Resource Management Innovations

The Physiology of Faith: RMI ~ PF 101

In all of my travels and studies I have not come across much of any writing on this particular topic, and it is one that has preoccupied my thoughts for some time now. An internet search didn’t produce the host-of-hits most topics do … at least not in any depth or breadth.

Related to this is the degree to which my website goes crazy when I post items such as these vs the industry related mantra you can capture just about anywhere else. I follow our site specific traffic via Google Analytics and the Blog page seems to be ‘the landing page’ of choice on our site. When I say ‘crazy’ … I mean a 365% jump in traffic in page specific activity on posting … I go away, it dies. So from that I have correctly or incorrectly concluded an appetite for things which bang around in my head that cause me (and apparently you) to go … “Huh … yeah. Me too?!” Here is one more.

Please consider these as an observation on life’s highway … some blinding flashes of the obvious as we cruise along, capturing life in our minds eye as we find it, see it (in whole or in part) … and try our best to collect and document our thoughts at day’s end. Mine I find healthful to commit to paper. Here is one more:

Prior blog entries have given some context to the physiological effects of stress, so I won’t repeat them here. How about this little nugget I found. The Chinese language joins two characters to form a single pictograph for the word: Stress. That is Heart and Killing. That is stunningly incisive!  The heart is the place the busy-ness exacts its greatest toll. This is true literally, physically and cardiologically. Stressors are those characteristics of our day that we interpret as being negative and harmful … our body responding with its fight or flight response of adrenalin … enabling either. It is the heightened prolonged and sustained state of stress that gets us into trouble. That isn’t the focus of this observation but it is necessary to support it.

I have given considerable time to meditating on the building blocks and the physiology of faith. Psalm 23 as an example … but it has been a good one as I expect regardless of faith walk we all have some awareness and understanding of it. I think it is one teaching that best illustrates the Shepherd – Sheep relationship and the deep meaning the world seems to take from it in times of need. Regardless of affiliation or experience hardly a funeral could be conducted without it. And … physiologically comfort it does.

Here is the question. “What If” … after the lovely buffet lunch, the crustless church lady sandwiches and tea … I chose to remain in that place? That place of great comfort. Intentionally. Think about it:

- He leads me beside still waters. (Sounds both cognitive and volitional).
- He *restores my soul. (*Did I know it could be depleted?).
- He makes me lie down in green pastures. (That is the stuff of my most peaceful thoughts).

I know I’m not the brightest crayon in the box … but, why would I choose to leave that? That hardly makes sense. Shepherd + Physician. Yeah I get it. But it begs the question … what in and of this world could reasonably compare? I mean we are thinking creatures. We pride ourselves on our intellect. So, what would compare?

For example:

When I am so broken that my very soul is depleted, He can restore it. The fact that as my Shepherd and Physician He wants to … is to me remarkable, and for me best characterizes the heart of the shepherd and His relationship with His sheep. I (now) better understand the hardwired allure we have with Psalm 23. What I find troubling is how voluntarily I am prone to wander from it. So how intellectual are we? Really?

A more specific life lesson (from the highway) would be the peaceful allure of my father and his father. How attractive I found their relationship with their / The Shepherd. Certainly there was no absence of conflict and strife in their life … but (here is the kicker, don’t miss it) they were not subject to it.
Peace (I learned) was not the absence of conflict, but rather the presence of The Shepherd in it. That peace so transcended common understanding that my father was viciously criticized for it. Crazy … he even found peace in that. (And how that made his adversaries nuts! Reward enough? It sure made me smile.)

I so desperately love and appreciate him for the lessons of his classroom, often found at the end of a fishing pole on a Saturday afternoon. Just like today.

Thanks Dad. I miss you.
 

Posted By: Rick Kneeshaw 2010/05/15
Categories: Reflections: Lessons Learned