SPECTRUM OF LIGHT
TRUST
A firm belief or confidence in the honesty, integrity, reliability, justice etc. of another person or thing.
Faith
Confident expectation, anticipation, or hope.
Something entrusted to one’s care, charge or duty.
To rely or depend on.
TRUST
WHAT RESEARCH SAYS
In 2006, Stephen Covey released his book, “The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything.” A few of his insightful statements are noted below as food for thought:
We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior.
There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world—one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love. On the other hand, if developed and leveraged, that one thing has the potential to create unparalleled success and prosperity in every dimension of life. Yet, it is the least understood, most neglected, and most underestimated possibility of our time. That one thing is TRUST.
Low trust causes friction, whether it is caused by unethical behavior or by ethical but incompetent behavior (because even good intentions can never take the place of bad judgment). Low trust is the greatest cost in life and in organizations, including families. Low trust creates hidden agendas, politics, interpersonal conflict, interdepartmental rivalries, win-lose thinking, defensive and protective communication—all of which reduce the speed of trust. Low trust slows everything—every decision, every communication, and every relationship.
In May 2017, John Colmers, a Vice President at John Hopkins University and Chair of the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission, said, “Change happens at the speed of Trust. In these days of intense uncertainty and severe funding threats, trust is not easy to come by.” His observation came before entering into a global pandemic.
An echo heard across our country and around the globe is that we are living in times unlike anything many can remember. People are questioning what they can believe and who they can trust. There’s a deep divide on what people see as the path forward. Underlying the surface of current circumstances are pivotal philosophical questions that shape beliefs, values, worldview and how we make meaning of personal experiences. A few examples would be, is there a God; how did life originate, what is truth; who or what can I put my faith in (in other words, who/what do I trust); personal freedom and who or what am I accountable to? These questions may not always sit at the forefront of our thoughts, but they are part of the matrix of our worldview and unique identify. As the L.I.G.H.T. acronym suggests, how we address these questions ripples out into every corner of our lives with impact on well-being, quality of life, relationships, purpose, and destiny. Through the ages, answers to these questions have called upon faith—faith in God or faith in science, faith in progress, faith in human invention, etc. Faith and trust are often used interchangeably. We will look briefly at what research has to say about the benefits of trust/faith as expressed through church attendance and social capital.
Tyler VanderWeele and John Siniff Harvard University (reported in USA Today/Opinion/October 28, 2016)
“If one could conceive of a single elixir to improve the physical and mental health of millions of Americans—at no personal cost—what value would you place on it? Going a step further, if research quite conclusively showed that when consumed just once a week, this concoction would reduce mortality by 20% to 30% over a 15-year period, how urgently would we want to make it publicly available? The good news is that this elixir—religion, and more specifically regular church attendance—is already in reach of most Americans. In fact, there’s a good chance it’s just a short drive away.”
Professor VanderWeele and his colleagues at Harvard University have been conducting research on the connection between health and religion for over 20 years. The research points in one direction; attending religious services brings about better physical and mental health. Attending church at least once a week versus not at all, results in significantly lowering risk of dying over the next 15 years. These results have been replicated in enough studies and different populations to be considered reliable.
At the time of this research, nearly half of Americans (2 in 5) reported attending a religious service in the past week. Findings from the Nurses’ Health Study underscore the importance of social support, an important element built into attendance of religious services. However, that only accounts for about a quarter of the effect of church attendance. Other important mechanisms have to do with behavioral norms and development of self-control, such as those attending services being less likely to smoke. Church attendance affects mental health, with lower rates of depression, greater optimism and protection against suicide. Church goers report a greater sense of purpose and meaning, greater likelihood of a stable marriage, greater charitable giving, more robust volunteering and civic engagement. The effects are profound across several domains of life.
