Staying Spiritually Healthy

Apr 7

by Fr. Dan Nobles

A Place for Spiritual Care

“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” I am familiar with this cry. I’m sure that you are too. These are more than words on a page. I’ve experienced the internal turmoil of my soul: the unknowns, shattered plans, and broken rhythms of the most basic routine all seem to form an ever-constricting knot somewhere deep in my soul. I doubt that I’m alone in these spiritual pains. The psalmist’s words can take me off guard during these times. How did God know how I would be feeling right now? Why did God preserve the words of Psalm 42 and 43 for 3,000 years so that we could hear them now and know that we are not alone? The answer is that God is much more in tune with our spiritual needs that we realize.

Why Spiritual Care Matters

The monks at St. Augustine’s monastery pray these words every Tuesday morning in their little monastery in Oxford, Michigan. These psalms are part of the daily prayers known as the Liturgy of the Hours (or more literally, the work of the hours). This liturgy is part of a monk’s daily rhythm of spiritual disciplines to grow their communion with God, strengthen their soul, and build their community. Our spirit requires care just as much as our physical bodies. Consider how we intentionally seek personal spiritual care. How healthy would our bodies be if we nourished, exercised, and rested our physical bodies like we nourish, exercise, and rest our spirits?

Consider for a moment how you care for your body. Personally, I celebrate meals, daily walks, and sleep. Eating is a really important part of my day. I like going outdoors and seeing God’s creation, hearing the birds, seeing squirrels and rabbits, and smelling the freshness after a rain. I value my rest. After so many years of military duties where sleep deprivation was almost a badge of pride, I enjoy the peace of quiet rest and sleep. My spirit needs the same. Your spirit needs it, too. Spiritual care is not just another task to accomplish; it comes the very rhythm of living. We can incorporate spiritual care into our daily life, and if we don’t, we’re incorporating spiritual neglect, possibly even abuse into our days.

Serving as a hospital chaplain, I visited many patients who suffered physically and mentally, but their afflictions often stemmed from spiritual illness. When those patients began to pay attention to their spiritual selves, they began to find strength in their physical and mental selves, too. For example, in the Behavioral Health unit, we were part of the hospital, an institution designed for diagnosing, treating, and searching for healing of the physical body; we were a specialized ward within the larger institution, where the care team sought to diagnose, treat, and heal the mind’s emotional ills, and the spirit’s woes. All were seeking the health of the patient. Imogene King, pioneer of modern nursing, defines health as a “dynamic life experience” in which one adjusts to personal circumstances and “achieves maximum potential for daily living.”[1] We can have aches and pains, but we discover health when we care for our whole being: body, mind, and spirit.

I discovered that when each aspect of our being is properly treated, we see remarkable healing to the entire person. Just as our physical body need feeding, exercising, and protection, our mind and spirit requires similar care. It is critical to consider the needs of each facet of our being, while recognizing the inseparability of all three. We are triune beings, created in the image of the Trinity of God.

Fatigued and unhealthy bodies adversely affect our emotions and challenge our spiritual well-being. Likewise, emotional distress often leads to physical illness. In fact, the American Psychological Association discovered in a 2011 study that as much as 92% of chronic diseases originate in stress.[2] Our bodies have a built-in alarm system. When we experience stress, our adrenal glands kick into high gear. Our brains generate the hormone cortisol to help us respond to the situation at hand. When we live in stress long-term, the alarm system leaves our bodies with anxiety, depression, headaches, heart disease, memory problems, weight gain, and much more.[3]

Spiritual distress seeps into our bodies and minds until we cry out with the Psalmist: “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer” (Psalm 3:3-4). To the contrary, spiritual health can radiate through us. We all know what we’re basically supposed to do to be physically healthy—eat nutritious food (and cut the junk food), exercise, get enough sleep. The hard part is actually doing those things. Our spiritual health is similar. You’re likely already familiar with basic spiritual care—things like reading Scripture and prayer (confession, intercession, contemplation).

What I didn’t recognize for many years was why spiritual disciplines really matter. I knew the churchy platitudes that I’d heard repeated, but it took me far too long to discover to why these disciplines really matter to my soul. Especially during times of isolation when I’m left alone, they nourish my spirit through communion with God. As I exercise a daily rhythm, really practicing these things and not merely preaching them, my spirit is strengthened. When I rest spiritually, contemplatively stilling my spirit to know that God is God, my spirit is healed.

“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” The psalmist doesn’t leave us in turmoil. He asks the question four times. Each time he offers this answer, “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” Faith is the substance of the things we hope for: God is that hope. He nourishes, strengthens, and gives rest to your spirit. Take him up on it.

[1] Imogene M. King, A Theory for Nursing: Systems, Concepts, Process (New York: Wiley, 1981).

[2] https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2011/final-2011.pdf (accessed April 1, 2020).

[3] See for examples https://onbeing.org/programs/esther-sternberg-stress-and-the-balance-within/ and https://www.stress.org/stress-aging-and-telomeres.