Meditation and Good Health

DAVID WAS RIGHT!

Psalm 1

¹ Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
and who meditates on God's law day and night.
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

Did you know the more we meditate on God, the better we are physically and emotionally? I’m not talking about some anecdotal story from some pop-psychologists, but hard, verifiable science.

Brief prayer, those short shout-outs to God, has not shown to have a direct effect upon our well-being, and may actually increase depression, as reported in American Journal of Geriatric Psychology (Apr. 15, 2007; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17384312).

However, longer, intense meditation and prayer practiced within the context of weekly religious activities effectively treats, as reported in Complimentary Therapies in Clinical Practice (Aug. 12 2006):

• hypertension,
• cardiac arrhythmia,
• chronic pan,
• PMS, insomnia,
• anxiety,
• depression,
• hostility,
• infertility,
• side effects of cancer treatment and AIDS” (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16835029).

So, if you are feeling out of sorts, depressed, weak, ill… well, don’t be a stranger to the very disciplines God has given us to keep us as whole as possible. Be part of the practices that (get this) even improve mortality! (International Journal of Psychiatry Medicine; 2006).

David was right; but then for the religiously focused soul who is already active in a religious life, this is common knowledge.

How to Prosper in your Problems

How to Prosper from your Problems

James 1:2-6

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. ⁶ But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

Scripture doesn't say, "If you encounter problems .” It says, “Whenever you encounter problems.” If you don't have problems, check your pulse.

In Alan Alda’s film, Four Seasons, he and his wife (played by Carol Burnett) get into a roaring fight while on vacation in New Hampshire. In defense of his love for his wife, Alan shouts out, “How could I ever be disappointed with you. You’re perfect!”

But his wife barks back, “How dare you say that! As soon as I’m perfect I cease to exist.”

James seems to be delving into that same reality. We exist, we are defined by struggle and imperfection. But in God, it is our joy! We are alive.

Now of course, there are two ways to have trouble.

1. Some we cause ourselves. We are responsible for these.

2. But other just beset themselves upon us with no precipitous initiative. We can feel victimized, powerless, oppressed, alienated, abused and used.

Look again at verse 2, "...whenever you face problems ..." The word "face" in Greek is peripiptw"peripipto,” It is the same word used in the story of the Good Samaritan trekking along the road to Jericho, minding his own business, when he was attached. "Peripipto” literally means "to fall into unexpectedly.”

To this, James speaks God’s wisdom: stay with God!

I knew a psychiatrist, Dr. John Speck who practiced in Boston, who liked to say, “The human is a stress seeking animal.” His point was that we are predisposed in our neurological configurations to struggle. We don’t do well when life reaches a point of equilibrium. One thing I can say is that life itself rarely lets us rest in such a state. Things happen and we, get this, as children of God are in the midst of the battle. That is to say, we are designed to engage the struggle.

To this, James speaks God’s wisdom, and Paul gives us advice: stay with God!

Neurologically we have a pre-frontal cortex that governs reason, logic, thought, wisdom, knowledge. We also have, deep inside, an area brain scientists call the amygdala that fires off the visceral emotions of many fear responses, including freezing (immobility), tachycardia (rapid heartbeat), increased respiration, and stress-hormone release. Left to its own devises and desires, the work of the amygdala is bound to cause a lot of devastation. But with reason, with the thought of God in the cortex, a resonance begins to develop that modulates the visceral reflexes and harmonizes the brain to invoke not retaliation, but reconciliation. Dr. Andrew Newburg, Director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania, has observed, “Meditation [on God] has shown to modulate the amygdala.”[i]

In effect, keeping the mind on God modulates the animalistic impulses of evil.

James wasn’t a neuroscientist, but he did know we stand with our feet in both camps of good and evil.

Face my problems, along with God, and I will purify faith. Christians are like tea bags. You don't know what's inside of us until you drop us in hot water.

That’s when the faith is most important. Faith develops when we are challenged.

Is this the joy James is referring to? I think so, that is if we face our problems with a God who will modulate our impulses and hone our compassion.

Face my problems, along with God, and I will fortify patience.

James notes in verse 4, “the testing of your faith develops perseverance." He's talking about staying power; not a passive patience of a bench warmer, but staying power, endurance.

We don't like pressure and we do everything we can to avoid it. We run from it, take drugs, drink alcohol, go to Disneyland, anything to get away from pressure.

Ernest Henry Shackleton, the arctic explorer who became marooned on the ice field of the Wendell Sea off Antarctica in 1915, survived with his entire crewby virtue of his motto, “By Endurance We Conquer.” He named his ship after this motto, “Endurance.”

