Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life                                             Proverbs 4:23

I was speaking with a client recently about being motivated by guilt. Guilt can indeed motivate us to do things, like – “I really should call ________ but I don’t like to talk to them”. Guilt, however, is a negative motivator. It keeps us away from negative consequences, but it may not give us the satisfaction that other motivators do.

Guilt may serve its purpose, but there is a cost to it. It may leave us with a bad taste in our mouth. We may feel resentment for having been pushed by guilt to do certain things.

On the other hand, love is a great motivator. It leaves us with a sense of hope and renewal of spirit.

 As I have said in this space before, it is better to go toward the good than to avoid the bad.

Prayer: Lord, help us to see the light of the good better than the darkness of evil, Amen

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being                                                     Genesis 2:7

I was recently speaking with a client about what energizes us- what keeps us going. We agreed that continuing to work in our calling, no matter what our age, is the thing that keeps us going. God has given each of us gifts and callings in our life. Diverse gifts and abilities to be sure, but gifts given to each of us to cultivate and sharpen.

When we use the word inspiration, it really comes for the Latin words meaning “to breathe into.” So, when God breathed into his creation to give it life, we received the “breath of God” that gives life to all things.

God has used all kinds of methods to give life, and his creation has, and continues, to change and evolve. Species have developed elaborate ways to survive even in extreme conditions. God has given all his creation such ability. But from the beginning, God gave the first inspiration- the first breath- the Spirit of life, which remains to this day.

So, what give us that drive to continue? It is the infusion of God’s Spirit that gives energy and life.

Prayer: Lord, you have given us the breath of life and we acknowledge you as the life giver, Amen

But as for me, afflicted and in pain— may your salvation, God, protect me                                    Psalm 69:29

Violence has been a part of human history since… well since there has been history. Even one of the earliest stories in the Bible is the murder of Abel by his brother Cain. Over the millennia, we have become more sophisticated in the ways that we can kill and maim people. Now we even have clinical names for the effects of violence on our psyche and our soul.

Early in the 20^th century as the ravages of a new kind of war (World War I) played out, we came up with the term “shell shocked”. This came about because of the terror that incessant long range artillery bombing had on soldiers under constant stress and duress. A soldier was never safe, and the possibility of imminent death was everywhere at any time.  

When World War II came, we had another word for the terrible psychological effects of war- “combat fatigue”. That seemed like a sanitized word for the horrible effects that battle could bring to bear.

Finally, we named this phenomenon, after the Viet Nam conflict, “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”. Indeed, that has become part of the lexicon of the DSM 5 and other diagnostic criteria manuals. PTSD is now commonly known and diagnosed for those who have experienced trauma of any kind- abuse, exposure to long-term stress, and even to those who have witnessed such traumatic events.

The term and the concept are valid. Truly, I see many clients who have experienced trauma, or been subject to its effects, and it give us a common parlance to discuss such injury. We know also that early trauma actually changes the way that people perceive their environment, and early trauma literally changes brain development.

We will delve more into this in future blogs. In the meantime, we all must become more aware of how trauma informs our life and our world.

Prayer: Lord, you are the healer who can bring about peace in a violent world, Amen.    

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.                                                                Psalm 147:3

“A healed femur.” That was the response to a question posed to famed anthropologist Margaret Mead when she was asked about the first signs of a civilized society. She stated that a healed femur showed evidence of a society that cared for the feeble and injured among themselves. In a society where a member had a serious injury, such as a broken long leg bone, the femur, they would need care to survive. They could not hunt or gather, or be much help to the rest of the group, so an uncivilized society would cast them out or leave them for dead.

But a caring, civilized society would help to feed and care for the wounded among them. Thus, evidence of a healed femur meant that those around that victim had worked to save them and restore them to health.

We take such care for granted, and I trust that such compassion remains a standard in a society that seems to be drifting toward less care for one another.

Prayer: Lord, continue to remind us of our duty to care for one another, Amen.   

“What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you love to sit in the seats of honor in the synagogues and receive respectful greetings as you walk in the marketplaces.  Yes, what sorrow awaits you! For you are like hidden graves in a field. People walk over them without knowing the corruption they are stepping on.”  “Teacher,” said an expert in religious law, “you have insulted us, too, in what you just said Luke 11:42-45

…but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles          I Corinthians 1:23

Jesus was pretty hard on the “religious experts”. He chastised them because they were so intent upon meeting the letter of the law that they missed its deeper content. In this passage from Luke, he “insults” the religious leaders, and they were not happy! They were, after all, the interpreters of the law, and he was just some itinerant teacher who was stirring up the rabble with his teachings and his healings.

So, when he challenged them about their hypocrisy, or even their lack of understanding of the law itself, they were naturally upset. It is no surprise that Jesus had opened himself up to his eventual arrest and execution. The religious leaders did not kill him. They simply made sure that the Roman authorities did their dirty work for them.   

The deeper message of the Gospel, that we are to show mercy and grace to those who are poor or oppressed, is often still lost today. The law that the religious leaders failed to understand was too simple. It did not require tedious attention to tithing laws and dietary laws. It did not include picking out those who were not of the same tribe for exclusion and shaming.

Jesus said that there would be a stumbling block. It was a stumbling block because it was too simple.

Love God by loving others as yourself.

