalds double quarter=pounder, super size fry and x=large soda and ask if this is really what God wants him to put in his mouth?
Probably not.