It is about the ability to keep-on keeping-on, to hang in there, to keep applying oneself with whatever resources we have, to meet the squall head on and tack the ship anyway necessary to ride out the swales.

The Greek here is literally "the ability to stay under pressure."

It is said that when the ship Endurance was being crushed in the ice flows of Antarctica, Shakelton insisted on two things being taken off the boat over and above the necessities for survival, personal journals and the Psalms.

If they were going to conquer the problems, they needed to be focused on, and fortified with ... God.

Face my problems, along with God, and I will gain wisdom to act.

I know it is tempting to say, “Lord, fix this!”

I have financial trouble, “Lord, make my lottery ticket win.”

My marriage is on the rocks, “Lord, fix my wife.”

The company is downsizing, “Lord, give me big severance package.”

I have no doubt that God can, and does, intercede in miraculous ways, but I also worry that to dismiss our role as God’s agents of faith in the face of problems, violates our responsibility to take the world by the horns and direct it to a graceful future.

So I hear James reminding us, as I hear the neurophysiologists confirming for us, that when we face our problems of finances, relationship, health, employment with a mind oriented to the presence of God, then we begin to prosper with a wisdom of godly fashion.

Consistently out of James I see the accentuation of using our knowledge and reason to shape our character and faith in such a way as we become agents of the divine, not antagonists for evil.

· From Job we know that Satan attacks character (Job 1-2).

· From the prophet Zechariah we know Satan wants to oppose the angels of the Lord (Zech 3).

· We know from Matthew that Satan tempts our emotional loneliness (Matthew 4).

· And from Matthew we know that the Evil One inspires us to lie (Matthew 5:37).

Satan wants to use problems to defeat you, but God wants to use those problems to develop you. Which will it be?

But James reminds us that God is more interested in building your character than making life comfortable. God is more interested in developing faith than fortunes, wisdom than wealth, stamina than simplicity, enduring integrity than easy living.

There is a fantastic promise in v. 12

"Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial. When such has stood the test they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love the Lord."

[i] Andrew Newburg, M.D. and Mark Walkman, How God Changes Your Brain,” c. 2010 Ballentine Books, p.52

Praying about our Problems

How to Pray about Problems
January 16, 2011

James 5:13-15

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up.

Here’s a little story about prayer ... (from the Hampshire Gazette).

Travelers along the eastbound stretch of the Massachusetts Turnpike between Palmer and Sturbridge may have seen a shrine that stands watch from a wooded glen. When it is illuminated at night, it appears in a clearing as if coming out of nowhere.

The statue attracts a lot of attention. Travelers will call the police, or a local church, to inquire about it. Some have been known to even stop on the turnpike to leave prayer notes, flowers or Catholic rosaries.

The little shine is known to some as “the Madonna of the Turnpike,” or “the Lady of the Highway.” It’s a two-foot statue of the Virgin Mary on a pedestal of field stones. It has stood there for 47 years since Alfred Brodeur erected it.

It was Alfred’s mission to give glory to God that his wife, Eldora, diagnosed with breast cancer, and had recovered in part, he believes, because of their faith and their prayers.

As Alfred’s daughter, Diane, says, “[My Dad] was just a little old farmer man who loved and believed in God very much. He put the statue here to thank [God] for my mother’s [recovery] and to inspire faith and prayer in others who drove by. They would think of Jesus and to think of God.”

I have no doubt that God answers prayers. I have no doubt the prayer impacts the outcome of illness. I have no doubt that God can and does suspend the ordinary to present the extraordinary.

But I also know that what we want, or what we expect from our prayers is not necessarily what God does. And here is where I find the thoughts of James particularly helpful.

James mentions two specific times when we really need to pray:
1.Prayer when I’m in trouble (maybe sick, emotionally or physically, spiritually hurting)-
2.Prayer when I’m happy

The two go hand-in-hand just as life is loaded with the vicissitudes between ups and downs, health and illness, prosperity and austerity, joy and sorrow.

You may also notice that James mentions praying when you are sick. This might be a third category, but he is using this more as an illustration of the first two categories (trouble and happiness) than as a third category.

Here’s why... It seems that by the time we get to the New Testament (and we have been brought into a one-on-one relationship with God), the word we have come to translate as “sick,” or “ill,” carries a connotation of “weakness.” The word literally means literally, “to be without strength,” ... when you are totally wasted, fatigued, bedridden, unable to work. It's the word describing Lazarus in John 11. It is the word to describing Dorcas in Act 9. It is the same word describing the man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5, who sat there for years and years without enough energy to get up and get into the pool.

