Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Peran: Comment on Comment

Greetings,

Annie wrote: "I used to ask my nursing students to write a story about a time they will never forget, when they came to a totally new understanding of something they felt they understood before. This to me is peran. 

 Jesus invited his disciples to come to a totally new understanding of the life they thought they understood. I see him saying "Ah!, there is much more. Follow me. Come and see. "

Annie's comments update the invite of Jesus to journey with him to the "other side" before encountering a Storm on the Sea of Galilee. Entering into a relationship with Christ involves a Storm experience, a descent, a wounding, where the old self will never be the same.

Later in the Gospel of Mark we find the word understanding appearing in the Greek. Susnesis. (Mark 6:52)  It appears as not understanding. Even though they ask the question, Who is this?, they are not understanding the clues being given. They are continuing a journey to the "other side" with resistance. Mark names the resistance as “hardness of heart, NKJV/minds were closed, REB.” (Mark 6:52)

The invite "Come and see" (John 1:39) are the exact words in the Gospel of John. Here the main word will be (forms of the Greek word lambano) receive instead of understand in answer to the question "Who is this?" John uses receive (a gift) instead of understand (which can be seen as our accomplishment in connecting the dots). Receive implies it is not our doing except to receive. The two words are both nuances in the same unfolding journey.

Shalom, 
Marlin

Aha! With this comment and my response I see the blog as an emerging possibility. I was a distance learning facilitator with the Wayne Oates Institution from 2003 through 2009 with a seminar entitled "The Healing Power of Stories." The listening model was the art of story metaphor listening. The blog may offer an emerging possibility to exercise the same skills in a new format, conveying insights about everyday conversation for health care.

To be continued,

Marlin Whitmer,
Retired Hospital Chaplain.

Founder of the Befrienders in 1966, story listeners in a hospital setting, with potential for health care out in the community.  

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