By Anna Choi

In the medical field, vital signs are comprised of blood pressure, pulse, respiration, oxygen saturation level and temperature. These five components help give caregivers some general information about how a patient is doing in the clinical setting.

What are our spiritual vital signs?

Respiration

noun. the physical and chemical processes by which an organism supplies its cells and tissues with the oxygen needed for metabolism and relieves them of the carbon dioxide formed in energy-producing reactions

How intimate are you with God? Do you start your day by thanking God and acknowledging His presence in all things that you do? Have you been faithful to your personal devotion to God through prayer and studying His words intensely? Do you live and practice the word of God by serving and loving your neighbors and family members? Do you spend time with God and listen to his voice?

Oxygen saturation

Oxygen

noun. 1. a reactive element that is found in water, in most rocks and minerals, in numerous organic compounds, and as a colorless tasteless odorless diatomic gas constituting 21 percent of the atmosphere, that is capable of combining with all elements except the inert gases, that is active in physiological processes, and that is involved especially in combustion 2. something that sustains or fuels

How much of the Holy Spirit is in you? Do you feel that God is within you regardless of the situation you are in? Are you joyful and thankful and confident that you are His chosen people? You can be confident of this because through Jesus Christ, God gave us the Holy Spirit as a gift according to His promise.

Temperature

noun. 1. degree of hotness or coldness measured on a definite scale 2. the degree of heat that is natural to the body of a living being c: abnormally high body heat <running a temperature>

How warm is your heart towards God and others? Do you consider yourself hot-tempered and easily irritated by things around you? Or are you cold-hearted and indignant to others as well as self-centered? Is your heart lukewarm in following and believing in Jesus? Do you know what your heart feels and yearn for?

The questions above may not cover all the things you want to ask yourself to improve your walk with Jesus. But it is a start. Begin to assess where you are spiritually and decide which step to take next in your spiritual journey–a journey to the Kingdom of God.

Remember, we are created in God’s good image for a very good purpose. We are meant not only to live out a short lifespan on earth, but also to live spiritually in preparation for our real home in heaven! We need to struggle constantly to grow both physically and spiritually. To know more of Jesus and grow in our faith, it is essential that we all start by taking our spiritual vital signs today!

All definitions courtesy of http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary

In The Prodigal God (Dutton, 2008) author Tim Keller takes the Bible’s most famous parable and presents it from a radically different perspective, challenging preconceived notions about what it means to be “lost.”

Lost and found

Yes, you know the story. Spoiled younger son demands his share of the estate. He takes off and squanders it all on wild living. He comes back to his senses and returns home repentant. The father forgives and reinstates him immediately, throwing him a lavish feast. And they lived happily ever after. Right? Wrong. The story actually ends with a tense confrontation between the elder, “obedient” son and the father. Enraged by his father’s extravagant outpouring of love, the elder son complains bitterly about his own unrewarded, unrecognized loyalty toward his father.

Redefining Lost

Both sons—the wandering younger and the insincere elder—were equally lost. Proximity is only a secondary issue; it is possible to be lost in a far away land as well as lost in plain sight. What matters is where one is in relationship to the Father. The Parable of the Lost Son cleverly exposes how sin can manifest in those who are shamelessly belligerent and those who are inwardly defiant.

The Lost Boys

The intended audience for this story was not the morally corrupt but the religious elite, the Law-abiding Pharisees, as represented by the elder brother. Much like the elder son, the Pharisees possessed a false sense of self-righteousness due to their tireless compliance with the Law. Though their behavior was impeccable, even exemplary, their hearts and motives were entirely self-serving. To Jesus, they were lost and did not even realize it.

The Prodigal God

God’s response to our “lost-ness?” Unconditional love and astonishing humility. For the younger, a robe, a ring and a feast fit for a king. For the elder, a humble, heart-wrenching plea from a father desperate for his firstborn to realize how loved he is. Both demonstrate God’s prodigal, or reckless, love for a world of lost sons. He will hold back nothing—nothing—to see his beloved ones reconciled and restored to their rightful place. Jesus, in his life and especially in his death, is the ultimate expression of God’s heart. The cross shows us that our God is a prodigal God.

