WELLNESS

10/29/2000
By William E. Exner


A quick story about a short exchange between friends:  He was in his late 20’s.  He was looking for work. His wife had recently given birth to their first baby.  He was waiting for the result of his General Ordination Exam. [You have to pass 7 areas of competency through this weeklong test required of persons seeking ordination in the Episcopal Church.]  Actually he and I were in the same boat, seeking ordination, expectant, yet waiting, yet stressed, yet hopeful at that time in our lives.  We were chatting about all this as good friends do.  Then, as he was preparing to climb the stairs to his apartment at the seminary, he turned to me and, “I’ll see you later, I DON’T FEEL REAL WELL’.  “Oh,” I replied, “ARE YOU COMING DOWN WITH A COLD OR SOMETHING?” “NO” – he replied – “I just don’t feel well lately”.  And it was then that it sunk in, that I realized that NOT BEING SICK DOES NOT ALWAYS MEAN WE ARE BEING WELL.  My friend had no illness; he just did not feel well.  Who do you know that fits that description?  Do you have days like that some times?

So that encounter got me thinking about what wellness is about.  And I asked myself, “Bill, WHO DO YOU KNOW WHO SEEMS WELL, WHOLE, TOGETHER, CENTERED?”  And, surprisingly enough, my list of the “wellest” folks I know consisted of:

  1. A colleague who had overcome the worst of alcoholism and was managing that illness well and was becoming more interesting and alive and happier and emotionally available to his family and friends than ever.
  2. And on my list was a great theology professor of mine who was battling cancer with verve and faith and warmth who once declared “Despite this illness, this battle has enabled me to become more whole than I have ever been.”  I know now what he meant.  Having fought that war myself, I definitely feel more WELL than in years.
  3. Also on my list of WELL people was a woman studying for the priesthood who had cerebral palsy.  She had been told her whole life “you’ll probably not be able to cut it in public school.” –SHE DID – “You’ll never make it to college” –she did – “You’ll never ever succeed in Grad School around Harvard Square ’– She did- and of course, “the priesthood is simply too demanding for someone with your disabilities.”  As it turned out, it wasn’t. In fact the last I heard of her she was a priest in Central NY and she had chained herself to a Syracuse City bus to heighten the city’s awareness of the need to provide suitable lifts on busses so the disabled could get around. –

And my list went on and on of those I considered well.  It became apparent that the people

I respected so much because they exuded a WELLNESS and Wholeness about them (a) all had their battles in life to face, and to manage AND (b) all, every single one of them were propelled by the ever present power of faith, GOD’S FAITH IN THEM AND THEIR’S IN GOD which helped them to inherit, to gain that sense of wellness –Ok ness which transcends stress, calamity and sickness –to know inside of them that peace which passes mere understanding - that power of the living God.

In St. Mark’s Gospel today we read about Bartimaeus, the blind beggar whose life was one of sitting on the dirty roadside of busy Jericho in hope that some good soul would give him a crust of daily bread or spare change enough to help him merely survive from day to day. The inference is that for years (-in fact his whole life) he was unable to see the light of day, he just barely got by “by getting’ by”.

It wasn’t so much that he was sick – he wasn’t.  He was blind, and he was poor, and outcast and he was, up until the day he encountered Christ, miserable and resigned.  But you see –and I do not mean with your eyes – I’m asking you to see with your soul for the moment. – You SEE, SOMETHING PROFOUND HAPPENED TO Bartimaeus THAT DAY OF ENCOUNTER WITH CHRIST.   WHAT WAS IT THAT ALLOWED JESUS TO SAY TO BARTIMAEUS AT THE END, “Go now, YOUR FAITH HAS MADE YOU WELL?!” – IT WAS JUST THAT.  FAITH AND BELIEF.  NOT SOMEBODY ELSE’S faith or belief.  HIS. 

For you see Wellness, wholeness is never about somebody else’s faith and belief.  It’s all about yours.  Second hand religion or secondhand faith can educate and inform you, just like hearing stories about my friends, or Bartimaeus -> but WHAT MAKES ONE WHOLE AND WELL IS THE 1ST HAND DISCOVERY THAT YOU CAN CALL UPON GOD AND EXERCISE YOUR OWN SENSE OF HOPE TO BE FAITHFUL AND TO BE HOPEFUL, and then your eyes will be opened freshly, too. 

We say things like “seeing is believing”.  But you know Bartimaeus called out to God for help, strength and mercy when he was still stone blind and in spite of those who “sternly ordered him to be quiet.”  Sitting on that roadside He had just heard rumors that God in Christ was somewhere near, he couldn’t see it to believe it – it could even have been a cruel joke – but no it was the man’s own faith decision in that moment to ask, to call out, to take the leap of faith personally that got Jesus’ attention and respect and led to Bartimaeus’ well being in the end.  Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. But you gotta seek and knock and call.

A great writer said that life does its thing and takes its toll and presents its challenges to every character in the human story to you and to me, but it is only the HERO who finally takes a stand and acts out of conviction of faith no matter the result or how deep the need.  The HERO is the one who acts by faith.

Friends that’s where our wellness begins – when we stand by faith and act in faith for our well being, and the well being of those around us. That’s when a victim becomes a hero.  That’s when we begin to see.  And I tell you this day that the healing, inspiring power of Christ is fully present and nearby.  Can you see my point?  Or do you sit in your blindness?  Likewise, as one whose own doctors, nurses and caregivers said to me many times “Your faith and spirituality and drive have helped you heal a great deal”, I invite you today, both to take good care of yourself spiritually and physically AND to learn from Bartimaeus to ask God for the help you need, and for the compassion and direction you seek SO THAT YOUR FAITH MY MAKE YOU WELL, REALLY WELL, “Well-er” than you have ever been before. – Experience your faith 1st hand.   For finally, as mystic Meister Eckhard said, “Trust in God so your soul and body can become a proper home wherein God may operate”. 

May your faith make you well.      Amen.