Students Don't Care

There are research studies on almost every conceivable topic. Some topics are seemingly important and some seem trivial. A recent research study seems to be very important to us as a nation. Dr. Keith Ablow wrote on this recently on the Fox News Web. He said:

A University of Michigan Study of nearly 14,000 college students has found that they have less empathy than college students did during the 1980s or 1990s. In fact, today’s college students scored about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts did 20 or 30 years ago.

If accurate, this study has important implications for America. As I wrote in my last post, "Empathy is critically important to healthy relationships." I suggest you go to the Fox News web or to Dr. Ablow's web Living the Truth to read how he characterizes this issue.

If America's youth are losing the ability to EMPATHIZE with others, we are really moving into troubled waters. Without EMPATHY, we will move farther away from good parenting, caring for hurting people and the ability to understand how to correct bad habits. This skill is foundational to an orderly society. Take a look at the drug cartels in Mexico if you want to see what happens when EMPATHY is destroyed.

If you build your life on a house a cards it will fall when the storms of life come and blow on it. Jesus the Messiah

Can You Hear Me Now?

The ability to hear and understand other people is essential to healthy
relationships. It does not take a Doctorate in Counseling for bright people to figure that out but it did take a Doctorate for me to see how important understanding is to good family life, successful businesses and effective teaching. It is, of course, also core to good therapy.

The ability of one person to truly understand another is called, EMPATHY.

The story of Jesus and the man born blind reveals why some people cannot understand. Here is a man who received his eyesight and could see objects for the first time in his life. Just imagine how exciting and thrilling that would be for the man and his family to say nothing about his friends and neighbors in that small village. They all knew him and saw him and talked with him. They had known him from the day of his birth. They had debated why he was born blind. They asked, "Was it because his parents had sinned?" Or, "Was it his hidden sins" that brought such a terrible disability into his life?

If this miracle occurred in the life of one of your family members how would you feel? Would you feel joy, awe, fear, relief or jealousy that he was blessed and you weren't? Would you be able to tune into his feelings and be EMPATHIC with his feelings and thoughts? Or would your own inner reaction be so strong that it would filter out an appropriate response to him?

Review the story and make a list of those who had EMPATHY for the man that was healed and a list of those who did not seem to be able to tune into his situation.

Who did not EMPATHIZE with the man?

What did they do?
What did not not do?

Who did EMPATHIZE with the man?

Why do you think they did or did not show EMPATHY to the man?

Do You Love to Serve?

My last post was the story from from John 9 that told about Jesus healing the man born blind. He not only broke the traditions of the time by healing this man he really threw the cat in with the pigeons by doing it on the Sabbath.

As you read this post, write down the various characters you see and describe them as to their personalities and focus. Who was compassionate? Who "Loved and kept the Sabbath pure? Who tried to escape notice by acting like Sergeant Schultz by saying, "I know nothing?"

Who took stands for truth but was persecuted? Who had faith and who lacked faith? Who best represented you in the story?

Jesus Healed and Others Hated

John 9 (The Message)

With whom do we identify in this story?

1-2 Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, "Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?" 3-5Jesus said, "You're asking the wrong question. You're looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world's Light."

6-7 He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man's eyes, and said, "Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam" (Siloam means "Sent"). The man went and washed—and saw.

8 Soon the town was buzzing. His relatives and those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, "Why, isn't this the man we knew, who sat here and begged?"

9 Others said, "It's him all right!"

But others objected, "It's not the same man at all. It just looks like him."

He said, "It's me, the very one."

10 They said, "How did your eyes get opened?"

11 "A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' I did what he said. When I washed, I saw."

12 "So where is he?"

"I don't know."

13-15 They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, "He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see."

16 Some of the Pharisees said, "Obviously, this man can't be from God. He doesn't keep the Sabbath."

Others countered, "How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?" There was a split in their ranks.

17 They came back at the blind man, "You're the expert. He opened your eyes. What do you say about him?"

He said, "He is a prophet."

18-19 The Jews didn't believe it, didn't believe the man was blind to begin with. So they called the parents of the man now bright-eyed with sight. They asked them, "Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he now sees?"

20-23 His parents said, "We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind. But we don't know how he came to see—haven't a clue about who opened his eyes. Why don't you ask him? He's a grown man and can speak for himself." (His parents were talking like this because they were intimidated by the Jewish leaders, who had already decided that anyone who took a stand that this was the Messiah would be kicked out of the meeting place. That's why his parents said, "Ask him. He's a grown man.")

24 They called the man back a second time—the man who had been blind— and told him, "Give credit to God. We know this man is an impostor."

25 He replied, "I know nothing about that one way or the other. But I know one thing for sure: I was blind . . . I now see."

26 They said, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

27 "I've told you over and over and you haven't listened. Why do you want to hear it again? Are you so eager to become his disciples?"

28-29 With that they jumped all over him. "You might be a disciple of that man, but we're disciples of Moses. We know for sure that God spoke to Moses, but we have no idea where this man even comes from."

30-33The man replied, "This is amazing! You claim to know nothing about him, but the fact is, he opened my eyes! It's well known that God isn't at the beck and call of sinners, but listens carefully to anyone who lives in reverence and does his will. That someone opened the eyes of a man born blind has never been heard of—ever. If this man didn't come from God, he wouldn't be able to do anything."

34 They said, "You're nothing but dirt! How dare you take that tone with us!" Then they threw him out in the street.

35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and went and found him. He asked him, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"

36 The man said, "Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him."

37 Jesus said, "You're looking right at him. Don't you recognize my voice?"

38 "Master, I believe," the man said, and worshiped him.