Prayer: Open us, Lord, to your simple truths. Amen

So encourage each other to build each other up, just as you are already doing            I Thessalonians 5:11

We are used to hearing the corollary of the above statement, namely “what is wrong with you?” That is a statement made when we question the behavior or decisions of others. As a clinician, I was trained to look for certain symptoms in order to determine a diagnosis. We check for thinking errors, delusional thinking, hallucinations, mood changes, signs of anxiety and depression, as well as certain physical symptoms that might suggest a mental health disorder. Even physical appearance plays into this evaluation to determine the mental status of the client as they present for treatment. We are trained to look for problems.

I still need to look for problem symptoms in order to render a diagnosis. While that is very important, it is of great importance to look for the strengths of clients. As I have grown in my experience, I have seen that identifying client assets and strengths is crucial in treatment. Looking for “what is right” is often even more important than finding what is wrong. Clients typically know when they come to see me that there is a problem, identified by themselves or someone near to them. When I can also concentrate on finding strengths, and pointing out what I see to the client, I have given them a framework to build upon for healing.

So, be looking for what is right in others. It gives a positive start to building rapport and healing.

Prayer: Lord, help us to see the things that are right with others, Amen.

Yesterday was June 19^th. It was the anniversary of my parents’ wedding in 1936. That day is worth celebrating because without it, my three wonderful siblings would not be on this earth, and neither would I. I am so grateful for their love and commitment to another and to God. They decided to take one another for life, and to do their part to honor God with their pledges to one another.

Yesterday was also the commemoration of Juneteenth, the day in 1865 that a group of slaves in Texas found out that they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, and by the end of the Civil War some two months earlier.  

I first heard of Juneteenth in 1973 when I began my career as a social worker. I was 23 years old, and I had not heard of this momentous day in all my years of education up to that time. It was a moment of cultural awakening for me as I was working with African-American co-workers who helped me to expand my rather narrow (at the time) cultural horizons.  

So, June 19^th is a special day to be celebrated – for a lot of reasons.  

“Ask the beasts, and they will teach you the beauty of this earth…”                                      St. Francis of Assisi

“Mr. Francis”. That was the name given to our statue of St. Francis of Assisi by my son’s baseball friend many years ago. Saint Francis presided over our pond and garden area for many years until his untimely fall, occasioned by a neighborhood cat this past winter.  The statue shattered in the frozen air, and we have yet to replace him.

I contend though, that his spirit still rules the area. Our pond and backyard remain the home to five frogs, one very large “mutt” goldfish who has dominated the pond since his placement about seven or eight years ago, and various snails and possibly a few snakes.

Near the pond are two birdfeeders, one filled with thistle for the goldfinches, and one filled with sunflower seeds for the house finches, cardinals, wrens, and other assorted winged creatures. In other words, our backyard is somewhat of an animal sanctuary. The squirrels feast on what drops from the sunflower seed feeder, and some unknown critter continues to bring a little gift of abandoned wasp nests to our deck stairs.   

My point here is that we love to be part of the array of life that graces our backyard. I think that we are called, as much as we are able, to live harmoniously with creation. Yes, indeed, in the past my son and I did battle with some invasive raccoons (a story that deserves its own space), but by and large, we love to witness and protect the natural wildlife around our house.

We constantly are amazed at the beauty and grace of nature around us. I think in that small way, we are heeding the command for us to live peaceably with creation, and to see it as God’s handiwork.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the marvelous diversity of creation, Amen

A woman who had suffered a condition of hemorrhaging for twelve years—a long succession of physicians had treated her, and treated her badly, taking all her money and leaving her worse off than before—had heard about Jesus. She slipped in from behind and touched his robe. She was thinking to herself, “If I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well.” The moment she did it, the flow of blood dried up. She could feel the change and knew her plague was over and done with.                                   Mark 5:25-29

We recently heard a sermon at church about the time that Jesus healed a woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years. We do not know the cause of this, but she possibly had some complication of menopause. The point is, when women were menstruating, they were considered unclean, and she would not have been able to enter the Temple. Indeed, according to Jewish law, whomever she touched would also be considered unclean.

In desperation, she reached out to simply touch the cloak of Jesus as he passed by her. She exhibited great faith in this gesture. When she became healed, Jesus called her out. My speculation as to why Jesus did this was one of compassion. This woman was known to have been unclean for many years, and certainly, she was shunned by others as being ceremonially unclean. Jesus wanted to restore not only her physical health, but her social standing. He wanted others to know that this woman was healed. She could now fully participate in Temple life and she would not be shunned.

I think that healing takes place on all the levels on which we function- physical, spiritual, and emotional. Jesus healed her physically, allowing her to participate in her religious as well as her social life again.

The Creator of the universe wrote the rules of healing, and he was teaching them to us as he walked the earth.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the complete healing that you offer us, Amen

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…                                        Philippians 2:5

My cousin recently sent me a short video from Rabbi Shais Taub. Taub does work in addiction recovery and has a following in both Jewish and Christian communities. Rabbi Taub explains in this short video that there are two types of people- thermometer people and thermostat people.

He goes on to explain that thermometers measure the temperature in the room. They merely reflect what the present environment is. Thermostats, on the other hand set the temperature of the room. They influence their environment, and are not merely recipients of the atmosphere- they set it.

So it is with attitude. We can be thermostats and be responsible for setting the attitude we want, or we can feel subject to reflecting the present attitudes around us. Given the current unrest and irritability of the culture at this time, we have a choice as to how we want to respond. Do we want to set a tone of love and acceptance, or will we be overrun by the anger and mistrust we often find around us?

Prayer: Lord, help us to set a tone of peace and love wherever we go, Amen