Trinity, Unity, and Dischord

In a Bible study I was in a while back we were discussing the Trinity.  If you are unfamiliar, the Christian view of God is that there is one God in three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Sounds like a contradiction right?  Or a creative play on words to make a religion that would sound on the surface to be polytheistic still monotheistic.  Or just strange.  And I'm aware that this is one major area where Muslims believe Christians have missed the boat - big time.

But lately I've been thinking that the idea of trinity makes a lot more sense than it seems to on the surface.  Because without realizing it, we all live in a trinitarian (yes, that is a word that Christians made up) reality.  What I mean is, us humans are actually a trinity in and of ourselves.  We have three distinct selves that are interdependent and inseparable, yet distinct in nature and function.  Our intellectual being, our emotional being, and our physical being.  It's impossible to draw lines where one ends and another begins, because they are necessarily dependent on each other.  We need the brain to have a mind and chemicals to feel emotions, and yet the brain is not the mind, and chemicals are not emotions.  I think this is the best way to explain God.  He is not three separate persons just as I am not three separate persons.  But within His nature are three distinct persons, just as within my nature there are three distinct persons.  Which would make sense if the Genesis writer was correct in stating that God made people in His own likeness.

The thing with God is that He has unity within His persons.  In an ancient speech to the nation of Israel were spoken the words: "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."  And the word 'one' that was used in the Hebrew was a word often used to refer to the unity of more than one person.  They then go on to say, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength." Be unified within yourself as God is unified within Himself. Within our persons, we are often at war.  We may think a certain way about something, feel another, and act in even another way.  We often feel ways we know we shouldn't and act in ways we feel we shouldn't.  We are so often in disharmony with ourselves. As the apostle Paul says, "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." (Romans 7:15)  But if ever you meet a person whose thoughts, feelings, and actions all agree - you have most likely met someone who has changed or is changing their corner of the world.

The Christian teaching is that God came down to us in order to reconcile us to Himself - and in so doing to reconcile our selves internally to each other.  To bring our mind, body, and spirit into agreement and harmony through loving Him - our Source of unity and harmony within the paradox of trinity.

Yearning To Breathe Free

"Give me your tired, your poor

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

I know I'm not the only one who went to bed the other night with a heavy heart and tears brimming in my eyes after seeing the heart wrenching picture of a little Syrian boy, laying as though sleeping, washed up from the sea. His short life and tragic death have issued a wake up call to the world on the horrific and desperate plight of the Syrian people.

As a Christian, I'm well aware of the tensions and arguments within my faith.  We disagree with each other on evolution and gay marriage and the specifics of how you should be baptized, and plenty of other things. But if there is anything that we have no room to disagree on, it's how God demands we treat the vulnerable.  Throughout old and new testaments in the Bible there is a clear ultimatum that we are to care for the poor, the stranger, the orphan and the widow (society's most vulnerable). And Jesus tells us if we don't love these people, we never loved him. Period.

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me."

Matthew 25: 41-45

I was deeply bothered by news stories a while back of our fellow country men protesting the refugees on our southern borders, fleeing the violence in Latin America.  As Americans there is plenty we disagree on - but we shouldn't disagree on this. If there is one thing America is, it is a land of refugees.  In my family my ancestors came here fleeing famine. In my husband's family they came fleeing religious persecution.  I am the offspring of refugees. And there's a good chance you are too.  America is that place people come looking for hope, looking for escape, looking for a chance to live, to breathe free.  If there is a story that should resonate with us as a people, it should be the story of the refugee.

So don't look away.  Maybe we can't change the circumstances that are perpetuating this great humanitarian crisis, but there are things we can do.  Locally, World Vision (wvi.org) is working tirelessly on behalf of Syrian children. You can sign a petition for Syrian refugees to be resettled in the U.S.   https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/authorize-and-resettle-syrian-refugees-us.  You can shop - a friend of ours is donating all the proceeds of his photography sales to the crisis (http://www.kurtrahncreative.com/blog/buy-art-help-syrian-refugee).  We can care and learn more about how to support and befriend refugees arriving in our communities, wherever they may be from.  World concern is one great organization set up to aid refugees arriving locally in the Seattle area.  Just don't look away. As Americans, to harden our hearts to these people is to deny our own heritage.  As Christians, it's to deny Jesus himself.  So let's lift our lamps.

Tunnel Vision

Tunnel vision. All you can see is what's directly in front of you - everything in the periphery, no matter how important, is merely a blur.  Tunnel vision is a common plague for new nurses. You are so new, and overwhelmed, and unexperienced, and a little bit terrified, that sometimes all you are able to focus on is the basic tasks. Everything else, no matter how important, blurs uselessly in the periphery. When I first started nursing I had a serious case of tunnel vision. I knew all the basic tasks I needed to accomplish in a shift, and I could just scrape by... as long as I wasn't thrown any curve balls.  One distinct memory took place my first year working on a medical unit, while delivering my morning medications. I brought in a gentleman's medications, only to find him in the shower, hospital gown half on, trapped by the IV wires running from his arm to his IV pole, covered extensively in feces.  The poor man had his full faculties but a bad case of a C-Diff infection, which can cause sudden and explosive diarrhea. So here he was, standing exposed and humiliated, obviously and awkwardly trying to salvage his dignity, and what did I do? I held out my little cup of medications and a cup of water so he could take them.  Right there, in the shower, feces and dignity slipping down the drain with the running water.  My overwhelmed little nursey mind just couldn't detour around needing to deliver my medications in that fragile 1/2 hour window.  His expression certainly followed me home that night.

Tunnel vision can have more dangerous implications.  It can blind you to those subtle clues that your patient's condition is deteriorating. You can fail to prioritize vital tasks over trivial ones. You can have a hard time thinking in terms of "this is important, this can wait," as you brain just does a "task task task" kind of a hopscotch.  One of the few cures for tunnel vision is experience.  As you gain comfort and then competence in your role and your sense of being overwhelmed diminishes, suddenly the light expands and you can see so much you didn't see before.

I think this condition can befall us in our every day existence as well.  I've noticed it crop up in my parenting.  There are so many day to day tasks to push through every day, that sometimes all I can see is cooking, laundry, muddy footprints, messy rooms, empty fridge, and I can easily forget the things I actually want to accomplish with my kids. The things I want to teach them, the atmosphere of joy and love I want to facilitate.   What will matter more later? That I always kept the house clean but I was often irritable? Or that I was generally joyful and kind, even when someone decided randomly to pee in the trash can instead of the adjoining toilet? (Oh you little boys...) In the first story of my patient in the shower, it was more important for me to quickly and graciously help my patient through his embarrassing circumstances than for me to get my medications checked off on time, but in the moment I couldn't see it. And too many times in those other moments of my life, I can't see the forest for the trees.

In nursing, when things get overwhelming (as they generally do) we have to teach ourselves to take a step back and ask, "what is most important here?" We have to teach ourselves to begin to be able to look for that big picture, not losing vital clues and fragile moments in the fray of our busyness. In life, in parenting, it's equally important when things get overwhelming (as they generally do), to teach ourselves the same thing. Take a step back. Ask yourself what is most important here, and what can I let slip this time? Because timely medication delivery is only important to a certain point. A clean house is only important to a certain point. But there's generally a bigger picture in play, and if we don't stop ourselves we will probably miss it.