Today, a greater percentage of Americans are choosing no religion at all, with subsequent erosion of religious institutions. Church attendance is seen as outdated. Roughly half of Americans who believe in God do not regularly attend services. The research indicates that private or solitary spirituality practice does not show the same benefit as being in the pews. It is church attendance that strongly predicts health; something about communal religious participation appears to be essential, powerful and quite different from solitary spirituality. The science does not endorse one faith over another, but the compelling benefits afford an open invitation to weigh the value of church attendance among personal priorities. Where else do people come together to cast a spiritual vision around the centrality of kindness, love, and peace, embracing not only church members, but flowing into all circles of life. The combination of teachings, relationships, and practices over time gradually alter behavior, create meaning, alleviate loneliness, and shape a person’s life beyond the capacity of research to document.
A Vanderbilt Study
People who attend services at a church, synagogue or mosque are less stressed and live longer, according to new research from Vanderbilt University. According to the study, middle-aged (ages 40 to 65) adults – both men and women – who attend church or other houses of worship reduce their risk for mortality by 55 percent.
The study, “Church Attendance, Allostatic Load and Mortality in Middle-Aged Adults,” was published May 16 in PLOS ONE, a multidisciplinary open access journal, using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. The data are available to the public. Bruce is the main author of the study with Keith Norris, professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. There are nine other co-authors.
The researchers analyzed subjects’ attendance at worship services, mortality and allostatic load. Allostatic load is a physiological measurement of factors including cardiovascular (blood pressure, cholesterol-high density lipoprotein ration and homocysteine), nutritional/inflammatory (albumin, C-reactive protein) and metabolic (waist-hip ratio, glycated hemoglobin) measures. The higher the allostatic load, the more stressed an individual was interpreted as being.
Of the 5,449 people of all races and both sexes who were surveyed, 64 percent were regular worshipers, Bruce said. Non-worshipers had significantly higher overall allostatic load scores and higher prevalence of high-risk values for three of the 10 markers of allostatic load than did church-goers and other worshipers. The effects of attendance at worship services remained after education, poverty, health insurance and social support status were all taken into consideration, Bruce said. The study did not address the effects of frequency of worship.
Harvard Study: Going to Church Boosts Health
In All Health Watch, Anti-Aging, Featured Article, Longevity by INH Research May 29, 2016
Going to church dramatically improves health. In a 20-year study, Harvard scientists found that women who went to religious services twice a week were one-third less likely to die compared to non-attendees. The study included data on more than 75,000 U.S. women between the ages of 46 and 71.
You might be thinking that people who go to church have better health because they are less likely to smoke, drink to excess, or partake in other unhealthy vices. But the researchers adjusted the data to account for this. They also adjusted for differences in diet, exercise, weight, mental health, and race. This allowed them to isolate church attendance as a variable. The denomination of the church did not matter. Professor Tyler VanderWeele led the study, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Even occasional church-goers have a mortality risk that is 13% lower than non-goers. The research did not specifically look at men. The research was published in the May 16 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.
The Harvard study confirms other research on beneficial health effects from faith:
A Duke University study found religiously active people have lower blood pressure.
People with religious faith have less mental illness, according to another Duke study.
People who attend church once a week or more are less likely to be hospitalized, according to a study published in the Southern Medical Journal.
Members of prayer groups have lower heart attack risk, a 2005 study found.
Church attendance is a statement about personal philosophy, values, and trust/faith. Everyone has a philosophy, values, beliefs, and is putting faith/trust in something. It’s important to know ourselves well enough to understand how our perspective influences our choices and goals, as well as its impact on health and well-being.
Research by Daniel E. Hall, MD, MDiv; Religious Attendance: More Cost-Effective Than Lipitor?
Weekly attendance at religious services accounts for an additional 2-3 life years compared with 3-5 years for physical exercise and 2.5 to 3. 5 life years for statin-type agents. The approximate cost per life-year gained was $2,000 and $6,000 for regular exercise; $3,000 and $10,000 for regular religious attendance; and between $4,000 and $14,000 for statin-type agents.
The real-world, practical significance of regular religious attendance is comparable to commonly recommended therapies; rough estimates even suggest that religious attendance may be more cost-effective than statins. Religious attendance is not a mode of medical therapy, but these findings warrant more and better quality research designed to examine the associations between religion and health, and the potential relevance such associations might have for medical practice.
