The Power of Community

I attended the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church a couple of weeks ago. I attended mainly to staff a table for the Wellness Ministeries initiative. Not knowing what I would encounter, I went into the work with an open mind. I was blessed by my encounters with both clergy and layity sharing stories of their struggles. As they witnessed to me, it became clear that our path to health, wellness and wholeness (HW2)is populated by those around us, and by the quality of our interactions.

Case-in-point, a female cleric came to the table just bursting with a story to share. She was middle-aged and carried a bit of extra weight (as do most of us). What struck me first was the fire in her eyes as she shared her story of transformation. Her story goes like this...she was tired and out of shape. One morning, as she was readying to walk into the Sanctuary, she was stopped by a congregant who told her that he was worried about her health. He told her that he loved her too much to see her in such condition, and told her about a local group that had intervened in his life and improved his health. After the service, she was pulled aside by the wife of the gentleman and received the same message (without the spouses knowing what the other had done). Before the morning was over, another couple had done the same thing in the same way - intervening out of love.

The minister told me that she contacted the group the next day and enrolled in their program. She had dropped 15 pounds and felt much more energized and empowered to do healthy things. Not only had she dropped weight, but she had gone to a dentist to get some much needed work done and this had improved her health and outlook as well. What a powerful story!

I felt compelled to ask her what it was about the series of events that one morning that had propelled her to take action? Was it the love that was shown, or maybe the number of folks moved to intervene, or the witness for this new program? She said that it was all of those, but primarily that her folks had reached out in love, rather than in judgement, to help her.

The recent study published on the Center for Advancing Health (www.cfah.org) website on lack of engagement in health and healthy behaviors shows that 2/3 of adults are not fully engaged in our healthcare. Could it be that in this age of individualism and isolation that we have lost a key aspect of our health - that of a community of fellow travlers who love and care for us? This is what Possibilities Journey (www.possjrny.org) seeks to revitalize in our spiritual and faith communities - someone who can lovingly intervene on our behalf, and support us on our way to HW2.

Peace to you all,
Dan