This is key, for to assume that we don’t get sick and die is irrational. My mother was sick. My sister had cancer. My uncle suffered with polio. I battled Gianne Barre. We are not immune from getting sick, nor from death.

But to recognize that in our sicknesses and grief and sorrow and pain and death that there is a deeper issue of “weakness”... ... this is keen.

I sense that James is reminding us that when we are in trouble, the big concern is our spiritual health.

Scan down to verse 15. James notes that the affects of prayer are not necessarily physical health (although physical health is never beyond the power of God), but – catch this word – to rise!

“And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person [ or the weak person, or the person without any strength] well; the Lord will ... raise them up!”

What is this “raise them up” associated with in the New Testament? Resurrection!

Connect this verse from James with Paul’s discussion of “rising” that he conveys in his letter to the Christians in the Greek port city of Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes,
The body that is sown is perishable,
[but] it is raised imperishable;
it is sown in dishonor,
[but] it is raised in glory;
it is sown in weakness,
[but] it is raised in power;
it is sown a natural body,
[but] it is raised a spiritual body.

The hope of the Gospel is not only the power of God to heal our infirmities, but – more importantly – to raise our souls to glory in their weakness. Spiritual wholeness!

How do we pray about our problems? For health? Okay, ... but not on the presumption that prayer is a magic bullet to manipulate the laws of nature. But... prayer for health and recovery of our weakened soul in the midst of trouble! That’s the key. And that makes us happy.

My mother took ill, and died. My sister was stricken with cancer, and died. My uncle fought the residual effects of polio, and died. But, I know that by prayer, their weakness did not overcome them.

By prayer, they were strong. In fact, they were, dare I say, they were happy: They could still give God the glory. They could still smile.

Did you realize that "Praise" is used 550 times in the Bible. It is a lifestyle of the Christian: to be joyful. So in the ICU, I give thanks for the nurses. I give thanks for the hospital. I give thanks for the morphine. And yes, I pray for to recovery. So, when the family is falling apart, I give thanks for my wife. I give thanks for my kids. I give thanks for the honesty. And yes, I pray for reconciliation. So when there are more bills than income, I give thank that the house is still warm. I give thanks that for the love between the family. And yes, I pray for wisdom to handle the deficit.

I continue to be touched by Carrie Ten Boom, held by the Nazi’s for harboring Jews. Affectingly, her life was over, and yet her soul soared.

Even in the lice infected barracks of Ravensbrück (through which an estimated 90,000 women and children died), Carrie Ten Boom sang hymns, recited the Psalms and gave thanks to God.

Why? Because, and as James pointed out, in her weakness, God constantly raised her up her soul to a greater glory.

It’s a beautiful day out here in the Meadows. The air has a special lightness in its wispy breeze. The corn is about eight inches high, a startling spurt since yesterday, and the hay meadow has shoots long enough to start waving with the wind. It is a day that celebrates God in his greatness; a day that lives communion with the divine.

How wonderful it would be if we could find our own lives to be just as bright, fruitful and celebratory! That was the message last Sunday, “Have Breakfast with Jesus:” live in the invitation to spend time with God. The meadows do. “See how the lilies of the field do not labor or spin. Not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.” (Matthew 6:28-30)

I really do believe life was meant to be joyful, uplifting, wispy and satisfying. And from what I've have seen over the past five decades plus, life generally is less than this ideal because we forget to live with that from which our essential soul comes. We try too often to go-at-it-alone. And I further believe that spending a little time focusing our consciousness on the eternal can change everything.

So here are some web-links to daily devotional material to help us "have breakfast with Jesus." Some are subscriptions. Some send you daily devotions right to your mail box. Other you simply long into each morning.

Navigators - www.Navlink.org (Navigator’s will email you six days a week)

The Upper Room - www.UpperRoom.org/devotional (from the United Methodists)

Our Daily Bread - www.odb.org (with an audio link)

Blue Letter Bible - www.blueletterbible.org/reader/daily (a daily bible reading program)

"We have challenges to address in the next two months as to how we will organize ourselves to enable us to be an effective presence in ministry and service." Pastoral Blog's previous post

We are now two months into that time frame. It is amazing how the good Lord keeps the mind clear, the life pure, the heart quick and the mind focused when He is at work! So often we can get into a funk, feel a bit discouraged, or sense the task is more than we can handle. True enough, I believe, if we go at it alone. However, the congregation met on April 25, and prayed. Tuesday night the bible study group has met and prayed. The Elders have met three times in the last six weeks, and prayed. Every day I close also in prayer. In essence, it doesn't seem that anyone is trying to "go at it alone," and progress is happening!

