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Exploring Healing

Volume 22, Number 3 Summer 2005

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GOING DEEPER

Personal or group study ideas.
Read the articles, choose your questions!

small box Exploring Healing:
a. Read Shelly, pp. 6-14. Write down three things you believe about God's role in healing. How are your beliefs similar or different from what Shelly shares from Scripture?
b. In the Bible, look up one or more of the healing encounters listed in table one, pp. 8-13. What do you see as the most important aspect(s) of the story? Why?
c. Read one or more of the Stores of Healing on pp. 32-38. Identify a common theme(s) in the stories. What is the significance of the theme(s)?

small box Dealing with Suffering:
a. Read Stegmeir, pp. 16-20. What are specific ways you could support a client who asks, "Why is this happening?" What are things you should not do or say?
b. Read Practicing, pp. 39, 41 and FAQs in Spiritual Care, pp. 40-41. Explain in your own words why God heals or protects some but no others.

small box Discovering Nightingale:
a. Read Grypma, pp. 22-28. Why do you think Nightingale believed Christ was woman's greatest ally? What Scripture passages support this belief?
b. Why did Nightingale believe statistics help us to understand God better? How could use of statistics help in your work?
c. Nightingale initiated a health focus in nursing. How does the BIble support health promotion? How is a health focus demonstrated in your nursing care?

contents

(Select the article title to view a summary.)

3 The Heart of Healing - Editorial

6 The Mystery of Healing
Judith Allen Shelly

Nurses face tough questions about God's role in healing--for ourselves and for our clients. Shelly pinpoints six questions about healing and offers throughtful, biblical answers.

22 Florence Nightingale's Changing Image?
Sonya Grypma

In recent nursing literature, Nightingale has evolved from quintessential Christian nurse to modern-day mystic. Is this change significant? Who was Nightingale, and what did she believe?

16 Why in the World Is There Suffering?
Diane Stegmeir

If God is good and just, why does he allow suffering?

29 Can Music Help Us Heal?
Karen Sutherland

Music has been used as an adjunct to health care for centuries. Today, music therapy is linked with some unexpected results. How does music aid healing?

Stories of Healing

These nurses share five very different personal and professional experiences with healing. Yet a common thread ties their stories together.

32 The Patchwork Quilt: Healing After Sexual Abuse
Karen Parsons (pseudonym)

34 A Gift from God: Healing from Ovarian Cancer
Kristene Diggins

35 No End in Sight: Living with Chronic Pain
Kristene Diggins

36 A Grim Prognosis: Can Hope Survive?
Kristene Diggins

37 Nursing Diagnosis: Chronic Sorrow
Suzanne Martin Stricklin

Departments

5 Letters
JCN Not Living Up to Its Name, God a Spiritual Care Question?

39 Practicing

Close Class in Iraq
Lydia Battey

40 FAQs in Spritiual Care

Why Does God Protect Some and Not Others?
Judith Allen Shelly

42 Advertising

46 Resources

Healing, Spiritual Growth, Parish Nursing

48 PulseBeats

Prayer's Healing Power, Ongoing Tsunami Relief, Crossing the Privacy Line?