{"id":1112,"date":"2012-10-04T02:51:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T02:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/her-name-was-alice\/"},"modified":"2012-10-04T02:51:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T02:51:00","slug":"her-name-was-alice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/her-name-was-alice\/","title":{"rendered":"Her Name Was Alice"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a dreary South Carolina day in the fall of 2001.\u00a0 I had just left my New Testament Theology course and was wrestling with trying to understand the content which was just delivered.\u00a0 In class that day our professor was trying to land the concept of the incarnation.\u00a0 Specifically, what it meant for Jesus and second how it should impact us.\u00a0 I remember him challenging us that it was not enough to simply care for others, but rather we were to embody the very love that Jesus demonstrated to those He cared for.\u00a0 To be honest, it was an extremely hard concept for me to grasp. I knew in my heart, that many I was caring for at the time, were simply out of obligation not love.\u00a0 I understood the concept intellectually but could not practically explain how it was to be lived out.<\/p>\n

During those seminary days I drove directly from class in the morning to my job at the local hospital where I worked as a Trauma MRI technician.\u00a0 That evening it was my responsibility to scan the inpatients from the AIDS clinic on the eighth floor.\u00a0 For many of these patients they were entering their final days from battle-ling this horrible disease.\u00a0 Mid evening a patient was brought to me by the name of Alice<\/strong>. Alice was dirty and her IV was hanging out of her arm.\u00a0 It was obvious that due to her condition and no family being around that she was getting little attention from the hospital staff.\u00a0 As I had done hundred’s of times before I jumped into motion.\u00a0 I briefly cleaned her up, started a new IV and then off we were to scan her brain.\u00a0 Never once did I make eye contact!\u00a0 <\/p>\n

About mid way through the scan I needed to pull her out of the tunnel to administer contrast.\u00a0 As the table slid past me I caught a glimpse of her face.\u00a0 It was evident she had been crying.\u00a0 Up until that point Alice was simply a task.\u00a0 Something to be checked off.\u00a0 Now, she was something more.\u00a0 After placing the contrast in her arm I decided to something I had never done before.\u00a0 I took off my gloves and placed my hand on her.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This past week while reading “Who Needs Theology” by Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson I was struck by the statement, “Good theology is never content to remain on the theoretical level; it always affects life.”\u00a0 The basic premise being that theology left on paper but not integrated throughout the fabric of life is in a sense “bastard theology”<\/strong>.\u00a0 One without a point.\u00a0 While critically thinking through this statement three key themes began to emerge.<\/p>\n

Good theology which affects life…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Happens in proximity…<\/strong>\u00a0 Deeply caring for Alice could only come from physically being present.\u00a0 Touching her arm, skin to skin. Looking in her eyes, sensing her pain. Each had to happen within close proximity.\u00a0 Without close proximity we can often minister from a position of being disconnected.\u00a0 The act of being close communicated deeply within her humanity that she was valuable and as well made the very essence of her human nature real to me.\u00a0 not just an object to be studied.<\/p>\n

Happens on an emotional level…\u00a0<\/strong> Keeping our gloves on not only sterilizes us from physical contact but also keeps us from being touched emotionally.\u00a0 Many christian leaders deny the emotions of anger, sadness and fear.\u00a0 On some level we believe that to show these emotions is unsafe or even spiritually unhealthy.\u00a0 In reality, to feel is to be human.\u00a0 To minimize or deny what we feel is a distortion of what it means to be fully human. To remain emotionally detached we will cut off the potential to understand theology in its fullest capacity.<\/p>\n

Happens outside of time…\u00a0<\/strong> If we simply live hurried frenetic lives we will miss the moments where theology and life connect.\u00a0 That night in the MRI suite I had a tremendous patient load which needed to be scanned.\u00a0 For many of us there was a tendency to race the clock and see how many people could be scanned.\u00a0 Production was the name of the game.\u00a0 Time is money!\u00a0 However, when producing, names were reduced to a tag, human beings and souls were reduced to a body to be studied. To slow, step outside of time we begin to see with different eyes.<\/p>\n

Taking off the gloves…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alice’s distant stare now took on life as she looked directly into my eyes. She said, “I have not been touched by anyone not wearing gloves in over three years.”\u00a0<\/strong> With tears running down her eyes, she said, thank you for making me feel human again.\u00a0 My heart broke.\u00a0 I realized that the very principle shared in class that morning was now being played out before my very eyes.\u00a0 What was simply a job before, a task to be accomplished, was now a living being.\u00a0 One with emotions as well as friends and family members who were all about to lose someone they deeply cared for.\u00a0 I realized God was changing my heart and my theology!\u00a0 What was theoretical that morning in class was now incarnated into my soul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a dreary South Carolina day in the fall of 2001.\u00a0 I had just left my New Testament Theology course and was wrestling with trying to understand the content which was just delivered.\u00a0 In class that day our professor was trying to land the concept of the incarnation.\u00a0 Specifically, what it meant for Jesus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,198],"class_list":["post-1112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-grenz","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}