God-Centered Care -- by Jennifer Johnson
Many medical facilities have started to change the way they’re giving care. During the past twenty years, changes have been going on to use a patient-centered care model. This is care that is specifically driven by the patient. Patients get more say in their care using this model, and many hospitals and nursing facilities are looking to change the way they do things, to please the patient that they’re there to serve. Some of these changes at hospitals are as broad as single room occupancies, and less time in a waiting room, to valet parking and a live pianist on a baby grand at the entrance. Many times, the healthcare industry is influenced by profit margins or seemed to center around the doctors themselves. It was profit-centered care or doctor-centered care.
As the executive director for a Christian Science nursing facility in Dallas, TX, we have something that the medical model doesn’t ¬– a God-centered care model.
As I was thinking about these different models, I visualized something like a kid’s science project with the center portion as the sun, and the rest of the planets moving around the sun. I’ve especially enjoyed pondering what Mary Baker Eddy says, “The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them” (Science and Health 295:6). I’ve noticed that sometimes within a family household, it seems, at different times, we all end up moving around each other’s wishes. But what would it look like if we put God as the sun in our model? That center spot is only reserved for Him as we’re all here to serve and reflect Him.
This is our model in a Christian Science nursing facility. The patients, Christian Science nurses, office staff, cooks, maintenance men, housekeepers, and volunteers are all actively being directed by God in their work. Some may be moving at different paces than others and or serving in different capacities, but we work together harmoniously with God as our center.
I began to ask myself, “What does God-centered care look like?”
Below are just a handful of thoughts that came to me when the care that is being given is focused on God:
• It is calm and smooth (no storms on this tranquil sea). Psalms 107:29 says, “He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.”
• Yet, it is not afraid to create a stir to oust something that doesn’t belong. “The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind” (Science and Health 162:9).
• It abides in steady, unified devotion. This can be seen by solidly dedicating ourselves to God, and by helping one another to serve His purpose. We are here to boost one another, to blend and unify in our purpose to Him. In Exodus, Moses needed help from Aaron and Hur to hold the rod of God, to help Joshua be victorious in battle. “But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun” (Ex 17:12).
• It unburdens. Mrs. Eddy said, “Ye sit not in the idol’s temple. Ye build not to an unknown God. Ye worship Him whom ye serve. Boast not thyself, thou ransomed of divine Love, but press on unto the possession of unburdened bliss” (My 192:1-4). To me, this says don’t allow selfish thoughts (you are not the sun) but make ourselves single-minded and have that Mind be God. This is the way to leave sin and sickness and be unburdened to find bliss. In many instances of my own experience, healings occurred when I no longer was thinking about myself, but my vision had been lifted higher, and this goes very nicely right into the next point.
• It completes. God-centered care is whole-hearted. We feel whole and help others best with God as our heart and focus. In Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy quotes a poem called Be True by Horatius Bonar that speaks to this:
“Thou must be true thyself, If thou the truth wouldst teach; Thy soul must overflow, if thou Another’s soul wouldst reach; It needs the overflow of heart, To give the lips full speech.
"Think truly, and thy thoughts Shall the world’s famine feed; Speak truly, and each word of thine Shall be a fruitful seed; Live truly, and thy life shall be A great and noble creed.”
I’m sure there are many, many more examples and I think I will continue to make my list as it has proven to be so much fun and fruitful! I love Mrs. Eddy’s quote, “…our ideas of divinity form our models of humanity” (Peo 14:10). I’m most grateful to be a part of this God-centered work.
-Jennifer Johnson
