Brittle Faith and HW2

In reading Gary Gunderson's book, "Deeply Woven Roots" I was struck by a section the the chapter entitled, "Strength to Bless". This section dealt with the subject of intrinsic versus extrinsic faith. Intrinsic faith is defined as one that is ethics-based with concern for transcendance of one's own needs for another's. Extrinsic faith is faith that is not experiential, tends towards rules and external foci, and values religion as a means to and end. This is interesting but the effect on health, wellness and wholeness (HW2) I found fascinating.

In the text, the author cites work by Joe and Melanie Adair and others, which suggests that "intrinsic faith is likely to mark people who recover more quickly from serious injury or illness, and data suggest that they may live longer." In contradistinction, persons with an extrinsic faith orientation "tend to fear death but, ironically, experience illness more frequently, and heal more slowly, especially from serious illness." Thus the recognized blessing of an intrinsic faith is the ability to be more resilient in the face of life difficulties.

An intrinsic faith which is open, creative, flexible and tolerant creates a person who is the same. Stress is still felt, but there is a relief valve - the ability to "know" that God is active in the world and in the person's life. That there is an ongoing promise of unconditional love that is not tied to things of human creation. That there is a bigger narrative than the one that the world portrays, and that so often limits our views of our HW2.

I teach a Sunday School class comprised of some of the oldest people in our church. Many of the attendants are in their late 80's and up to late 90's (oldest active member 98). They show me each week by their presence and active participation how important and available their faith is to their well-being. Each has suffered the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" and come out the other side. Age-related illness and debilitation is taking its toll, but they are there and ready to continue to explore their faith each week. They are a model for me of what an active and engaged elderhood can be - what I pray for each and every person as they enter this time of life.

So, how is it with your faith - extrinsic or intrinsic? How is that narrative affecting your HW2? Maybe the best thing you could do for your HW2 over the coming year is to explore the conversion to an intrinsic faith? At least it appears to be an important preventative step to enable a long and fruitful life.

Peace,
Dan

Truth in Strange Places...

Today's post comes from an experience I had yesterday while traveling to church. The vehicle in front of me sported a number of bumper stickers. This is not unusual in and of itself, but one of them hit me with its truth. The bumper sticker read, "Ask your doctor if medical advice from a television commercial is right for you." Wow, this is what I've been saying ever since the FDA allowed pharmaceutical manufacturers to market directly to consumers. Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTC) is NOT medical information, it is marketing - it drives sales of phamraceuticals.

The other problem with DTC (in my opinion) is that there is not enough information displayed to allow people to make an informed decision on whether or not this marketed entity is truly "right" for them. Now, the good news about most of the products available is that they are safe and effective and produce similar results across populations. As noted in a recent post on this site regarding generic medications, there are significant differences in how a medicine can interact with an individual's physiology. This is the type of information that only a prescriber with a person's history can decipher.

One of the most troubling aspects of our current dis-ease is our overarching mindset (fueled to some extent by DTC) that there is a "pill for every ill" and that no matter how we choose to live, our behaviors can be countered by use of a medicine. This is idol worship at its finest. We worship the idol of youth, thin-ness, energy in a bottle, lack of responsibility taking, science, et cetera. Everything that we need we can invent, it only takes time and money. We live in a time where we seemingly can do anything and everything...yet we are lonely, feeling helpless, searching for real connection, spiritually bereft and adrift.

Truth comes from strange places. Truth came to me yesterday from a bumper sticker and then from my participation in Easter services. Truth comes when we realize that there are no easy answers to troubling questions. Truth comes as we wrestle with issues, many of our own making. Truth comes in the tension that exists between what is and what might be. Truth comes from understanding that faith communities can be places of hope, healing and wholeness. This is the truth that drives Possibilities Journey, Inc (www.possjrny.org). Come along and seek the truth with us.

