Bob Clark
A guest post written by Robert B. Clark, Committee on Publication for Florida
Bob Clark’s post below is a portion of his article, Faith influences health, many believe, which is published at the St. Petersburg Times website. Bob is a friend and colleague. I believe you will enjoy the read.
Question: Does spirituality play an important role in being and staying healthy?
Research indicates that many of us would say yes. Spirituality, defined as a belief in and appeal to a spiritual power outside the body, is more prevalent in America than you might think. A 2008 Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life poll shows that:
• 71 percent of Americans are absolutely certain about their belief in God or a Universal Spirit.
• 56 percent see religion as “very important” in life.
• 58 percent pray once a day.
• 80 percent believe in miracles.
While approaches to spirituality and how to bring it to bear on health may vary, there is a growing consensus that spirituality and health are connected, and this connection deserves serious attention.
The University of Miami’s Medical Wellness Center defines “wellness” as “the integration of body, mind and spirit and the ongoing development of one’s own meaning in life.”
Johns Hopkins Hospital has offered its Institute on Spirituality and Medicine to hospital staff and local clergy for the past 60 years.
The Duke University Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health lists in its goals: “Informing the public about relationships between religion, spirituality and health.”
As a practicing Christian Scientist, I find health and healing through daily Bible study and quiet, focused prayer. Others find it through meditation or contemplation of their own sacred texts. Some find it in simple moments of stillness and quiet reflection, or gratitude for the good in their lives and willingness to share that good with others.
Because the nature of spirit is not finite, there would seem to be an infinite number of ways to find health and healing through turning to a power outside the body, a spiritual power. As we all look for better and less expensive ways to stay healthy, spirituality and health will continue to be powerful partners.
Read all of Bob’s blog posts at flcompub.org/blog.
About the author
Good thoughts and inspiration, Bob. Agree that health and spirituality will always be powerful partners. And as Christian Scientists we know it is the only link we need.
Thanks so much for this blog, Bob. It was of special interest to me as I had just prepared readings on ‘faith’ from The Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy for our church’s Wednesday testimony meeting the night before this was posted.
March being “Women’s History Month”, I had been struck by a leaflet in our Christian Science Reading Room with the phrase “This woman never gave up”, referring to Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, who against all odds pursued her humanitarian goals and established the Christian Science church in 1879. Then I also found in the preface of the amplified version of the biography: Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Healer by Yvonne Cache von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck these two insightful descriptions of her life work:
“Following the example of Christ Jesus and his apostles, Mary Baker Eddy saw Christian healing as vital to humanity’s salvation. Her study of the Bible convinced her that this type of healing existed even before the days of Jesus of Nazareth, and that the Christ, the healing and saving power of God, had always been present, as Jesus himself indicated when he said, ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’”
The preface also notes that Mrs. Eddy wrote in 1900 of her own healing of life-threatening injuries after a fall on the ice, as follows:
“I can look back and see that at the time of the accident [in 1866] although I had no faith in medicine and did not take it, I had faith that God could raise me up….My experience of the effects of that faith was no miracle and nothing impossible to all who have that faith which is followed by spiritual understanding and is equal to avail itself of Christ’s promise, not to a select number, but to all who exercise it.”
Certainly we can with confidence expect continuing fulfillment of the Biblical promise found in James 5:15: “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.” And Mrs. Eddy echoes this idea, writing: “What cannot God do?” (Science & Health, p. 135:20)
Christian Science healing has been practiced in my family for five generations, providing comfort and restoring health, so it is the healthcare system I depend upon in every instance.