Do You Truly Want To Be Well?

Ellen White: Jesus at the Bethesda Pool

According to John's gospel Jesus once asked someone lying next to Jerusalem's healing pool, "Do you want to be made whole?"

The answer seems obvious, but maybe it isn't always. I had a counseling prof, in jest, telling about a client who pledged to keep coming for therapy as long as he promised not to make him well!

Sometimes compensations set in when we are the victim of an illness or accident. Along with our desire for wholeness there can also come some ambivalence about a loss of attention or specialness that may go with being a victim. Certain responsibilities that go with wellness may feel overwhelming, and get in the way of our desire for healing.

Jesus engages the ill man's will with, "Do you want to be well?" then tells him "Take up his bed and walk." He is saying that while healing always involves some kind of miracle, it is not a matter of mere magic. Both faith and action on our part may be called for.

In other words, if we truly want to be well we will need to practice doing more of what well people do and less of what ill people do, as follows.

1. Well people avoid seeing themselves as victims, and cultivate a spirit of gratitude to God and others rather than nursing grievances.

2. Well people are intentional about expanding their circle of good relationships (as in a supportive faith community) rather than isolating themselves from others.

3. Well people are generous in sharing what they have with others rather than hoarding more for themselves.

4. Well people engage in plenty of good physical activity rather than living sedentary lives.

5. Well people operate on the basis of their faith rather than their worst-case fears.

6. Well people treat their bodies and minds as gifts to be given the best possible care.

7. Well people have a sense of mission and purpose that goes beyond their immediate personal interests, but which they also know is in their (and others') best interests. 

Wellness is a priceless, but nevertheless costly, gift to be treasured for a lifetime.

A Really Royal Ride

132 horses under the hood of a 2012 Toyota Corolla

We live in a little '50's suburb at the north edge of Harrisonburg, just outside the city limits. Within .3 mile of us is a drug store, a Food Lion, a Dollar General, five small restaurants and our Credit Union, among other things.

So when we need a prescription, a gallon of milk, or access to an ATM at one of these locations, we have several options:

1. Wait, then combine it with a trip to work or elsewhere.

2. Walk or bike.

3. Access a wonderful coach we happen to own, one that's designed for convenient overland transportation and is housed in the "livery stable" we call our garage.

Using the latter is always the quickest and most convenient choice.

Here are some of the amazing features of our travel machine. Even though our car is smaller than some, it nevertheless weighs well over a ton (2734 pounds) and has a climate-controlled cabin area able to comfortably seat five people.

Our particular craft is powered by the equivalent of 132 horses. Yes, 132. They are always harnessed and ready to go at the turn of a key, fully hitched to the royal coach on which we've become totally dependent. Much of what makes using this advanced machine so effortless is a complex set of computer controlled features that are worth thousands of dollars and that are amazing beyond imagination.

Unfortunately, the fuel that empowers all of this, while convenient to access, is also very controversial. Derived from oil deep in the ground, it has often been fought over as a scarce, nonrenewable resource, the use of which adds to environmental pollution believed by many scientists to threaten the survival of our planet.

So since I could use a lot more exercise anyway, should I use the Corolla for a run to the bank or just walk?

On the other hand, I could just drive my coach, powered by 132 horses, another half mile beyond the Credit Union and get my exercise walking around EMU's climate controlled indoor track for a couple of miles.

Is This A Bright Idea Or What?

I recently received an interesting proposal from Charles Zellers, Sr., a friend at the Buckingham Correctional Center near Dillwyn. I submitted it to the Daily News-Record earlier this week as a part of an op ed piece.

Charles gave his permission to include his name and this photo. Zellers is the second from the left, and the person behind him in the middle of the picture, Edward Stewart, is the one who recently died of an apparent heart attack (see 2/28/14 blog).

From Criminal Thinking To Technology Thinking

A friend at the Buckingham Correctional Center recently sent me a thoughtful proposal that would allow inmates to have personal laptops in prison for educational purposes (without access to Wi-Fi and the internet).

For some background, this person has been in prison for 21 years since entering an Alford Plea in a case in which he was charged when he was in his mid-twenties. He had been assured by his court appointed attorney that if he would agree to a plea and serve some time as a model prisoner, that he would earn parole within a few years.

But while this individual has consistently stayed out of trouble in prison, and has been involved in all the classes and programs that were supposed to help him earn parole, he is still confined after over two decades, partly due to the Virginia Parole Board having one of the lowest parole grant rates in the US. As the following shows, he continues to envision a productive life outside of prison.

Here is a slightly condensed version of his proposal:

1. Permission to purchase laptop computers to be kept in the possession of the inmate as personal property (same as television).

2. Permission to purchase and install Microsoft Office Suite software, a self contained teaching program that does not require WiFi or use of the Internet. This would allow offenders to learn Word (a word processing program), Excel (a spreadsheet/accounting program), Access (a database program), PowerPoint (a presentation program), and Desktop Publisher ( to create flyers, pamphlets, business cards, etc.). Microsoft Office Suite software is utilized in businesses throughout the world, and offenders could learn these complex skills at their leisure in their assigned cells or dorms.

