by Rev. Bob Johnson
As we enter this fourth part of thinking about the relationship between faith and health, perhaps we need to digress just a bit.
What does it mean to be healed? The word "healing" actually means "making whole." If you cut yourself, your body immediately begins to seek wholeness. The first thing that happens is bleeding which is natural to clean the wound--too much will exhaust the cleaning supply and you or I would die. A scab forms both as protection from further harm and as a means of stopping our loss of blood. Under that scab the body continues its work of healing until the scab is no longer needed and the body understands that it is once again whole.
Spiritually the same thing happens when we lose love, a loved one dies, good friends move away, etc. There is a time when the wound is raw and feelings are near the surface. Any little argument or further loss of love will trigger a reaction. Healing of the loss has not taken place, or new friends have not appeared.
Your body and mine want to be healthy. We want peace and love, a body free of illness and disease. The body is a whole and all of its parts are connected--that includes your soul/body connection. There is no separation of the mind (spirit) and the body--one affects one affects the other. If we are constantly at odds, the body is out of balance, it is in a state of dis-ease. Dr. Andrew Weil an M.D. graduate of Harvard puts it this way, "As above, so below, as below, so above." What is happening within affects what is happening socially and emotionally, and the reverse is true--what happens in our relationships has an effect on our wholeness. If you or I have no trust (only you/I and God know whether you/I really trust or not), we are not whole, and we are then subject to illness of all kinds.
How are emotions involved in our wholeness? Does this means we never get angry? Does this mean we can never make judgments or take risks?