Peace for your week,
Dan

Communal Stories

This is a week of story - story of the Passover and story of Holy Week. Millions of people (if not billions) are contemplating stories of how God came into the world to make a difference in the lives of believing people. A difference that is still felt in the world today.

Shared stories help us to know who and what we are; they help us to understand where we've been and the direction we should be traveling. Stories have a power all their own to help to create and renew community. Stories have the power to heal and to console. Stories, at least the right kind of stories, help to make us better than we often are on our own.

The problem today is that there are many stories. Made for TV movies, "Reality TV", sarcastic comedies and cartoon families, stories that only serve to market a person, an ideology and/or a product, stories that do not relate truth - rather they "spin" the tale in order to get to a desired outcome. Stories are not facts, and they do not prove anything. Stories may not be reflective of what is happening in the community or the world - stories may not (and today often do not) contain truth that we can trust. They are entertainment not edification.

We are in a week, however, informed by stories that are filled with metaphor and with communal truth (possibly some absolute truth) - stories that have stood the test of time. The faith-filled stories of this week bring believers healing and wholeness - reminding them of God's action in this world. Hope springs from the belief that if God has done this once, then God could be active in this world once again. Possibilities abound and death is once again overcome - which leads us away from our slavery to the fear of death. Once we no longer live in fear of death, then we are free to live each day fully and well. This is the truth of the story - one which we do well to listen to every year.

Stories on a large scale such as those of the exodus and resurrection enable us to look outside of our narrow worldviews and see a bigger picture. This larger picture allows us to envision communities that are all-inclusive and welcoming. They enable us to work for the betterment of all persons and give us the context to communicate that vision. My wish for you all this Holy Week is to connect again with that larger narrative which informs community. May it bring you vision for a new and more integrated future. Come and join Possibilities Journey Inc (www.possjrny.org) as we move towards that future.

Peace and grace,
Dan

Drifting on the Apathetic Tide...

Today's post is stimulated by my reading of the book, "Deeply Woven Roots" by Gary Gunderson. This book is now almost 15 years old, but is rich with insight into the strengths of faith communities and their link to health, wellness and wholeness. Mr. Gunderson also points out the problem of faith communities not engaging in the problems of the world around them, but rather allowing complacency and apathy to move them along a path of non-intervention and lack of prophetic witness to the social problems all around them. I also happen to be physically at the Outer Banks as I write this, so am in touch again with the tides - quite remarkable.

Christian teaching (along with most other faith traditions) holds that we are to be "in the world, but not of the world". Meaning that we are to hold ourselves apart and not be complicit in the way that we engage the "powers and principalities" of the secular world. Unfortunately, all faith communities are made up of human beings (the only thing they could be made of) who bring into the gathering their own foibles and biases towards what is "right" and what can be done "by next Tuesday". Because of our impatience we build idols instead of doing the more difficult job of listening for direction from a source outside of ourselves.

Faith communities find themselves in no better shape than the rest of the world. Divorce rates are the same, interest in anything but ourselves dwindles, people come to church to be entertained rather than discomforted. Long gone is the drive to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable". Faith communities drift along on the sea of apathy wishing that things could be different, but not wanting to hold each other accountable for actions unbecoming the doctrine of loving each other as we do ourselves.

How do we resolve this issue? How do we find a rudder and begin to travel in the direction of communal betterment (and personal betterment)? It happens through deep and intentional prayer. It happens through caring for one person and one issue enough to understand another's viewpoint and life. It happens through the creation of true community - it can happen when we congregate and unify our worldview.

Join Possibilities Journey Inc (www.possjrny.org or on Twitter: @possjourney) as we build a healthier community and world one faith community at a time.

Peace and grace,
Dan

Truth Telling...

We live in a time that has people wondering "what is truth?". Everyone seems to have their own truth(s). These "truths" encompass everything in our lives - what we believe becomes who we are and how we live. Our truths build our worldview and dictate how we choose to live. But we return again and again to the question, what is truth?