3. The Virginia Department of Corrections has contracted with JPay to install kiosks in all offender living units. Once this has been connected statewide, the VDOC could authorize JPay to offer free programs for offenders to download on their laptops, such as Productive Citizenship, Anger Management, PREPS, and GED preparation. Also, VDOC could offer for sale approved vocational and educational programs that could assist offenders when they are released from prisons and jails, such as background training for Computer Assisted Drafting, Masonry, Welding, Plumbing, Small Engines, etc. These are all tools offenders could use to develop technical thinking instead of criminal thinking.

4. Require Virginia prisons to offer a basic computer class to all prisoners capable of gaining computer skills.

5. Require all Virginia Correctional Enterprises (VCE) to have at least one computer with Microsoft Office Suite installed in each department of every shop as a part of the training process.

If correction is to be the primary goal of VDOC, as spelled out in its mission statement, it’s hard to see any downside to this kind of program. And not only should costs to taxpayers be minimal, but this could result in huge savings as more people are released with skills to help them function as productive members of society.

Presently prisoners who have spent years behind bars find themselves experiencing a Rip Van Winkle-like lack of preparation for living in a world so different from the one they knew upon entering prison.
Programs designed to educate and rehabilitate our fellow citizens should not divide us into liberal or conservative camps. Regardless of our political leanings, we can no longer afford to waste millions in simply confining people in iron cages where they spend far too much time in mind numbing boredom and in learning ever more criminal behavior from their peers.

At the end of a recent letter, my friend lamented, “I do not understand why churches and other interested persons are not trying to help us. Many of us are praying that we can be released on parole while we are still able to get a job and take care of ourselves, while Virginia is just waiting for us to die.”

Click here for other links on criminal justice issues.

New Petition To Governor McAuliffe (And Some More Background) Please Sign!

Jens Soering, behind bars for nearly 28 years

I am launching this new petition with Change.org. addressed to Governor Terry McAulliffe, and urge all of you to sign it and share it with others.  Thanks!

You will find the links in the following Wikipedia article on former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli helpful if you want more information on this case. Cuchinelli's efforts to block Soering's extradition is listed as one of his signature achievements in the Wikipedia piece, as follows: 

 

Extradition of Jens Soering to Germany

Jens Soering, 43, the son of a German diplomat and former Jefferson scholar at the University of Virginia, was convicted in 1990 and sentenced to two life terms for the 1985 first-degree stabbing murders of his then-girlfriend's parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom, in their Bedford County home, and held at the Buckingham Correctional Center in Dillwyn, Virginia.

Former Gov. Timothy Kaine, on the last day of his administration in January, 2010, approved a request from the German government and asked the Justice Department to transfer Soering back to Germany to complete his sentence. Newly elected Gov. Bob McDonnell, along with Cuccinelli, adamantly opposed the transfer. McDonnell formally notified the Justice Department just three days after taking office that it was imperative that Soering serve his time in Virginia and not in Germany, where a US news report said that he could have applied for parole after two years, although parole is only applicable after a minimum 15 years according to the German penal code.^[76]

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^{Here's the link to the post about the previous petition to Governor McDonnell.}

Everyone Wants Strong Leaders, But No One Wants To Be Led

source

I remember being told as a child that our 18th century European ancestors were expected to stop and bow whenever they were met by members of the aristocracy. In those days, everyone knew their place and showed deference to those ranked above them, child to parent, citizen to ruler, lay member to clergy, peasant to lord.

We've come a long way since then. While we may sometimes decry the lack of deference shown for authority by our children and teens, and even advocate reverting to more corporal punishment as a way of instilling some old fashioned respect, we rarely demonstrate much of a submissive mindset ourselves.

A part of me can celebrate that. As members of faith communities we see ourselves as a part of a "priesthood of all believers", no longer subject to an authoritarian rule by powerful bishops and/or some kind of strong denominational hierarchy. The era of authoritarian leaders appears to be over. And as American citizens we pride ourselves in being a part of a citizen-led republic rather than subjects of a monarchy or dictatorship.

At the same time, I hear many of us bemoaning a lack of leadership in the church or in our government. We may even express admiration for a Putin-style ruler, but only on one unspoken condition, that whoever who is in power should strongly champion our cause, be a voice for our own strongly held values, and not be about leading us in some new or different direction.

In today's wide, wild world of the internet I'm amazed at how sure so many are of exactly what positions the church should take and what practices and beliefs should be reinforced--as long as they are exactly in line with their own convictions. If we don't like something, we simply go elsewhere or form a group of our own.

In the same way, every rank and file US citizen seems to have a clear notion of just how the state should be governed and of everything that's wrong with those in positions of power. But what most are really wanting is that their president and legislators follow their lead rather than the other way around. No one is about to tell us what to we are to do or believe.

In a democracy, that may be as it should be. But we can't have it both ways, or have everything go our way. We can't be attacking our church or political leaders for not being strong leaders while at the same time disrespecting and reviling them for differing with us when they do so, or for also listening to the viewpoints of others as well as our own.

