Body and Soul Medicine: Reflection on the Developing Lake Nona Medical City

[I wrote following post a year ago. After attending the "Healthy Community Symposium" at the Lake Nona YMCA this evening I decided to share it.]

I believe the church offers a critical but sometimes overlooked contribution to the story of Lake Nona's developing medical city in Orlando, Florida. The church won't be the engine that fires up new jobs in the medical city, but it must be the conscience of the science. Good work isn't good just because it produces financial wealth for a community. Good work must reflect the work of God, who is actively working to restore justice, relationships, and wholeness to all creation.

The long-term success of any city cannot be based solely on employment rates and profit margins. Success must be rooted in a larger story. The church's job is to remind people of that story.

God has done some amazing things with dirt. He made us for one thing! God gave us an inventive spirit, a desire for justice, and a longing for a healthy world. Remembering all this helps our lives and cities take on an attitude of gratitude, joy and humility.

God knows that we are prone to be impressed with our own sense of self-importance and consequently sabotage community. God knows that we too quickly resent what others have and ignore what we've been given. God knows we will forget that we are the creatures and He is the Creator. God knows we are predisposed to use our power destructively rather than constructively. And God knows His power is all that is capable of restoring all that is broken.

The church is that community of people who are called to be living proof of God's power to restore bodies and souls. To put it bluntly, Christians are really screwed up people who trust a gracious God to help us love our enemies, put others first yet treat our bodies like God's temple, attend to the suffering and restore dignity to the ignored. This is the body and soul medicine that Jesus makes possible through his resurrection from the dead and the power of the Holy Spirit. Though spiritual, this is a real world, earthy calling.

I am reminded of a prayer that Jesus taught his disciples: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." If the church is doing its job, then it should be making a difference on this earth. Because of the church, things here ought to be looking more like God intends them to be. This is the larger story in which this medical city (and every city) can find its true success.

We know there will be more jobs and more money generated (2,900 between the VA and Nemours by 2012), but how will this economic vigor contribute to the reconciliation of people and communities? How will it inspire people to care for the earth? How will it include the overlooked and the ignored in places of honor?

I'm glad to hear the church raising these kind of questions at community symposiums, coffee shops, board meetings, ball games and dinner tables. They are questions that point us toward Jesus' kind of of body and soul medicine. They are questions that will lead toward the kind of healthy community God longs for his creation.

The medical city at Lake Nona will bring new jobs and a much-needed economic boost to Central Florida. Its long-term success, however, will depend on how rooted it will be in God's hope to bring body and soul medicine to a broken world.

For the sake of healthy community, keep asking good questions church!

A Dream for the Team

Every year around this time, football teams across the country take the field for their first games. They all start the season with goals and hopes for success. The long hours of physical training, eating well, and team practices will now be put to use in the game.

I was talking to a football player today and he said the average play lasts about 5 or 6 seconds. And the average player might be part of 40 plays in a game. That's a total of about 4 minutes of intense action per game. And it's usually only about 3 or 4 plays per game that become Big Highlight Plays.

The thing that keeps coming back to me about those 3 or 4 Big Highlight Plays per game is this:
The Big Highlight Plays wouldn't be possible without the regular, routine, repetitious, sometimes boring habits that take hours every day.

No coach worth his sweat would imagine their players being ready for the Big Play without the regular, routine, repetitious and rigorous habits of football practice.

This has wonderful parallels for the Christian life.
It is the regular, routine, repetitious, sometimes boring habits that prepare us for the few Big Plays in our life.

I spoke with a man in our church whose family is facing a "Big Play" right now – unexpected costs to treat a family member's illness. The costs are not just financial. They are emotional, spiritual and even physical costs involved in this "Big Play."

Going through this "Big Play" will be difficult and challenging for this family. That's the nature of Big Plays. But this family is not unprepared for the challenge.

I've known this family for 8 years now, and they have practiced spiritual, financial and physical discipleship regularly, routinely, repetitiously and rigorously.

• They worship regularly.
  
• They have taken Disciple Bible study and other small group studies to grow in their faith.
  
• They served God through mission trips, community outreach, VBS, building the church building etc.
  
• They ordered their life in a way that they were able to give a tithe (10 percent) of their income to the church.
  
• They have no debt except for their house mortgage.
  
• They saved an emergency fund.
  

So this man tells me that he wishes he knew how this "Big Play" was going to turn out, but that their faith and the support of their church family would be more important than ever for them now. He said, "I don't want to do this but we are going to have to stop tithing 10% of our income to the church during this season of treatment. But the good news is that we are not going to go into debt. We're going to be ok."

This man and his family are spiritually, financially and physically ready for this "Big Play" that has come their way.

I dream of a church full of people who are willing to practice discipleship regularly, routinely, repetitiously and rigorously so that they are ready for the "Big Play" that comes their way and extend needed help when they see other families facing their own "Big Play."

That's my dream for the team!