Land of the Lost

Lost sons abound. They are living la vida loca on campuses nationwide. And they are sitting in church pews every Sunday at 11am. Had Jesus spoken this parable today, the intended audience would not be the wild childs and party animals of the world, but the Church, the people of God. Just like the Pharisees, we are in danger of becoming obliviously lost in our own self-righteousness. Worse, our ignorance to our own condition deems us useless to the millions of lost younger sons who never find their way home. And so, it is we Christians with whom the Father stands outside the house, pleading for us to come inside and to embrace younger brothers everywhere. For, it is only when we realize our propensity to become lost that we, along with our lost younger brothers, can have hope to be found.

At NYU, a big temptation is to succumb to living in survival mode—barely getting through, but not thriving. We have tuition to pay, papers to write, meetings to attend, tests to study for, and relationships to keep up with. And we do all this in the context of having more independence than ever before in one of the most demanding cities in the world.

Everything we have to do and all the ways we need to grow is overwhelming enough, without even considering how God has called us to be a part of His great purpose of renewal. We risk seeing ourselves as slaves to the endless demands put upon us from everywhere, especially from God.

Aware that we are falling short of His calling, we tend to respond with guilt and shame. A natural reaction would be to figure out how to work harder and more efficiently. However that is not the solution God presents us.

“Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off.” (Romans 11:22 NLT)

You may be thinking, “Wait, this does not sound very encouraging.” But think carefully about what God’s Word is saying. The opposite of disobedience is not obedience but trusting in God’s kindness. It is on the foundation of God’s unconditional love and kindness that we will find freedom to obediently take part in God’s work.

Imagine your father telling you, “If you don’t get in the top 5% on your next test then I will be ashamed of you and will want to disown you.” You may study hard to gain your father’s approval but eventually you will burn out. This is the way the world treats us.

But what if your father said, “I want you to do your best on this test. If you need help, ask me, and I will be with you. No matter how you do you will still be my beloved child.” This is how our heavenly Father speaks to us.

The first step to receive this freedom is to tell our Father that you need Him. Make time to be alone with Him everyday. If time is sparse, ask God to open up your schedule. Be willing to wake up earlier if He so leads you. To know how God wants to relate to you read Romans 8. We are not His slaves but His children.

Next, here are some helpful guidelines to aid you in your pursuit of freedom:

• Prioritize your time by keeping what is important and dropping what is not; learn that saying “no” to an opportunity is a perfectly good answer.
• Determine which relationships and activities are restorative and life-giving and make them a priority.
• Take a Sabbath; it is one of God’s many gifts for you.
• Concentrate on doing one thing at a time; scientific studies suggest that multi-tasking is a myth.

My prayer is that God will show his love for us in fresh, new ways as we continue in our paths toward Him.

“Be still and know that I am God…” –Psalm 46:10

In my life’s work as a nurse at a cancer hospital, I see and hear of so many “medical miracles” that make me revel at the timing and precision of coincidental events, leading to certain “moments of truth” in the lives of the individuals experiencing them. I’ve seen patients admitted for symptom management (e.g. chemotherapy-related dehydration and decreased appetite), where something as simple as unrelated back pain that had been long ignored led to the discovery of a tumor compressing against a nerve which could have been detrimental had it not been discovered and treated at that instant, rather than at a much later time when the symptom (and disease) would have worsened. I’ve seen patients who were bedbound and barely responsive on day one of hospital care, and then two weeks later, they are walking-talking miracles of a doctor’s surgical hands, a nurse’s diligent care, a physical therapist’s direction, a family member’s hope, their own will power, and who knows what other forces beyond human recognition.

And as life should go, I have also seen the opposite, where a person comes in to the hospital physically and mentally strong, but experiences one unexpected challenge after another, leading them down a path of ultimate spiritual and bodily demise. Some experience these creative “tests of faith” as an awakening of spiritual consciousness, where everything in the universe and life that had led up to these moments of reckoning, finally correlated and made sense. While others, choose to see them as “bad karma” or as cards cruelly dealt by God from a deck of suffering.

Of course, everyone interprets life through different eyes and hearts; however, as humans, it is our innate tendency to try to control the events (and people) in our lives. Nevertheless, often embedded in our existence are obstacles or conditions in which we are forced to relinquish this control. To give up such power is a humbling and profound experience in itself. Sometimes, the road you’ve been avoiding all along is the one you’re destined to take. If so, what then is God, or the Universe, trying to tell us? What are we expected to learn from such “awe”-full experiences in our lives?