I was reading a commentary stream on People's Pharmacy "www.peoplespharmacy.com" about generic drugs and whether they are identical or not. Lots of well meaning people (WMP's) stating their "truths" and attempting to influence others worldviews. Like many (if not most) discussions, there is a lot more "heat" than "light" with many more opinions (and personal testimonies) being shared than actual facts.

Now, the truth about taking anything into our non-identical bodies is that we will have non-identical results. Medications and all entities that come into our bodies need to get processed and removed. There are a range of experiences with any medication given to a group of non-identical persons (hence the laundry list of side effects in any package insert). Medications get FDA approval if (and only if) the range of positive effects greatly outweighs the range of negative effects. Thus, the compound gets labeled safe and effective for the FDA approved indication. However, no two non-identical individuals will ever have identical experiences with any medication - period.

Truths about generic medications are that they are similar but not identical to branded products. They behave in the human body in a similar but not identical manner to the original compound. They are made (most often today) by companies that are wholly owned subsidiaries of larger brand name manufacturers (if you were a large Pharma company about to lose 50% of your market share, you would buy your competitor too). Thus, all generic medications are made to the same Good Manufaturing Process (GMP) standards as brand name medications. The truth is that for the most part, generic medications work every bit as well for most people - yes, there are notable exceptions, but they are exceptions.

Al Gore said it best when he described "inconvenient truths". These truths are those things which circumvent our truths, or open our worldviews to other ways of seeing (having our eyes opened). This is the role that faith communities play in helping us to see beyond our simplified personal worldview to encompass a broader and more integrated view. With those eyes, we see the social injustices and struggles of those who "but for the grace of G-d" would be us. This is the integrated worldview that we at Possibilities Journey Inc (www.possjrny.org) are trying to have. We are trying our best to embrace the broadest truths such as loving our neighbors as ourselves, and using those to set our agenda.

Truth be told, we are not treating each other as we know we should, or are capable of doing. Something to consider as we close in on Passover and Easter.

Peace,
Dan

Religious Health Assets...

I've been delving into the program called the Congregational Health Network in Memphis, Tennessee. A wonderful program through Methodist LeBonheur Health System and their partners. One really intriguing aspect is the process of mapping religious health assets in Memphis. This mapping is a process of looking at neighborhoods within greater Memphis and identifying those places where people receive life information.

Surprising places were identified such as laundromats, beauty parlors and barber shops, grocery stores, etc. Places that were key structures within the life of the community and where people frequently went. Kind of like the "Cheers" bar "where everybody knows your name", these are places that people went to and felt a sense of belonging (coherence). They were connected to each other and to each other's lives, and not surprisingly, they shared health information with each other.

Religious health mapping includes faith-based organizations (FBO) that consider themselves to be a health asset. Interestingly, not a lot of FBO's in the U.S. consider themselves to be this. This is not surprising when one looks at how religion has been pushed aside by Medicine - only being asked back in to the party once "everything has been done". Re-integrating FBO's into the public health system will mean rekindling of the spark that says that spiritual health is every bit as important as physical health.

How does your FBO see itself in relation to health, wellness and wholeness? Is there a formal ministry of health that seeks to improve the lives of the congregation and local community? Are there health professionals who routinely come to your FBO? Would they be interested in working on this type of ministry?

Many questions, but I suspect few answers. Much to be in discernment about, however. I wish you peace as you explore this possibility for improved health, wellness and wholeness.

Peace,
Dan

The Importance of the Narrative...

What narrative guides your decision making? Is it a Hellenistic narrative and world view which promotes a "me" centric view of life or is it something else? You would be hard pressed in this day and age to have anything other than a "me" centric view. It's all you see and hear in popular media. Violence apologists are all over the media stating why it is the "right" thing to do to attack others in the name of defending a political position or agenda.

