Spiritual Hotspotting

Can an innovative approach to dealing with people's physical health translate into the spiritual realm?

I recently watched a relatively short (13 min) video about a doctor named Jeffrey Brenner in New Jersey who has taken upon himself the task of dealing with the sickest people in his city of Camden.  He found these people through analyzing medical billing data and by doing so mapped out "hot spots" where people incurring the highest medical costs lived.  He developed the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers as a means of helping improve these people's lives.  While innovation is definitely needed in the healthcare system, should we implement such innovation in our dealings with people's spiritual lives?

First off, how would we determine people's level of spirituality?  Dr. Brenner found his high cost patients through analyzing medical billing records.  Similar records showing spirituality simply do not exist.  Sure, we could go such organizations such as The Association of Religion Data Archives and find all sorts of data on religious attendance and adherence, but as we probably all know, a high level of spiritual health and regular church attendance do not always go together.  We could go to the impoverished, high-crime areas in hope of finding those with the greatest spiritual need, but as I mentioned in a previous post, Jesus did not have many positives to say about the spiritual health of rich people.  Simply put, it is virtually impossible to get an accurate picture of someone's spiritual health by focusing on the externals.  Sure, a man who systematically abuses his wife is definitely not one who has a high level of spirituality, but Jesus made it quite clear in His famous Sermon on the Mount that it is what is on the inside that matters most to God.  So, since our lack of the ability to accurately determine spiritual health (even, oftentimes our own) prevents us from spiritual hotspotting, what about the One Who is able to accurately determine spiritual health, does He target only high-need individuals?

No, and Yes.  Jesus was the best representation of how God deals with people, and we read about Him dealing with everyone from the profligate Samaritan woman to the well-behaved Nicodemus.  God does not demonstrate a favoritism in regards to how He deals with people.  So, then where does the "Yes" come from?  The "Yes" comes from the fact that "all have sinned" and therefore all need to be saved.  "All" means "all", from the person who systematically commits open sins, to the person whose sinning resides only between their ears, nobody can save themselves, and therefore everybody need a Savior.

So if the temptation comes to deal with the spiritual needs of only a specific group, remember "hotspotting" may work for the physical life but does not work for the spiritual life.

Featured Post: Clutter and Newton’s First Law of Motion

This Featured Post comes from Erin Doland's blog Unclutterer, which "is the blog about getting and staying organized. A place for everything, and everything in its place is our gospel."

Clutter and Newton’s First Law of Motion

When uncluttering your home and office, chances are you’ll come across many objects you’ve thought about getting rid of dozens (maybe hundreds) of times, but never did.

For example, I’m allergic to Neosporin, yet I found six tubes of it when we were packing up for our move. I had regularly looked at those tubes in different parts of our house over the years — the medicine chest, the emergency kit in the kitchen, the medical kit in my gym bag — yet I didn’t get rid of them whenever I saw them and thought, “I should get rid of those.” I’m also not very sure how we came to own the ointment. My best guess is that my husband brought a couple into the house, maybe one or two came with a packaged medical kit, and one could have been left here by someone else.

In the case of the Neosporin, and all clutter, I believe Newton’s First Law of Motion can explain how it lingers for years in our spaces. An object (clutter) will stay at rest until a force (motivation) of equal or greater value acts upon it. The thought, “I should get rid of that,” is not a force of equal or greater value than the clutter. As unfortunate as it is, thoughts cannot move clutter. We can’t wish away our unwanted objects. We actually have to do something about them physically.

The other case of Newton’s First Law also applies here. An object (me) will continue in motion until a force (motivation) of equal or greater value acts upon it. Usually when I would see the Neosporin, it would be because someone or myself was injured. I was on a path to take care of the injury, not stop and deal with clutter. Then later, when maybe I thought about the Neosporin again, I could have been on a path to a meeting or to make dinner or to relax and watch a movie with my family. The motivation to clear the clutter wasn’t equal or greater than whatever else it was I wanted to be doing.

The only way to deal with the clutter in our lives is to break the patterns of inertia and muster up the motivation to do something about all the stuff we don’t want or need.

Surprisingly, the best way to create force (motivation) of equal or greater value to change the course of our clutter is to simply acknowledge that we have the power (velocity) to change the situation. After we think, “I should get rid of that,” the next thought should immediately be, “and to get rid of it I have to take action, now.” Then, take the action to get rid of the object. (Unless, of course, you’re dealing with an emergency. Deal with the emergency and then come back when you’re on a path to watch television or something equally benign.) Knowing that the object will not move itself and requires a force to act upon it can go a long way in helping you to clear the clutter you encounter regularly in your life.

It can be helpful to have five boxes in your laundry room or at the base of your closet when you’re just getting started on this process. Have one box for items to be returned to other people, a second box for items you wish to sell or Freecycle, the third box for charitable donations, the fourth should be a trash can, and the fifth box a recycling bin. When you come across a piece of clutter, pick it up and carry it to the closet. Decide which of the boxes is most appropriate for the piece of clutter, and then go back to whatever you were doing. When one of the boxes is full, deal with the items in all of the boxes. Take out the trash and recycling, drop off items to charity and to friends, and list the items you wish to sell or Freecycle.

The easier your system to handle clutter, the less force (motivation) it takes to get the unwanted objects (clutter) out of your home.

Red Monkeys

As in many things in life, some keys to dealing with temptation are so obvious we tend to overlook them.

I have been reading through the book Faith that Works by Morris Venden (a full review will come sometime next month), and it has gotten me think about many topics.  Recently, the book has been talking about temptation, and it has reminded me of aspects related to temptation and sin that have been logged in my memory and were gathering dust on the shelves of my mind.

I remember back in high school, a teacher of mine was trying to convey to the class the perils of over-thinking about a task.  The teacher told the class a story about red monkeys, and said whatever we do, do not think about the red monkeys.  The concept was that the more you try and not think about something, the more you actually think about it.  I remember one of my classmates saying that she wouldn't think about the monkeys, and she didn't regardless of how many times they were mentioned throughout the class period.  Now what do red monkeys have to do with temptation?

Simple, she couldn't care less about the red monkeys.  They were of no interest to her, and hence she was not tempted to think about them.  Now if the teacher had told the class not to think about what we were going to have for lunch, and it was the last period before noon, then it might have had some effect especially if the aforementioned student had skipped breakfast. Temptation works in much the same way.

For example, I am not tempted to get involved in insider trading, especially the illegal variety (it wasn't until today that I realized that there was a legal way to do insider trading, shows how much I know on the subject) because I am not even close to being in a position to even consider it.  However, I may be tempted to eat that second piece of cake even though I could easily do without it.  The point being that the strength of a given temptation is directly related to our exposure to, and choices regarding, whatever object, action, or way of thinking is tempting us.  So then, how can we be free from the temptation, and, more importantly, the sin that can result?  The answer is quite simple, yet often difficult to implement.

We need to come to the point where we couldn't care less about whatever is tempting us.  How does that happen?  Do we simply grit our teeth and make the right moral choice when confronted by something tempting?  For many people that answer to that question would be a simple "Yes", but by doing so they would be walking into a very dangerous trap.  The trap of doing things with our own power.

Now if even Jesus, the Son of God, did not do things on His own, what hope do we have of succeeding on our own?  The only way to ward off temptation's power is to be so closely connected with God, so intensely focused on what He focuses on, that we couldn't care less about those temptations.  If we do that, we will even go beyond not caring and get to the point where those temptations are repulsive.  The words to an old hymn say it well.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

So when we find ourselves confronted by temptations, think more about Jesus, less about ourselves, and by all means, do not think about the red monkeys.