As leaders in ministry, we’re charged with a unique responsibility to create healthy environments wherever we may be. If you’re starting from scratch, this is a great place to develop values in order to prevent those in your care from burning out. But it’s never too late to turn around and implement these, either.
When you go the hospital, you don’t go to get sick. You go to heal. The environment of a hospital is conducive for health. The doctors and nurses are uniquely and thoroughly trained. If they’re sick, they stay home. Everything is sanitary. Processes and procedures are in place to save lives.
So, what if you’re not healthy? Does that mean you’re excluded? Absolutely not. In fact, it reinforces the need for truly healthy environments to be solid and strong. A healthy environment would exist for you to join so you can begin to heal.
If you’re sick, the rest of your body kicks it up a notch and compensates so you can heal. If your stomach is being attacked by an infection, your white blood cells increase in order to fight it off so you can be healthy again. In the same sense, if one part of the Body is not healthy, the rest of the body should surround it so healing occurs.
Healthy People
When I asked the community on my blog what they thought made up a healthy environment, I had a multitude of different answers. However, my friend Cindy left the simplest and most profound comment of them all.
Healthy people.
Healthy people make up healthy environments. You cant expect other people to do what you think should be done. You are responsible for cultivating healthy characteristics in your own life. When healthy people come together, a healthy environment is birthed.
We will discuss some characteristics that make people healthy and able to contribute to the overall health of a larger setting next Monday on The Fold. All of these characteristics are transferable, meaning when a person integrates them into his or her daily living, it’s inevitable the environment will be positively impacted.
Artwork: “Constantine”
by: Melanie Armstrong
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