How does your life narrative affect your decisions on health, wellness and wholeness? Is it a narrative along the lines of "live fast, die young, leave a good looking corpse" or slightly less overt but equally problematic "it's my body, I can do with it what I want"? As a global society, we are reaping the harvest of these world views on health and behavior. We continue to develop newer and more powerful medications targeted at cardiovascular diseases - diseases that if we changed our health behaviors would be far less frequent and less costly. Medication management of cardiovascular (CV) diseases is a $25 billion (yes, billion) annual expenditure in the U.S. I reviewed three new chemicals in the last week which are promising to treat CV disease, but which only address symptoms, not the root of the problem.

What is the root of the problem? In my opinion, it is our life narrative. We have become far removed from an interconnected (unitive) world view which states that what I do has direct effect on every other life form in the world. Instead, our current personal and communal policies and behaviors reflect a very limited picture of how our lives affect all life. We operate in a dualistic mindset (I-it, We-They, Us-Them) and from a narrative of competition and idolization (think of the terms "American Idol" in this context and shudder).

So, how do we get back to an older and more unitive life narrative? That takes a lot of work and intentionality. We have to put off our worldly selves and take on a self devoted to doing things for the betterment of others - especially for those less fortunate or who are the recipients of social injustices. We can not become whole and well and healthy without this change in mindset (metanoia).

This week as we draw ever closer to Easter and Passover, consider your world view, what influences it, and whether or not it is contributing to the betterment of our world. If your narrative is not, then perhaps it's time to find a new one. Come visit www.possjrny.org and see what our story is all about.

Peace for you days,
Dan

The Search for Meaning and Belonging

today's post comes from a book entitled, "Leading Causes of Life" by Gary Gunderson and Larry Pray. The authors are part of a larger program to re-integrate faith communities into the public health system. It's happening right now in Memphis, TN, and they call it the "Congregational Health Network". Really cool stuff and really out-of-the-box thinking. Possibilities Journey, Inc (www.possjrny.org) hopes to replicate this model of caring in the greater Washington, DC, area.

One of the five leading causes of life is coherence. Coherence is that sense of belonging or the ability to attach meaning to something or to someone (or both). For Christians, this means that two pieces of wood attached perpendicularly mean more than what they actually are. In fact, those two pieces of wood are foundational to a belief system that brings meaning to those who believe in this doctrine. There are similar meaningful symbols and stories from all faith traditions. This is why it is so abhorrent to have one group desecrate the symbology of another group (the recent burning of the Qur'an) and why people react so violently when this happens.

People lack coherence - they lack a shared vision of meaning and belonging. My step-father used to group everyone by ethnicity or religion. He came from a time and place where people in town were organized by groups (e.g., Mick's, Wop's, Catholics) and there was very little cross talk between these groups. Each had their own places to gather and everyone stayed within their group. Unfortunately, this group mentality caused a lot of friction and was counter-productive to accomplishing anything (by and large). We see the same thing today as religions are painted with the same brush (all Muslims are out to kill all non-Muslims or all Western religions are out to subjugate all non-western religions and peoples). There can be no shared meaning when there is a dualistic (us-them, I-it, we-they) mindset.

The best of spiritual thought and teaching breaks down artifical human barriers and dualistic thought, and exhorts followers to get to know one another as people not as ideology. Unless there is coherence, there can only be division and conflict. We are so busy nowdays, however, that this kind of investment in getting to know one another is seen as beyond our grasp. thus, even within our own groups (congregations, etc) we see more division than unity, more strife than coherence.

Health, wellness and wholeness (HW2) can only come from coherence. Coherence starts with each one of us stepping out of our comfort zones and learning from another. Sharing meaningful dialogue from a place of mutual love and respect. Understanding that we have all been given more than enough if we just learn how to look past our own greed to another's need.

So, this week, find coherence with another person or group. Use this time to break down artifical barriers and develop a sense of coherence.

Peace,
Dan