This week our Session's report for stabilizing the church and transitioning to a structure necessary to address the expanding ministries in our church is being mailed. It is also being posted on the web site (www.pioneerpresbyterian.org. There is clarity in the process and agreement that the goals are reasonable and attainable.

Maybe we call take to heart a lesson. The closer we keep our consciousness with the divine essence of creation, the more full, uplifting, complete, successful our lives become. It really isn't a mystery. Fact is we were made as spiritual beings, so it follows, that living in closeness to the one spiritual entity that made us spiritual will only make life more of what it is supposed to be.

I look forward to the great adventure ahead. Keep up the prayers. Keep up the commitment. Together, let our lives soar as on eagles wings! (By the way, that's not an original concept of mine. Isaiah had that revelation centuries ago.)

Study Leave Report: What a Joy to Grow!

I visited two churches of interest on Study Leave. Both were planted in the early 90’s. That is when they finished the first stage of their building. But they have around for some ten years prior to this accomplishment, meeting in homes, renting tore fronts and sharing space in other churches. Does this sound familiar? First Presbyterian in the Meadows has also held home meetings, shared space, and worshiped in non-traditional places.

Today these two churches are eighteen years out from the day they finished their first building campaign, and a good twenty-five years out from when they first gathered. That is seventeen to twenty-four years ahead of us.

My first observation is that we need to be patient and persistent. Growth is long and gradual. It does not happen simply because we build a building. So if anyone still holds that thought, it would be wise to discard it. In fact, this perspective leaves a church vulnerable to the biggest mistake it can make: thinking the accomplishment of one task means the work is done. What has marked these two churches’ continued success is their ability to adapt and mold their forms and structures so they can build and grow. Their defining mark has not been that they built a building, but that have been, and remain, willing and able to continue changing and adapting.

A growing church never ever stops. At Mountain View Presbyterian Church, even with 550 members and programs for all ages, they continue to build and grow because they continue to adapt. For about ten years their focus was towards a retirement community of Sun City. But as the church has begun to attract a broader spectrum of members, they have found themselves working at integrating children, families and youth where this was not an issue before. Pastor Linda Kelly clearly pointed out, “It is easy to relax in the familiar things that makes us comfortable and not struggle with the questions that make us change. For us now it is having to work at things like, ‘What do we do with children?’” What promotes the church’s growth is its willingness to let its comfort zone get a little lumpy if it means someone new to the fellowship finds comfort.

I remember a Sunday morning here at the Meadows when the church was full, the music was hitting every beat, and the sermon seemed to hook where people were at. There was a good spirit moving through the congregation. Afterwards a long-time inactive member who had come by to visit her old church stopped me in parking lot and said, “Well, it’s not my church.” It certainly is not. The church she left years ago has been alive at adapting to emerging needs and trends in order to grow and serve. We can't expect a stagnate perspective of a church life to grow a church.

We have challenges to address in the next two months as to how we will organize ourselves to enable us to be an effective presence in ministry and service.

Keep up the prayers. Share your ideas. Keep the discussion going. Be ready to move forward.

Study Leave Report: Experience In-house Marketing

Experience In-house Marketing
Many know that as your pastor I am constantly trying to figure out why there is such a low, low, low interest in non-worship spiritual building activities. When we have a church dinner, we all come out for the great fellowship, but when it comes to delving deeper into the bible, or taking time to join in a prayer group, the interest wanes dramatically.

I’m still looking for an answer as to what keep us from being part of these activities. Still,there is one thing I do know: there any things in our lives that beg for our attention, and despite our best intentions to be take part in the activities that deepen our walk with God, we are quickly distracted by all the other stuff we have to do.

What have I discovered today on my Study Leave that might help this? In-house marketing!

Simply put, what do we do that will remind us of the events of spiritual growth? We use the printed material for Sunday worship. The church I visited today used many opportunities to remind people what was happening. The front door had an announcement board right as you came in. Then, before you moved ten feet into the building, there was a welcome sign with a note to folks to check out the announcement board. At the coffee urn there were small cards with an upcoming event printed on it, and a note for people to bring a card to their friends. Even in the mens room (yes, right above the … excuse me … the urinal) there was a framed announcement board with the upcoming calendar. By the time you left the church, you had a pretty good idea of what was happening.

This is a good thought for advancing our next phase of ministry. Maybe we need more focus on in-house marketing that can remind us of spiritual opportunities around us. Any ideas? Does this interest you?