Nutritional Choices... How to decide?

I still can't get over how much choice you have here in the 21st Century in your food stores (although, to be accurate, the variety of choices is not world wide... the 'western' world has many choices; some of the people in the world do not have any. That is the subject for perhaps another post).

It is mind boggling to think about having to decide between all the choices.  What criteria should you use?  What criteria do you use?  Taste, price, ease of preparation, how healthy is it?

Here is an interesting concept.  I wonder why this was not invented sooner.  NuVal - a simple number, decided with algorithms (Google searches work pretty well using those, don't they?) that can tell you, basically without bias, which food item from the same food category is the most healthy - the higher the number, the more healthy it is.  You can even compare across food types... the higher the number, the better it is for you.

Check out your local grocer to see if they have it. If not, ask them to get involved...  Much of what makes us healthy - or not - is decided when things get put into the shopping cart.

Mapping the Brain in the next ten years...

As 21st Century scientists did with the human genome, the plan is for a ten year project to map the human brain.  Exciting stuff... can't believe how much human knowledge has grown since the 1st Century - and much of that has really happened in the last 100 years!

Ten years to map the brain.  What about Pastors taking a year of their Circuit Conferences and Educators taking a significant portion of their in-service time for a year and focus on some of the best books out there on current knowledge of the brain. This emphasis on brain research will present an even bigger seismic shift in our ability to understand the brain and how it works, and how that applies to the way we do things... some practices will be reinforced, others will need to change.

And, as with the new genetic information, the scientific world needs to hear the theological voice on ethical issues as well.

Forgiveness...

I have come to respect Kim's expertise in the area of Early Childhood - but also her gift as a thoughtful, grace-filled writer.  Check out a recent post about her mother-in-law and forgiveness.  Starts with a cat but ends with a wonderful story about her mother-in-law's move to a new facility.

And keep an eye on her blog over time.  Well worth the read.

Wheat Ridge has some projects that focus their efforts on care for older adults.  Check here and find the "Topical Areas" tab and click on "Older Adult".  Perhaps your church is thinking about new health and human care ministries.  Consider a grant from Wheat Ridge.

The Human Condition

A thoughtful article by a grieving father.

I have come to know many people here in the 21st Century who take medication and it stabilizes them.  They can live a normal life when on their meds.  And yet... the numbers on various drugs are staggering, as is the age drugs are prescribed for children.

Ours is an age in which the airwaves and media are one large drug emporium that claims to fix everything from sleep to sex. I fear that being human is itself fast becoming a condition. It’s as if we are trying to contain grief, and the absolute pain of a loss like mine. We have become increasingly disassociated and estranged from the patterns of life and death, uncomfortable with the messiness of our own humanity, aging and, ultimately, mortality. (Check out the whole article.)

 Part of the human condition since the time sin entered the world has been pain and suffering.  And yet... we are still in the season of Easter that celebrates a God who entered that human condition as Jesus, the Christ.  He redeemed it, bought it back, makes us whole. We'll live in this world of pain - and joy - until we die and then we'll go home and leave the pain behind.  And while we are here he calls us to a ministry of reconciliation. A call to stand with those who bear tremendous burdens.

I am working my way through a book by Scott Morris, the founder of the Church Health Center in Memphis, called God, Health and Happiness. He has great stories that illustrate well a life lived whole and balanced.  One of the images is of 'finding joy in the parade'. He sees lots of people in lots of pain and can still speak of the joy that only comes from God.

LandFillHarmonic

What a great story!  People left to the trash make beautiful music.  God sees past the trash in all our lives - he turns our trash into beautiful music too.

Many of Wheat Ridge Ministries' grants go to congregations who see with the eyes of Jesus - they see past the trash and find the person.  And then they work for whole person health in many different circumstances.

Congregations in Crisis?

I read and hear a lot these days about congregations in crisis.  Attendance is declining, influence is declining, and budgets are stretched beyond the limit.  I see signs of that as I travel.  I just read an interesting article on Resilient Congregations from Alban Institute (looks like a good resource).  They spoke of congregations adjusting to the reality around them. 

As I travel I see many congregations and where I see signs of life two things are happening: the good news of Jesus is proclaimed boldly and the people have rolled up their collective sleeves and they are facing out towards their community in a service mode. That sounds a lot like the church I left behind in the 1st Century.  The early church spoke boldly about Jesus and they served the needs of the people around them.  That's what the Apostle Paul did.  It is what the church does as the 'body of Christ'.

Not much new here today compared to what I left behind 2000+ years ago: 
1. Many competing voices for who is a savior; we know there is only one Lord - Jesus Christ.  And
2. Many people with compelling human need.  No church has to look too far to find that.  The joy of working with Wheat Ridge is that they help congregations hit that bulls eye.  Check out a very brief Mini Tour of Wheat Ridge. It includes a couple short videos that show lives changed in the name of Jesus.

Easter over time...

I was blessed this past Easter season to worship in a variety of places.  Palm Sunday was at Luther Memorial in Chicago with a palm procession that began in the cold Spring air outside the church.  Maundy Thursday and Good Friday were at Our Savior Lutheran in Gladwin, MI and Easter Sunrise was at Christ the King Lutheran in Gladwin, MI.

It was wonderful to join Christians in various parts of the country - and to think of those Christians through time, even way back to the very early Christians who witnessed all those events first hand.

Christ makes us new through his death and resurrection.  Good news - today and two thousand years ago too.  These times here in the 21st Century are so different than I'm used to back in the 1st Century.  But one thing remains the same - the love of God in Christ for repentant sinners.  That love makes us bold in our service to the King.  And that service to the King ends up touching the people around us, any in need.

Another blessing is seeing all the various ways people serve.  Luther Memorial in Chicago is getting involved in their local neighborhood helping feed the hungry people there.  That sounds like the kind of new ministry Wheat Ridge Ministries supports with grants in a wide variety of places around the country.