From
Living Theology in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod
Volume 4, Number 3
Epiphany 2000
"Wellness"
What
is This Thing Called Wellness?
The term “wellness” has become popular
in recent decades. It has become a
synonym for good health, physical wellbeing and other related expressions. This issue of Let’s Talk takes a look
at wellness—what it is and what it means in the spiritual realm as well as the
physical realm.
According to Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary, the word “wellness” means “the quality or state of being in good
health esp. as an actively sought goal, as in ‘wellness clinics’ or ‘lifestyles
that promote wellness’”.
Wellness came into popular usage as
Baby Boomers developed health consciousness and had the money and time to make
physical fitness an ideal, if not an idol.
The word “wellness” caught on.
Health professionals saw the opportunity to promote a holistic (another
word created for the times) concept of health, and developed educational and
practical programs that focus on disease prevention.
In the context of this publication,
wellness has an even deeper meaning.
Here the central meaning of wellness is closely related to the heart of
God’s redemptive work in Jesus Christ, calling creation back to God and
wholeness. God created the world in
wellness. This original wellness was
lost through the fall of humanity into sin, plunging the world into a new
reality—the reality of un-wellness, of sickness in mind, body and soul.
Our writers bring insight into this
human condition of un-wellness and offer suggestions of ways that wellness
might be restored.
Father Benedict Auer, a Benedictine
monk and a poet, writes in his article, ‘“I Never Looked Up’: Wellness and Spirituality,” that most people
muddle through life with eyes cast down and feet plodding forward, ignoring the
resources which are available through “looking up.” Auer offers the understanding that a deepening spirituality is
one way to walk with God in a state of wellness. This walk includes a balanced life, moments of silence and
solitude, and often a spiritual guide or friend.
The article by Rev. Jenny Bogard, former pastor of Holy Apostles’ Lutheran Church in Hickory Hills and now on leave from call, in her article “Did Noah Get Arthritis?” asks the question, “What is wellness?” If Jesus had not told the paralytic in chapter two of Mark to get up and walk, would the man still have been healed? Pastor Bogard suffers from a chronic disease which often debilitates her, forcing her to rely on a wheelchair.
In “Health, Healing and the
Congregation” Rev. Roger Crum discusses the important role of healing stories
and worship, particularly the “The Service of the Word for Healing,” in
promoting wellness within congregations.
How God’s love, expressed through
friends and family, heals even the overwhelming grief felt in the loss of a
beloved spouse is addressed in the article, “Wholeness After Loss,” by Rev.
Beverly Conway, Pastor of Bethel Lutheran Church, Englewood, Chicago.
Sarah Lea Holstrom, a parish nurse at
Savior’s Lutheran Church in Naperville, writes that parish nurses serve the
church, the neighborhood and the community by bringing a proactive approach to
disease prevention, wellness and wholeness.
We hope you will find some nourishment
in this smorgasbord of offerings, meant to enhance your own wellness.