The famous medical philosopher/doctor Deepak Chopra once said that by taking some time to be still and silent in such moments of movement and chaos, one gains access to “the field of pure awareness…the ultimate ground of creation where everything is inseparably connected with everything else.” (from The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams, Amber-Allen Publishing, 1994)

A friend of mine who volunteers for a Hospice (where dying people are cared for) once said to me that through her experience with death and dying, she has gained so much insight on life. About two weeks before that, a dying patient whom I had taken care of told me the same thing.

We wake up each day expecting it to go a certain way, only to discover the naïveté of our presumptions. If only we learn to detach ourselves from the outcome of things beyond our control can we hope to better appreciate the miracle and synchrony of subtle coincidences, and bear witness to the beauty in all of life’s tragedies, and see (or feel) God in the details.

2009 was a hard year. The economy crashed. Overwhelming numbers of people lost their jobs. Wars took place in the Middle East. Natural disasters occurred around the world. There were floods in Asia, forest fires in California. And last but not least, swine flu caused a panic all over North America and the rest of the word.

On a smaller scale, I discovered last year that many of my close friends come from pasts of pain, physical and sexual abuse, wounded hearts and scars from childhood–myself included. Even those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ into our hearts as our savior are still wounded and plagued by past trauma, suffering and guilt.

The year 2009 was a year that I personally realized the power of sin and the weight that it has over humanity. Sin is the root of all the world’s evils–things such as greed, cheating, and murder. It causes people to hurt each other, even abuse their own children. This sin has been carried down from generation to generation and it gives Satan such pleasure because he has convinced the world, the world that God originally had created in perfection, to love sin.

But God sent His beautiful Son, Jesus–so sinless, perfect and pure–as a living sacrifice, to overpower and cast out the sins of this world. Jesus walked this earth and endured Satan’s temptations, yet was able to resist them all. He was completely human yet completely divine, a lovely incarnation of our beloved Lord God in heaven–and He loved us so much that He died on the cross so that our sins would be forever washed away, a feat impossible for anyone else to accomplish. And all He asks for in return is for us to love others and to love Him, as He loves us.

So, despite the hardships of 2009 and any of the years before or after that, Jesus brings joy and hope for the future in the salvation He already gave us. All we need to do is accept His salvation and love Him.

Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Christadelphians believe that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal power that comes from God but is not God himself. Their view is an incomplete one—just the tip of a colossal iceberg. It is a misconception that many Christians seem to possess. We shouldn’t be fooled by the visible tip of the iceberg, but rather look deeper into what lies beneath the surface.

Scripture states that the Holy Spirit is a person who can think (1Cor 2:11), feel (Eph 4:30), will (1Cor 12:11), and speak (Acts 13:2). The process of knowing and becoming aware of the person of the Holy Spirit is compared to the growth of a newborn baby. When a baby is born, he is not fully aware of the presence of his mother. Rather, he is only cognizant of the presence of a “nipple” through which he gets food. A baby is near-sighted and cannot recognize the “person” of his mother. But as he grows up, he begins to recognize her, gradually becoming aware of her presence as a person.

By the same principle, when we are born again, we don’t easily recognize the “person” of the Holy Spirit. We recognize only the “benefit” of the Holy Spirit. But as we grow in obedience to God, we begin to recognize the person of the Holy Spirit, becoming fully aware of His presence as a person, allowing us to have a more intimate relationship with God.

Have you ever thought about the fact that we may not all be here tomorrow? A young boy of seventeen has had to face that fact sooner than he should have, at least in my perspective. His mother passed away from cancer of the breast, liver, and brain. His mother was 42 years old, with plenty of deserved life left to her, and yet, the cancer got the best of her.

His mother was a very religious woman. She loved God and she led a very good Christian life. She was one of the sweetest women I have ever met. This woman was dedicated to her faith and was dedicated to showing, living, and sharing that faith with her only son and her beloved husband. It pains my heart knowing that this young boy, a senior in high school, will not have his mother physically present for his graduations, for his wedding, and for the birth of his first child.

So, where is God in all of this? Where is the Almighty Savior that said, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:14)? I have prayed that his mother may not undergo physical suffering, but there was the excruciating chemotherapy. I know that her son and husband prayed more than I have, praying for her to stay alive with them. I know that her son was living each day with unending hope that she would make it through. And yet, when his father sat him down and told him that his mother would undoubtedly pass away, the young boy was so broken by the news that he cried and cried. I know that they are going through probably the most difficult time of their lives. And I know that there is nothing I can do or say to ease their suffering.

But God, he who creates and ends all things, can. Jesus says “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms… I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:1-4).

