Good morning…
I was captivated by yesterday’s post on The Hidden Life Awakened website, a website beautifully created by the co-author of a book with the same name, my dear friend Kitty Crenshaw. The blog post reminded me of the life-giving wisdom I soaked in from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm last Friday at the University of Georgia Medical School in Athens as I went to support the book’s other author, my fun friend Dr. Cathy Snapp. Cathy was unveiling the “whole person health” model she and her medical team have been developing for the past ten years. Shifting the focus of medicine off of disease and onto holistic health, this cutting edge, research based model is growing up from the roots of this book I so love, The Hidden Life Awakened. This fascinating story chronicles the life of 93-year-old Betty Skinner as God walks her, step by step, up from her deep, dark valley of clinical depression to the mountain peak of mind-body-spirit wholeness.
“Hi Kitty,” I emailed after reading yesterday’s blog post, “I so love the deep, rich wisdom you shared this morning. May I post it for our online community tomorrow? God is growing a beautifully tangible pathway to healing through Betty, you, and Cathy. I had the opportunity to go to Athens last Friday with a friend to be a part of Cathy’s first training day to kick off their “whole health” medical model. So, so cool! God is orchestrating incredibly life-giving breakthroughs. Will be exciting to stand still to see this great thing God is doing right before our eyes! Happy perpetual birthday season.”
“Of course you may share our post,” Kitty quickly replied, “and I’m so excited you guys were able to be there with Cathy! I am dying to go to a training session and see what it’s all about!”
So, here is the post which gives voice to the holistic growth God is blossoming before our open eyes.
Matter, the Bearer of Spirit
Ours is a world in which matter is the bearer of spirit. The Incarnation was the ultimate example of this. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus. If you will begin to change the way you see your body and its integral and holy relationship to all of creation, everything will begin to change for you. By doing the work of honoring, balancing, and integrating your inner life and your outer life, you will be able to more purely love God by offering your whole self to the work of love. The deepest mystery about you is that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the bearer of Christ to the world. Your body, no matter how broken, was wondrously created in God’s image and given a genome: a set of genes and chromosomes largely inherited from your parents. That genome is then radically affected by your experiences in life and by its nutritional status. You, of course, can’t choose your genome, and you can’t always choose the life experiences that impact it, but you can choose to change how you respond to what you have been given. You can choose to give your genome every physical advantage with healthy foods and energizing exercise, and every mental and spiritual advantage with positive reactions, loving attention, and inspiring self-talk. This is so honoring to the Artist from whose heart you emerged.
Your genome is not static; its cells are constantly changing, growing, and evolving, reacting to whatever it is fed and exposed to. Food isn’t just energy, it is information, and it has a direct effect on your body’s functions. Everything you eat and drink, every thought and feeling, all of your movement, rest, and sleep, as well as all of your relational interactions, impact you on a cellular level every single moment. All of this growth and change requires energy. Think about it: What fuel can you give your body’s cells if not good food and plenty of oxygen? If you truly believe that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, you will want to honor and care for the cells that make it up. In every moment, you are choosing the trajectory of your health and happiness, moving it in one direction or the other by the choices you make. Will you claim that power and honor the gift?
The wonderful news is that you don’t have to return to the old struggle with willpower to overcome your poor habits; your resistance will focus your subconscious too strongly on the battle, weakening your brain’s effort to rebuild positive structure. You can much more easily overcome poor habits by adding in good habits. There are fun new habits and good-tasting foods that will help your genome. By adding more delicious, healthy foods into your diet, more time in quiet reflection, more positive relationships, and more fun activities into your life, you will divert your brain’s energies to building positive habits, crowding out the poor ones.
Watch as Betty unwraps more of how to heal the whole person. You can also watch it on our Videos page.
God wants you to be healthy and happy as much as you want that. So take care of yourself by taking care of your cells. What one good thing will you give your genome today? Will you go outside and walk a little? Will you feed your cells a meal of delicious, mainly plant-based foods? Will you think of things you can be grateful for, trusting that your brain is turbocharged to re-create itself when you are in a state of gratitude? If you will do these things, you will one day wake to find yourself in new and joyful places you may have given up hope of ever accessing again.
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As I look forward to teaching this life-changing book again in our living room this January and at our church during the season of Lent, we are preparing to bring Kitty, Cathy, and their talented pianist-friend Dana Cunningham to Atlanta again this spring. Interested people from Peachtree Road United Methodist Church will partner with us at Northside Church to host another “Awake To Wholeness Women’s Retreat” on Friday, March 27th and Saturday, 28th. Save the date on your 2020 calendar. You will be empowered by the life-giving lessons God is bringing to life in our midst.
Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things], not on things that are on the earth [which have only temporal value]. For you died [to this world], and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:2-4, AMP).
…Sue…