39 Jesus then said, "I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind."

40 Some Pharisees overheard him and said, "Does that mean you're calling us blind?"

41 Jesus said, "If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you're accountable for every fault and failure."

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Advance God's Healing

I am re-reading my book, Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty because we just uploaded it for a free download on my Sweeten Life web page. I sat in the Gold Star Cafe eating a cheese coney and looking over the book Steve Griebling and I wrote while we were training the Cell Group Leaders in Singapore how to integrate care, coaching and healing into group life.

It is designed to help Pastors and Pastoral Care Ministers train Peer Helpers. (We do not call Peers Counselors or Psychologists. Those terms are legally used on for licensed professionals.)

Let me change that. We were teaching the Cell Group Leaders how to EFFECTIVELY integrate care, coaching and healing into their groups. they had been trying to do that with some success before I arrived in 1994 but they had a lot to learn. And learn they did.

I was and am very impressed with the people we met in Singapore, Taiwan and other Asian countries. They are real Christians with a very deep faith and an unbelievable commitment to advance the Kingdom of God. However, it takes more than motivation, compassion and hard work to effectively minister to hurting people. It takes some skills and it takes knowledge of the transformation and change process.

I suggest that you go to my web page and take a look at some of our materials. Download all you are interested in and make a donation if you can. I promise that you will learn more about how to car, coach and heal than you ever thought possible.

Is Prayer Natural or Supernatural?

NEW YORK, Oct 26 (Reuters Health) -- Prayer may reduce the number of complications experienced by hospitalized heart patients, researchers report.

"This suggests that prayer may be an effective adjunct to standard medical care," Dr. William Harris of Saint Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, and colleagues report in the October 25th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Heart patients who were prayed for by others, but were not aware of being the object of prayers, had an 11% reduction in medical complications or the need for surgery or medication while in hospital, according to the investigators.

The authors examined the medical charts of nearly 1,000 heart patients, following their health histories between hospital admission and discharge.

All patients in the study received standard medical care. But unbeknownst to the patients, Harris and colleagues provided the first names of about half the patients to 15 teams of five self-identified, practicing Christians. These individuals prayed daily for the healthy recovery of selected patients for a period of 4 weeks. The remaining patients were not prayed for as part of the study.

The authors report that the prayed-for patients had significantly lower complication rates than those not prayed for in the study.

The research team effectively ruled out patient bias as a possible factor behind the benefits associated with prayer, since both patients and hospital staff "were completely (unaware of)... the very existence of the trial."

Indeed, they say they have no "mechanistic explanation" as to how the prayers of strangers might have helped speed patient healing. The odds that chance might explain the findings are about 1 in 25, according to the authors.

Instead, they refer to the theories of those who believe that "natural or supernatural" causes may be behind the 'healing power of prayer.' Believers in the 'natural causes' theory propose that some as-yet-undiscovered natural force is "'generated' by the intercessors and 'received' by the patients," according to the researchers. On the other hand, those subscribing to a supernatural explanation point to the existence of God or some force "beyond the ken of science."

Other, smaller studies have provided conflicting results regarding the power of prayer. However, the largest -- a 1988 trial involving 339 San Francisco patients -- found results remarkably similar to those of the current study. The combined results have led Harris and his colleagues to suggest that experts "explore the role of prayer as an adjunct to standard medical care."

The research team effectively ruled out patient bias as a possible factor behind the benefits associated with prayer, since both patients and hospital staff "were completely (unaware of)... the very existence of the trial."

Indeed, they say they have no "mechanistic explanation" as to how the prayers of strangers might have helped speed patient healing. The odds that chance might explain the findings are about 1 in 25, according to the authors.

Instead, they refer to the theories of those who believe that "natural or supernatural" causes may be behind the 'healing power of prayer.' Believers in the 'natural causes' theory propose that some as-yet-undiscovered natural force is "'generated' by the intercessors and 'received' by the patients," according to the researchers. On the other hand, those subscribing to a supernatural explanation point to the existence of God or some force "beyond the ken of science."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

C.S. Lewis tells of a woman he knew who did not believe in ghosts and then she saw one. Asked if her personal experience had changed her mind she replied, "No! I still do not believe in the supernatural".

Prayers for Healing Needed

I am on several lists of old friends and professional groups. Sometimes one of the members will post a prayer need on a list and ask for prayers. That is a good thing in many ways but sometimes I fail to take the request seriously enough to stop and focus on that person. I am trying to improve in that regard because I know that prayer can have a very positive effect on a patient.

Notice I did not promise that every patient for whom we pray gets cured. In reality, many people die even with prayer. As one of my favorite writers says, "Mortality is 100% all over the world". Yes, everyone dies and some sooner and some later than others. But as a rule, prayers, even at a distance, do make a positive difference in the patient's quality and sometimes the quantity of life they live.

I was most recently reminded of this when a former high school friend wrote to alert us to the fact that a little six year old girl was very ill with cancer. The chemo was working in some ways but its side effects were also close to killing her. The chemo treatment is so strong that it could take the child's life.

That often happens in the case of cancer and can happen also with heart disease and other serious maladies. One of the best things about prayer is the total lack of bad side effects. With God we always get the good with no bad.

I vowed to pray for this little child, Miriam, each time I saw a posting from my high school list. That may be hard to do because some days we get a lot of postings. But here goes for now. "Dear God our heavenly Father, pour out your health and blessings on Miriam today. Protect her from the chemo side effects and reduce her tumors. In the Name of the Great Physician, Jesus. Amen."

See my blog post on distance prayer research.