Dear trekker,
My two month healing sojourn in Florida has ended. I will have returned to Colorado by the time you read this month’s offering to trekkers worldwide.
Am I healed from Parkinson’s disease with which I was diagnosed approximately 13 months ago? Yes and no! I have learned much about myself, the disease known as Parkinson’s, and been given tools to aid and encourage needed change in my life. A truism is our past need not define us! Isn’t it basically true for all trekkers…if any man be in Christ he (she) is a new creation. Old things have passed away… all things have become new” (II Corinthians 5:17). Parkinson’s I have, but Parkinson’s disease need not have me!
The most amazing thing I have learned at Utopia Wellness Clinic in Oldsmar, Florida is that the very concept of disease is a breakdown or misuse of the body God put our spirit into. And body, soul and spirit, if not working in harmony as God intends, will suffer problems! We must own our behavior and breakdowns…and yes, fix ourselves, before we can help others. Healing, therefore, is from the inside out. There are no quick fixes when the body, soul and spirit triumvirate are out of sync.
Though a medical clinic, Utopia recognizes the creative genius of God when he made man in His own image. Harmony and unity are the glue that holds us together individually and equally corporately in a culture. Disease is dis – ease. Something is not working right, not at ease. My experience with Utopia has taken me back (at 87 years old) to the basics of “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).
I have been under stress in recent years as frail wife (who was promoted to Glory March 2021) suffered through deterioration of her body. Stress has taken its toll on me. Stress is to Parkinson’s as sprinkled kerosene is to a flame. It may not have started the fire, but it fuels it. On the plus side, I have discovered I can end hand tremors by simply relaxing my whole body!
So…as a follow-on to last month’s MEN, what worthy goals could trekkers be pursuing, is this month’s theme. I turn to Paul’s encouraging letter to the Philippian Church for instruction. (Trekker, may I suggest you pick up your personal Bible now and read the four chapters (10 minutes) to set the stage before finishing this month’s MEN.) Paul’s supreme goal in life was singular… to deepen and intensify his relation to Christ. But the supreme goal of Paul was to be like Christ. Time and again I have reminded us all we are to be “little Christs,” Jesus with skin on in our world. To do so, we must have the mind/attitude of Christ (see Philippians 2:5-11). The incarnate Jesus was humility personified! When we know Jesus, we know it’s not about us, it is about Jesus. Time and again the Lord spoke that He only did what the father told him to do (John 5:19). So we need likewise to revere and reflect Jesus! I find myself reciting quite often a bit of a verse I learned years ago: “We are writing a gospel, a chapter each day, by the deeds that we do, and the words that we say. Men read what we write, distorted or true! Now tell me “What is the gospel according to you?”
If to be “like Christ” is the goal, how do we get there? We’ve got to know Christ, trekker. Someday we’ll know as we are known, Paul tells the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13:12). Today, knowing is in part, but it can progress! What we say and do is a direct result of what is in our mind. Therefore, the more we are thirsty for Christ (e.g. memorizing scripture), the more likely we become like Christ in our life of actions. So to know Christ is key…to continue to know Him better as we gain knowledge of Christ is best (II Peter 3:18).
No doubt Philippians 3:10 is key in our thirst for knowledge of Christ: “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering, becoming like him in his death.” This phrase, “the power of His resurrection,” is mind, never body. We find it difficult to grasp! Life from death is divine. Human beings don’t rise from the dead! Jesus’ resurrection is the most awesome event in history. Mortal man was not involved; God did it! What power! As all trekkers know, Romans 8:11 is one of my most often quoted verses of scripture: “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you!”
The “fellowship of his suffering” is even harder to grasp. How can there be fellowship in the suffering of Jesus? Did he not go through this alone? He felt alone when he declared, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Perhaps those trekkers who have been betrayed by family and/or friends can more readily identify with Jesus’ sufferings. One such trekker told me when feeling betrayed, “I know God never forsakes me.” That is fellowship, is it not?
Do we seek suffering or approval of others? That’s an interesting postulate! Can we suffer in intercession for others? Should we? Seeking to know the fellowship of suffering for and with others (beyond the perfunctory, “I’m sorry”) surely is a charitable, loving goal. Jesus felt suffering and compassion for the accused, downtrodden of his day. Hopefully, we can identify with Him in the battle for truth for and with others.
“To know Christ and make him known” is a valid and good catch phrase which may well sum up the goal of a trekker. Can we, with Paul, suffer the loss of all things, and count them but dung, that we may win Christ (Philippians 3:2-8)? I hope I can in the dark hours of life, as well as rejoice in him daily…another message of Philippians. God bless each of us in our pursuit of knowing and becoming like Jesus!
Running the race,
Jim Meredith
