Tag Archives: Disease

Devotional

15 Ailments of the Church #2: Working Too Hard

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Read Exodus 20:8-11

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his.” (Hebrews 4:9-10 NRSV)

Well, Christmas has come and gone and now we are fastly approaching the New Year. A couple of days ago Pope Francis I gave his “Festive” Christmas speech to the cardinals that serve as the administrators of the Holy See. I put festive in quotes because that is typically what these speeches are during the Christmas season. They are reiterations of the meaning of Christmas, the coming of the Christ-child, as well as exhortations of how the Church is to continue to represent the Christ-child in the world. By that understanding of the word “festive”, the speech the Pope gave was anything but festive. It was a scathing assessment of his Cardinals who he said lusted after power, among fourteen other hard line critiques of the “ailments” plaguing the church. I think it to be an important exercise for the universal Church, and us as individuals, to follow suit and examine ourselves as we, no doubt, have fallen ill with some (if not all) of these ailments.

Ailment # 2: Working too hard. How many of us truly take the time to rest from our labors and obligations? We are living in a world that demands every last bit of time we have. There is just so many things going on and not enough time to do it all. There’s work, work and more work. There’s family obligations, societal obligations, church obligations, and many other things that we find ourselves caught up in. That the Pope is addressing this issue with other clergy is no big surprise. Clergy are notorious for spending every last minutes working at the neglect of family time, neglect and self-care. In seminary, one of the classes I was required to take was a class called “Pastoral Formation.” One of the central points of that course was to encourage the seminarian to begin to lay down the foundation for self-awareness and self-care. This is not SELFISH…but a part of well-being. If you can’t take care of yourself, how can you possibly take care of others.

The church talks the talk about observing the Sabbath and keeping it holy; however, when it comes to the walk, the church trips all over itself. In ancient Judaism, Sabbath was one of the key things that made the Jews different from outside cultures. Whereas the Gentile world did not reserve a day of rest and considered all days as fair game for work, Jews were extremely intentional about the importance of Sabbath. While Jesus resisted any sort of senseless rigidity to the law that prevented people from serving God and doing what’s right on the Sabbath, Jesus never, ever rejected the Sabbath but was a Sabbath observing Jew himself!

The challenge for the church is this, are encouraging people to rest, to take a break, to observe Sabbath? Or are we driving people to work, work, work and work until they burn out and are no longer capable of serving? Are we laying the burden on a few to do the work of the many, or are we raising up disciples to help spread the work out, make the load lighter and to give everyone an opportunity to rest? The challenge for individuals is this: Are you alotting for an appropriate amount of rest in your schedule? Or are you working tirelessly with little to no time to rest and celebrate life. Conversely, are you getting too much rest and allowing others to burn out as a result of your not being willing to help lighten the load?

Regardless of what side of this you come down on, regardless of how you answer, know that observing the Sabbath is crucial to your physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual well being. And know that just as it is a sin to not observe the Sabbath, it is also a sin to hoarde the Sabbath to yourself at the detriment of others. Working too hard is a sin, as is allowing others to work too hard. Pray for balance in your life, the lives of others and in the life of the church so that we may begin to heal from the ailment of working too hard.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“If you don’t take a Sabbath, something is wrong. You’re doing too much, you’re being too much in charge. You’ve got to quit, one day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you’re not doing anything.” – Eugene Peterson

PRAYER
Lord, continually remind me of the importance of Sabbath rest so that I may become more attentive to it. Amen.

Devotional

Heart-Healthy

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Read Matthew 15:1-20

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.” (Matthew 12:35)

Since starting the 60 day juice fast a year and almost nine months ago, and since becoming vegan, I have learned a lot about nutrition. At three hundred six pounds with type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, I was certainly heading on a one way ticket to a life cut short by my lifestyle. It was hard for me to see it prior to making the change; however, once that change was made, there could be no doubt that my old lifestyle was literally killing me.

Any doctor, nurse or medical worker will tell you that the number one killer in America is heart disease. More people die from heart attacks, strokes and other heart related diseases than anything else. Why is this? Many people will try and say that their genes are to blame. For some people, that may be the case; however, with the obesity and heart disease rates we have in this country, there can be no doubt that genetics cannot be culprit as much as what we eat is.

With diets high on cholesterol, saturated oils, hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils (aka trans fats), and other heart-stopping stuff, it’s no wonder people’s hearts are seizing. And who can live without their heart? People are literally eating themselves to death and, even though most people are aware of this, they continue to keep their heart-killing lifestyles.

While I am talking about our physical hearts, the same is true with our spiritual hearts. People know that fear, bitterness, anger, hatred, dissension, gossip, jealousy, and other such things are bad for one’s soul. There can be no question that such things lead people down a dark and destructive path. There can be no doubt that such things eventually seize one’s “heart” and cause a spiritual death to occur.

Yet, despite most people knowing that living a life of hatred, bitterness and anger leads to spiritual disease, many people still choose to not change their spiritual lifestyles. Many choose to harbor grudges, live in anger, spend their days gossiping and become bitter to their core. The more that people continue to sow those seeds of sin, the more their spiritual arteries get clogged and begin to deteriorate.

This is why Jesus warned his disciples to watch what came from one’s “heart.” A healthy heart will not hold onto anger nor will it spew hatred, bitterness, dissension, gossip, jealousy or any other negative thing. A healthy heart will only produce love, kindness, gentleness, compassion, generosity, patience, and self-control. An unhealthy heart will get clogged with evil things to the point of bursting; a healthy heart will remain free and love will flow through it with ease.

The challenge for us today is to change our lifestyle and choose to live in a heart-healthy manner. Don’t let your heart be consumed with spiritual disease; rather, let you heart be a vessel that pumps the warmth of love throughout your soul. If you change your lifestyle and start allowing yourself to be fed by the Holy Spirit, you will find that you will become a new person. You will be healthy, joyful and willing to share you joy with others. Be heart-healthy and shine with God’s love!

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” – Denis Waitley

PRAYER

Lord, you have given me the strength and the direction to change from who I am to who you want me to be. I thank you for your continued guidance. Amen.