Key Findings of Ritika Srivastrava on the Benefits of Spiritual Well-Being
Contentment with Life
Maintaining balance in life
Building Positive Relationships
Having purpose and meaning in life
Experiencing a connection with a power greater than one’s self
Accepting and growing from the challenges and changes in life.
An observation for our times: with so many benefits of church attendance related to health on all levels: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual, it’s a bit of a mystery why worship would be deemed non-essential when addressing a health crisis such as Covid-19.
Social Capital—Connections and Networks of Support Built on Trust
Abstract:
Social capital, health behaviors and health: a population-based associational study. Tarja Nieminen,corresponding author Ritva Prättälä, Tuija Martelin, Tommi Härkänen, Markku T Hyyppä, Erkki Alanen, and Seppo Koskinen.
The following is a study conducted in Finland that concurs with the studies conducted at Harvard, Vanderbilt and Duke regarding the value of social connections to personal health. Social connection is applicable across cultures. This research focused on one’s sense of connection and networks of support, referred to as social capital, to explore how different dimensions of social capital and health-related behaviors are associated.
Methods used in this study:
This Finnish study used data from the Health 2000 Survey looking at 8,028 adults. The response rate varied between 87% (interview) and 77% (self-administered questionnaire). The study looks at associations between three dimensions of social capital (social support, social participation and networks, trust and reciprocity) and five health behaviors (smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, vegetable consumption, sleep). The study controlled for age, gender, education, income and living arrangements.
Results:
Social participation and networks were associated with all of the health behaviors noted above. (1) High levels of trust and reciprocity were associated with non-smoking and adequate duration of sleep, and (2) high levels of social support with adequate duration of sleep and daily consumption of vegetables. (3) Social support and trust and reciprocity were independently associated with self-rated health and psychological well-being. Part of the association between social participation and networks and health was explained by making connections via physical activity.
Conclusions:
Irrespective of social status, people with higher levels of social capital – especially in terms of social participation and networks – engage in healthier behaviors and feel healthier both physically and psychologically.
Keep a Gratitude Journal:
At the end of each day, write down three things you’re grateful for – this could be as small as hearing the song of a bird. Review these blessings daily.
TRUST
WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS
JOHN 14: 6
Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life, No one comes to the Father except through Me.
We can seek after truth in many ways; books, documents, creeds, education, policies, exchange of ideas—these may all have value, but Jesus lifted men’s thoughts to the highest possible realms, indicating truth is more than information, knowledge and wisdom—the most valuable of all truth is found in becoming acquainted with the person of Jesus. In His character is L.I.G.H.T. Whether considering Scripture to be myth or magnificent, Jesus lived a singular life, unlike any other person who walked this earth. His legacy is unequaled. He lived as the Son of God, perfect in thought, heart, and action.
PSALM 37: 3-4
Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.
PROVERBS 3: 5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.
MARK 10:24
And the disciples were astonished at His words, but Jesus answered again and said to them, Children, how hard it is for those you trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God.
The focus of Jesus was always on wealth of spirit and eternal values over the pursuits of materialism and power. Jesus advised against the love of money, which often manifests as greed. Without ever opening Scripture we can see the ripple effect of greed, pride, and power corruption on the world we currently live in.
REFLECTION
In our current world we are experiencing increasing polarization because we are focused mostly on the right and the left, the horizonal axis—people are pushing to the extreme edges on both sides. Actually, both sides are working against the middle. The acronym L.I.G.H.T. is an endeavor to draw thought to the vertical axis—to more transcendent values that speak to mind, heart, and spirit, holding within them the intrinsic potential for transformation: love, inspiration, grace, healing, and trust. The vertical axis is grounded. It is settled in the humble earth, but lifts eyes upward to something greater than ourselves--looking to the borders of awe and eternity. The dawn of each new day, opens with L.I.G.H.T.