So for better or worse, when our children show disrespect for people in leadership, are they acting in defiance of us or are they simply imitating us? If we regularly have roast preacher for Sunday dinner, and routinely revile our democratically chosen leaders--ecclesiastical or political--can we really expect something different from our young?

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Show proper respect to everyone. Love the community of believers. Have respect for God. Honor the king."

- I Peter 2:17 NIV, Readers Version 

To Avoid A MCUSA Split: Let Congregations Discipline, And The Denomination Offer Direction

I'm wondering if the only way for the Mennonite Church USA to stay together is if its local congregations become solely responsible for the discipling--and as they deem necessary, for the discipline--of individual members, and to have conferences and the denomination primarily give direction to congregations as they carry out those God-ordained responsibilities.

This would not make us any more diverse than we already are, but could help us maintain some kind of bond in spite of our differences, perhaps through our becoming more like a close fellowship of Anabaptist-minded churches than a well organized denominational institution. Otherwise, we face the prospect of a tragic kind of splintering and splitting such as we have never seen.

According to a recent piece by historian John D. Roth in the Mennonite, "When most of the various branches of the Dutch Mennonite church merged in 1811, the basis of of the union was a general appeal to the unity of the Spirit and the explicit assurance that 'every congregation kept its freedom to make such decisions about doctrine as it wished, without the right to bind others to its convictions.'"

In the ongoing controversy over how to address the issue of homosexuality, Mennonites have become expert at divorcing themselves from other whole districts and conferences. But surprisingly I know of no example of Mennonite congregations having actually removed individual LBGTQ members from their fellowship. In fact, I haven't even heard many conversations on how we practice grace-based pastoral care of such members, in spite of the fact that we all know plenty of fellow believers who are gay, and in spite of our convening many solemn conference assemblies on the subject of same sex attraction.

As a result, individual gay members have usually just quietly removed themselves or remained silent about their sexual orientation. We've created an unspoken policy of Don't ask, Don't talk and Don't tell.

I find this response on the part of the church unloving, inconsistent and unacceptable.

I propose we focus on congregations dealing pastorally and prayerfully with individual members as they are led by the Spirit and as they understand the Bible. There is ample scriptural precedent for this kind of Spirit-driven pastoral care. But I find no New Testament precedent for our excommunicating whole congregations--as in, for example, a Jerusalem Council deciding to no longer be associated with churches like those at Corinth or Laodicea. Nor are there any Biblical examples of congregations leaving the larger body of believers and going out on their own.

How can we defend or approve our wholesale "divorces" of whole churches or conferences--even over an issue as controversial as same sex marriage--when one of Jesus' most fervent prayers is "that they may be one, even as we are one"?

Jesus makes no exceptions in that prayer. He does give instructions (Matthew 18:15-18) for dealing with individual members, but not for excommunicating whole congregations.

Growing Good Health

"To create a garden is to search for a better world. In our effort to improve on nature, we are guided by a vision of paradise. Whether the result is a horticultural masterpiece or only a modest vegetable patch, it is based on the expectation of a glorious future. This hope for the future is at the heart of all gardening."

- Marina Schinz

I know it sounds insane, but on Saturday I planted our first row of sugar snap peas. Yes, I did, in spite of knowing that by Monday everything would likely be covered with tons of snow.

Crazy or not, gardening is in my blood, a part of my roots, an annual experience of therapy. Every spring I dream of growing the finest possible crop of green lettuce, yellow corn and ripe red tomatoes ever.  In gardeners, hope springs eternal.

As a result of years of composting and mulching our naturally clay soil is mellow and dark, and as soon as the snow clears and the soil is dry enough, will be ready for more peas and some onion sets--even before the official start of spring. Then come radishes, beets, carrots and lettuce, hardy plants that can withstand late frosts may persist through early May.

Then, as soon we dare, we'll boldly plant several rows of sweet corn and green beans, along with  some early tomato plants, trusting that a late freeze won’t do irreparable harm. But we are prepared to cover the young plants if we must, hoping for the earliest possible harvest.

I'm sure you'll agree that there’s no food as delicious--or nutritious--as the kind that comes straight from your own garden. And when you grow your own produce, you can know it hasn't been tainted with all kinds of pesticides and herbicides that might be a part of what's grown commercially and shipped in from all over the world.

Here’s a simple way I've found to convert some lawn space into growing space, without back breaking effort and at very little expense:

For year one, start with some potted plants from a nearby greenhouse, things like tomatoes, squash, peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, cantaloupe, etc. Dig an appropriate size hole in the sod for each plant and set each with a bit of compost and/or other organic fertilizer. Cover the surrounding grass with several layers of newspaper, then the entire new garden space with straw, leaves or other forms of a readily biodegradable mulch (not sawdust).

After that, simply water the plants if needed. Your new garden will remain virtually weed free (and without hoeing!) and by fall much of the garden’s cover will have become mostly decomposed and the soil easily tillable for year two, when you can do conventional planting of any seeds you wish.

But don’t just take my advice. Consult some experienced gardeners in your neighborhood. But be warned, this activity can be highly addictive.