Healing and Wholeness at What Cost?
A day after prostate surgery and a day before my 67th birthday the May/June issue of Circuit Rider (a magazine for United Methodist clergy) came in the mail. The theme is “Global Health” and there is much that commends itself to readers, whether clergy or lay, United Methodist or other traditions. And, it is available on line at http://www.umph.org/resources/publications/circuitrider.asp?act=displayissue&cr_issue_id=107.
Age, health, the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the recent and controversial passage of healthcare reform are ganging up on me and amazing me at the cost of disease. Before surgery I had an echo cardiogram in prep for surgery. I asked the technician, “How much did this cost?” Without a blink she said ask the admitting department. I went to ask but there were lines and I wasn’t in a mood to stick around. My guess and my anxiety is that that the surgery yesterday and all of the emergency room visits, tests, visits to specialists, and prescriptions leading up to it will end up at about $10 to 15K! And that may be conservative.
Yep! I have Medicare and secondary insurance to cover it all. I am grateful for both. I am thankful for the church that cares for its pastors and families and for fellow citizens, including my children, who are tax payers. So, MY wallet will not be hurting much…but it is still a costly repair. And the cost is real and the aggregate cost is staggering when seen in the light of three hundred million Americans.
I get the large prostate from my maternal grandfather. It about killed him. I think about days when catheters were not available and imagine agonizing death from toxemia. So, I am grateful for what has been and is available to me.
The freaky thing for me is that I really seek to take care of myself with regular exercise, good diet, daily meditation (20 minutes morning and evening) along with the Daily Office, and stress management (the latter not being my strong suit). But then that pesky one little part (my surgeon described it technically as “huge”), my prostate, turned angry and laid me low.
We are all at risk. Oddly, clergy are on the whole less healthy than the general population, according to studies. (See “The High Cost of Physical Health” by Melissa Rudolph in the cited Circuit Rider issue.)
St. Luke by tradition was a physician. His gospel clearly highlights Jesus healing ministry and attentiveness to those who were marginalized from good food and the necessities that make for health. All of us as his disciples are the wounded called to be instruments of his healing and wholeness beginning with ourselves.
We in the Order of Saint Luke start and live with a peculiar set of issues that challenge us with regard to health and wholeness. We cannot judge one another for the speck that blinds us to the log in our own eye. We can pray for each other and encourage each other to appropriate self care and so to be points of health and healing light in the midst of an increasingly unhealthy North American culture.
What is the risen Lord’s call to you regarding healing and wholeness? What gets in the way of doing what ever that is? Can you cast the call in a way that it is not a resentful “gotta do” but a adventurous “love to do”? Who can help you take the next steps? Will you ask for that help?
I can’t wait to walk the beach again. I am discovering I like nuts, fresh fruits and veggies a whole lot more than greasy, sugar laden processed foods. I am challenged to manage stress better and to say “no” to invitations that erode good sleep and quality time with family. Pray for me. I’m praying for you.
Abbot Daniel