What is even more reassuring is that the boy’s mother never lost sight of God’s love, and she knew that God had a plan for her. In Jesus, there is eternal support and love—both for those that have passed and for those that will someday be with Him in the Kingdom of God. The young boy knows deep in his heart that he will get through this, and that he can do so with God at his side. When we undergo our darkest hours, we may feel as though we are walking alone in the world. Yet, the truth is, it is God who carries us through to the light.

Every year, one of the more popular fashion and beauty magazines parks a “makeover” trailer somewhere on the streets of Manhattan. They then proceed to grab gleeful young women off the sidewalk, whisking them into the trailer for an hour or two, where they then emerge fabulously gorgeous–complete with a new hairstyle, makeup, and spring fashion trend.

I admit that I was always envious of these lucky people and hoped that one day I’d accidentally walk into the vicinity of one of these “glam-mobiles” and be offered such a deal; a free makeover session and a chance to appear on the pages of a magazine.

I have often wondered about America’s obsession with makeover shows on television. We will sit patiently through all the annoying commercials just to wait for “the big reveal” on shows like Oprah. It’s as if we want to believe that all it really takes is a few quick tweaks and “poof” we can be magically transformed into “the best me that I can be.” In an instant, getting only four hours of sleep is erased, tired stress lines are smoothed out, un-ironed clothes hang perfectly, and we also have perfect posture.

What makes us so obsessed with this stuff? Why do we tune in and watch shows like What Not to Wear and Twitter endlessly about Susan Boyle’s new look? Because, in a way, makeover success acts as a glimmer of hope that we are not doomed to remain just as we are. If only for a few moments, we want to believe that we’re not just “us.” We’re a new and improved version of us, not weighed down by our past or what we’ve been handed in life. The concept of the instant makeover makes us believe in fairytales; it gives us hope that we, too, can be changed in a microwaved instant.

Ultimately it’s not really a quick exterior tweak, nip and tuck that we are looking and hoping for, but a total renewal both inside and out. The New Testament states, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) It is our Maker who performs the real makeover–one that can fulfill our deep, innate longing to have every old wound, every painful life encounter, every victimization, every flaw and scar reworked into something beautiful and extraordinary. It is our encounter with God that can make us awe-inspiring, flawless, dazzling, and perfect. And His fix lasts a lot longer than a few pats of powder, a new hairstyle, and some bright lights. It is permanent.

Several years ago, I wrote a paper on the historicity of the Biblical Exodus. It was one of the best papers I had ever written; I put a lot of effort into my research and genuinely enjoyed the work because it was a subject I had long been interested in. Biblical archeology is a field that was first developed in the nineteenth century to use scientific procedures to prove the Bible’s historical accuracy. Today the field is much more secular in tone, but that doesn’t mean that archaeological discoveries never support the Bible. They can and do, but with one important caveat: you won’t find the “proof” you want.

Consider the Exodus: there is no account of it, either in Egyptian texts or other sources in the region, nor is there any record outside of the Bible that mentions Moses. That would seem to be a short and depressing end to the story: no proof, no Exodus, period. Yet this would be too hasty; just because there is no proof for the Exodus beyond a reasonable doubt does not mean that there exists no evidence whatsoever. We do know a lot about life back then thanks to the number of written records and artifacts that date from that time. Using what we have, we can actually piece together enough evidence for an “Exodus event” which a number of scholars agree may have occurred.

The consensus that the Exodus story is based on real events that occurred in and around the lands of Egypt and Canaan circa 1250 B.C. is based on the following points which archeologist Donald Redford calls “unassailable”: (1) there is an early memory of pastoralists from the Levant (the land bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea) entering Egypt with Jacob as an ancestral figure; (2) they briefly multiplied; (3) Egyptians began to resent these foreigners; (4) at some point the pastoralists leave Egypt and return to the Levant (The Anchor Bible Dictionary Vol. 2). Moreover, although Exodus was written hundreds of years after the fact, some scholars agree that it may be based on an actual event, as there is no other way to explain many of its details that reveal a knowledge of Egyptian geography and society that probably could not have been invented.

While at first it seems that archaeology has given us nothing to go on, in fact, God has left us a trail of breadcrumbs to follow. We may say these crumbs are worthless because we want the entire loaf, but I think that is to misunderstand the greater lesson here. Part of our faith is just that—faith, the belief in things we do not see. As it says in 1 Corinthians 13:12: “What we see now is like the dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.” God has given us what we need to see; now it is up to us to decide to take the rest of it as a leap of faith.