Staff Sharing

Rev. Sandy Elfring, Parish Visitor

Praying with Our Bodies, for Our Bodies

Dear People,

On Sunday, April 20, 2008, I began our time of prayer with Paul’s words in Philippians. In chapter 4, Paul says “Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

As many of you know, I am struggling with a frozen shoulder. When a shoulder is frozen, there is a contracture of the joint capsule; the sides of the capsule are stuck together and thus the bone can not move down into the capsule and the arm cannot go up. Just when my shoulder became frozen, we don’t know. But, I protected that arm for four months before the surgery to replace the ball in my shoulder because of the pain; and now those protection devices are deeply ingrained in my neurological system.

For two months I have been working with an excellent therapist, both of us working very hard—and quite painful work for me. But, we have made some progress. A couple of weeks ago the pain was worse than it had been for quite awhile. Julie Dix told me about an article that Rev. Laurie Heller, District Superintendent of the Grand Rapids District had written. Laurie broke her elbow several weeks ago, but it was healing and the pain was much less. Then, on her way home from a denominational meeting in Lansing a few weeks ago she realized that her elbow was aching more than it had in the past several weeks. She writes, “It seemed odd since I hadn’t done anything to aggravate the injury. Then I got it. My elbow was simply mirroring the state of my heart.” She went on to describe what her heart was aching about.

When Julie told me what Laurie had written, I immediately knew that my shoulder was carrying some of the stress and pain of my spirit. Some of my stress was work related, some related to the fact that my daughter was coming for a visit and my house wasn’t ready, and there was pain and stress with the therapy.

Julie Dix also introduced me to a book titled Prayer and Our Bodies by Flora Slosson Wuellner. This book has guided prayer meditations. One that I use often includes thinking of a part of my body that is under stress and in pain (my shoulder). She says, “Touch it if you can, thank it both for undertaking healing tasks for your whole body and for helping carry the hurts and burdens of your spirit. Thank God for this bodily part, its hard work, and ask to be shown how to listen to its signals and how you can best help it in its work.” I use this prayer meditation as I static stretch my arm.

This whole experience reminds me again of how wonderfully we are created—mind, body and spirit all connected. As I go about my daily tasks, I pray to understand what my body is trying to tell me. May you listen to your body as well

Shalom,    

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