A Diverse World, Certainly

MON., JAN. 25, 1993, 12:09 PM
OFFICE, PULLIAM HALL

This late afternoon you begin another of your favorite courses, the one called International Health. One important goal is to help these learners see what a truly diverse world this is, and how widely disparate are the results of creation. You must certainly affirm that the preparation for and the teaching of this course, over the years, has solidified the importance of both the spiritual and environmental dimensions of health for you… as well as the difference in mental and social health.

Cultures differ widely, with values and interpretations of reality that are diverse… different ways of perceiving this earth life experience. There is much recognition of Me, but this, too, takes many paths and has many patterns. You, however, must just know that I come to you in this unique way, helping you to appreciate more fully this diverse world of Mine.

There are many powers that humans can generate and can utilize. Regularly there are recognitions of new powers… and a giving up of faith in other, older powers. The earth scene is basically predictable, but science can be seen only as one way of knowing, even as it often claims more than it should and denigrates other ways of knowing unnecessarily.

By any of you earth life is both knowable and unknowable. You are limited in your perceptions of reality, and yet you still are above average and competent enough to conduct this learning experience. Be sure and emphasize the impossibility of truly comprehending how different groups in this diverse population see life and health.

Realize that when the population was less, when weapons were simpler, and when aspirations were minimal (by today’s standards) there still was conflict, with the heroism and harm that come from such. The Old Testament is full of conflicts, and I often was involved, as the Word suggests. And, of course, this Holy record of human action and interaction took place in quite a limited geographic area, with little attention to folk who lived and related to Me in other parts of this whirling, circling sphere. For you these Testaments are the basis of your faith… the tangible, historical basis. Yet you know from Me and from other sources, that this wide diversity is a prominent feature of My Creation.

Some customs are logical, reasonable, and health-promoting. Others are more traditional, irrational, and pertinent more to a former time and to circumstances no longer present and relevant. Yet I allow some of these latter because they serve My purposes in some strange and interesting ways. For example, will the custom of burying dead bodies in expensive, resource-using caskets continue, as a symbol of respect for the body? Is respect for the body a spiritual or strictly a humanistic motivation? Will high tech cremation rise as a choice for body disposal? Is your way of burying Peter both a spiritual and an ecological approach, as you perceive it to be? Consider the many customs that you accept as normative, along with those you oppose, mildly to strongly.