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The good news is that reported cases of leprosy in the U.S are down. The bad news is that our nation's health has become severely compromised by a host of other diseases. Here is some data from the National Center for Health Statistics: "The rate of violent crime in the U.S. is worse than that of any other industrialized country. Our population has increased by 41 percent since 1960, but violent crimes have increased more than 500 percent. The U.S. homicide rate for 15-24-year-olds is seven times higher than Canada's and 40 times higher than Japan's. Since 1960 we have witnessed more than 400 percent increase in illegitimate births, more than 200 percent increase in the teenage suicide rate, and a drop of 75 points in average SAT scores. Each year millions of dollars are spent on metal detectors in American public schools." The AIDS pandemic and HIV infections of the last 18 years have sensitized the people of our nation to the social and communal aspects of disease. But we are still slow to recognize how the effects of ill health are weakening our entire nation. We are a body in need of healing. One detail of today's story about Naaman the leper that continues to be as true today as it was in the eighth century B.C. is the high cost of quality health care. Naaman brought a tremendous amount of gold and silver with him on his search for a cure. How many of us have watched our own or a loved one's assets evaporate as the bills for costly lifesaving treatments kept mounting through the course of a disease? Not only are we experiencing severe threats to our personal health, but our primary sources of health care are also in crisis. This has spurred the growth of a whole new economy of nontraditional health-care alternatives and additives. Proper diet and regular exercise are two big health factors we can control and which cost us very little. But many other factors are also now being mixed into our health-care -- vitamins, herbal extracts, meditation practices, stress management techniques -- all combined with our other health maintenance -- checkups, vaccinations, antibiotics -- to keep us as happy and healthy as possible. So why does nothing seem to work? Why don't we feel good? Why aren't we feeling better if we're getting better? One reason we don't know how to feel good is that so little work has been done to discover the factors that actually do make us feel good and positive about life. David Myers and Ed Diener pointed out this lack of research in a study they called "The Science of Happiness." They found that from 1967 to 1995, pyschological articles address anger over 5,000 times; anxiety is mentioned over 38,000 times, depression 48,000 times. But happiness? Only 1,700 times. Life satisfaction? Only 2,300. Joy? Only 400. This amounts to a 21 to 1 ratio of negative to positive emotions studied by our scientists. Why do we appear to be so focused on the negative? Clinical pyschologist, Jonathan Kramer, tells the story of Nick, their oldest child. "Nick was always a happy, energetic kid who'd usually come running or skipping out of school. But one fall day, when Nick was 6 years old, I was parked at the curb when I saw Nick walking slowly toward me, his curly head hung low, his mouth turned down, a bunch of papers in his hand. Nick seemed to drag himself along the sidewalk. He slowly pulled open the car door and slumped into the seat. "Hi, Nick. How are you doing?" I asked. No response. "What's goin' on? Did something bad happen today?" Nick slowly nodded yes before turning his face away. "Oh come on, Nick. Tell your old dad what's wrong," I prodded. "I'm bad," Nick said at last. "Bad? Why do you say that?" Nick handed over a crumpled paper. Smoothing it out revealed rows of math problems. A big, red "-3" dominated the top. "Look," Nick said, tears running down his cheeks, his lips quivering. He pointed at the glaring red mark. "Look, Dad, I got a bad grade." After considering for a long moment, I said, "That minus three doesn't mean you're bad or that you got a bad grade, Nick. It means you missed just three problems on this whole paper. I started counting up the correct ones that weren't marked, pointing at each one as I went. By the 10th correct one, Nick had joined in the counting, and by the time we'd gotten to 27, Nick's tear-stained cheeks were showing signs of happiness. I had him write a big, black "+27" next to the red "-3." "There. Twenty-seven right." Nick absorbed the truth for a moment before his usual bright smile reinstated itself on his little-boy face. Nick was able to find a good lesson in the red "-3." But many of us never learn this lesson. Many of us grow up with a barrage of criticism. Since we learn and adapt to what's familiar, our inner voice criticizes us automatically, and we learn to apply this critical spirit to ourselves and the world. And so we develop a radar system that takes for granted the things we do right, while it scans for what's missing or wrong in ourselves and in life. We come to feel that we are "bad" -- inadequate, unworthy or unlovable. Jung successor and analyst James Hillman asks the question, "Why do we focus so intensely on our problems?" and then answers it: "Somehow we desire our problems; we are in love with them as much as we want to get rid of them." By now researchers have asked a huge sampling of the human race -- more than a million people -- what makes life satisfying. The results are in. And we now have some predictors of joy and life satisfaction. Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly given the Naaman story, there is virtually no relationship between income and happiness. The richest Americans are negligibly happier than the average American. Similarly, there is little relationship between disabilities and happiness. Within four months of his paralyzing accident, Christopher Reeve reported "genuine joy in being alive." These authors did find five traits that characterize "happy" people. Do you have these qualities in your life? 1) "Positive self-image." People who are content with life are confident about their abilities, and embracing of their gifts. 