1 of the 4 Vital Signs of Healing is Virtue. Virtue is the representation of morality. It is the act of doing the right thing. Unfortunately, we often do the wrong thing. One of the reasons that we do the wrong thing is caused by judging others. "Stop judging so that you will not be judged."-Matthew 7:1
The original Greek word used here can and may be best translated 'condemn'. When I first learned this, it brought this quote to life for me. I chose judgment(condemn) as a vital sign of healing because we so often condemn those who we see as unlike us: poorer, thiner, fatter, smarter, stronger, weaker, sicker, cleaner, dirtier...
A friend of mine shared with me a conversation he had with a man who immigrated from Germany in 1945. The man was a Nazi youth member. The story that he chose to tell my friend was of his experience with the Russian soldiers who took over his town at the end of World War 2.
He proceeded to tell my friend how barbaric, stupid, and primitive these Russians were. They had never seen toilets and used them as sinks, and they had never seen showers and took down the nozzle and put it up in a tree to shower outside thinking that the water would still come out. They raped and pillaged the German people.
How ironic, the Nazi, whose country men systematically tortured, mutilated, and annihilated millions of people, telling how stupid, brutal, barbaric the Russian 'mongels' were. The Aryans, the strongest, smartest, most technologically advanced Germans at least knew how to use a toilet. It reminded me of the Romans, the Pharisees, the Stormtroopers vs. the Christians, the Ewalks. In God's economy, up is down and down is up. The weak and stupid so often overcome the the proud, strong, and smart. Let us not forget to walk in the other person's shoes!
It is human nature to point fingers, to condemn, to think and say 'look at those people...' or 'at least 'we' don't do that...'.
I am challenged in my own life to acknowledge that I have a 'Nazi' heart-a heart that can condemn, that can point fingers, that has evil in it in thought and deed.
My 'Nazi' heart continues to slowly 'heal' by constant reminders that, although I am a beloved child of God, I am a loser that has the capacity to think and do bad, corrupt, and stupid thoughts and things.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Love
I will periodically be sharing excerpts from a GREAT blog/website done by the author of Sacred Work. His blogs continue to encourage and challenge me. Here is one about Love:
New Thinking About Love?
from Journal of Sacred Work by Baptisthealingtrust
The task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think as nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Love One of the fascinating things about Love is that everybody sees it, most feel they know about it, but so few think of it in anything but conventional ways. As I travel the country speaking about the need for loving care in health care, I often experience a polite but indifferent response. "Yes, we know about love," many hospital executives say, "Of course, we agree with Love." And then there is the powerful, toxic backwash of the status quo and its companion, heartbreaking inaction.
The idea that Love might require a way of thinking that "nobody yet has thought" seems like a waste of time to many. Yet, what subject is more important than Love?...
Among the most important thoughts about Love is the idea of integrating its practice into regular medical treatment. But the medical establishment remains skeptical. Esther Steinberg is quoted in the New_medicine PBS book, The New Medicine, as saying "[Doctors] could not understand in scientific terms how something like a thought...could affect something as concrete as health." And this lack of understanding remains.
One of the goals of medical treatment is to restore our sense of well being. And what is our sense of well being but a pattern of thoughts under girded by hope?
Medical care can be delivered without Love and with a disregard for the role of thinking. Healing, however, is never advanced by such a disregard.
Today, thousands upon thousands of executives, doctors, and other health professionals will gather in meetings to discuss the health of patients. Will any of those discussion include the role of Love in the healing process?
For that to occur, it will be necessary "to think as nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees." It will be essential to think of Love as crucial to healing.
In the future, caregivers will be called to engage the forces of Love as a regular part of treatment protocols. In the future, caregivers will discover that treatment without Love is a shallow exercise. In the future, Love will be the underpinning of the New Medicine.
In the meantime, patients can only hope they are lucky enough to engage that rare caregiver who, in addition to curing tools, understands how to be a channel for Love's healing energy.
-Erie Chapman
New Thinking About Love?
from Journal of Sacred Work by Baptisthealingtrust
The task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think as nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Love One of the fascinating things about Love is that everybody sees it, most feel they know about it, but so few think of it in anything but conventional ways. As I travel the country speaking about the need for loving care in health care, I often experience a polite but indifferent response. "Yes, we know about love," many hospital executives say, "Of course, we agree with Love." And then there is the powerful, toxic backwash of the status quo and its companion, heartbreaking inaction.
The idea that Love might require a way of thinking that "nobody yet has thought" seems like a waste of time to many. Yet, what subject is more important than Love?...
Among the most important thoughts about Love is the idea of integrating its practice into regular medical treatment. But the medical establishment remains skeptical. Esther Steinberg is quoted in the New_medicine PBS book, The New Medicine, as saying "[Doctors] could not understand in scientific terms how something like a thought...could affect something as concrete as health." And this lack of understanding remains.
One of the goals of medical treatment is to restore our sense of well being. And what is our sense of well being but a pattern of thoughts under girded by hope?
Medical care can be delivered without Love and with a disregard for the role of thinking. Healing, however, is never advanced by such a disregard.
Today, thousands upon thousands of executives, doctors, and other health professionals will gather in meetings to discuss the health of patients. Will any of those discussion include the role of Love in the healing process?
For that to occur, it will be necessary "to think as nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees." It will be essential to think of Love as crucial to healing.
In the future, caregivers will be called to engage the forces of Love as a regular part of treatment protocols. In the future, caregivers will discover that treatment without Love is a shallow exercise. In the future, Love will be the underpinning of the New Medicine.
In the meantime, patients can only hope they are lucky enough to engage that rare caregiver who, in addition to curing tools, understands how to be a channel for Love's healing energy.
-Erie Chapman
Vital Signs of Healing
This post is for anyone who cares for others. Just as there are 4 major physical vital signs, I have created 4 main healing vital signs for care givers: Value, Love, Virtue, and Healing. I will be posting my thoughts on these topics as they relate to my personal experiences with patients, co-workers, family, and friends. It is my hope that these posts may encourage and inspire all of us in the process of becoming better care givers.
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