2) "Personal Control." Upbeat people exert control over their lives. In theological language, people who are happier are more self-disciplined than people who aren't. 3) "Optimistic." A positive outlook on life and an openness to others is essential to good mental health. 4) "Extroverted." In their use of this term, the authors are more concerned about the ability to achieve lasting relationships with others than about some personality style. But the trait that correlated most closely with happiness was #5: "Faith." Karl Marx got it as wrong as anyone could get it when he said religion was an opiate of the people. On the contrary, religion is a key stimulant to and ingredient in a happy life. In the words of their research, "Actively religious people are much less likely to become delinquent, to abuse drugs and alcohol, to divorce and to commit suicide. In one Gallup Poll, highly spiritual people were twice as likely as those lowest in spiritual commitment to declare themselves very happy. Other surveys find that happiness and life satisfaction rise with strength of religious affiliation AND frequency of worship attendance. So, you want to be happy? Come to worship more often. While psychological examinations of emotional health may be considered by some as overly interpretive "soft science," researchers in the "hard sciences" are rapidly finding similar correlations between a commitment of faithfulness and the physical well-being of individuals. Recent studies have found that those individuals who profess a belief in God, who confess to an active faith relationship, are more generally healthy than those who don't. In fact, it is no longer a hypothesis that when believers do become injured or ill, they tend to heal faster, respond better to treatment, and generally get well more quickly and more often than those who disavow any active faith life. There seems to be a definitive physiological relationship between health and faith. MRI scans reveal that those regions of the brain most active and responsive during healing processes are the same as those that are functioning at highest capacity when individuals are praying or involved in rituals of worship. Scientists theorize that the brains of those who are actively faithful are thus physiologically "wired" for healing -- that portion of the brain used in faith practices also helps us back to health. This new collegial relationship between medical science and faith in the quest for health is evident by the number of medical schools that now devote part of their student-doctors' training to issues of faith. Students are encouraged to take "faith histories" as well as "medical histories" when interviewing patients. These instruments help in finding out what role faith plays in a patient's life and how it may be integrated into any course of treatment. Naaman suffered from one of many skin diseases labeled as "leprosy." But he could find no cure in Aram. In desperation Naaman journeys to Israel to visit a prophet he has been told could heal him. But when Naaman receives the prophet's prescription, he is outraged by the seeming simplicity of the treatment. Instead of performing some elaborate healing ritual Elisha merely instructs Naaman to go and bathe in the Jordan. The prophet does not even appear before Naaman to diagnose his malady. He simply sends a servant out to Naaman with his directions. Naaman thought a return to complete health depended on his obtaining a cure for his leprous skin condition. Elisha's proposed treatment, however, reveal that Naaman needs more than his skin cleared in order to be restored to full health. What he needed most was his attitude adjusted. The prideful sense of self-importance that Naaman demonstrated outside Elisha's door had to be washed away just as completely as the white lesions that covered his skin. Naaman almost blew it. He was ready to do anything in order to receive healing, anything, that is, except admit that he could do nothing but have faith that he would be healed. Only when Naaman finally lets someone else take the reins, only when he humbly submits himself to the plain, muddy waters of the Jordan, does Naaman finally experience the healing he longed for. Naaman's journey toward health teaches us that to be healed, to experience "life satisfaction" or "serenity," we must remain open to all the possibilities a life of faith might present to us. Are you "wired" for healing in your own life? Are your heart and spirit open to whatever path your faith journey might take you in order to make genuine, complete health your own? Are you prepared to receive both a diagnosis and a course of treatment that may be totally unexpected? A story is told of a very poor neighborhood where a doctor named "Doctor Ray" worked. Part of his practice was the treatment of the neediest of the needy. To make himself more accessible to these indigent people, Dr. Ray set up his office where it could be reached by private staircase, without fear of disclosure. And for directions to this upstairs haven, there was just a simple plaque, bearing only these words: 'Dr. Ray is up there.' But those few words spoke volumes about this doctor's willingness to serve. When this noble and generous healer at last passed away, his patients wanted to memorialize him with a bronze plaque on his tomb. But, of course, their money wouldn't go that far. So, in a moment of inspiration, above the grave they placed the sign that had hung outside the door of his office: 'Dr. Ray is up there.' Dr. Ray is up there." Think for a moment about your own need for healing. It may be your body. It may be your mind. It may be your soul. The Source of your healing is God. You may have nothing to give him in return except a willing heart that trusts that Dr. God is up there. Well, Dr. God is in your heart also. We live in a culture that says Keeping Fit is Keeping the Faith. But the gospel tells the world that Keeping the Faith is Key to Keeping Fit. |
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07/08/01 - Keep the Faith & Keep Fit (2 Kings 5:1-14)
