FIVE WAYS TO WELLBEING
A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE
Study 3
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INTRODUCTION
This is the third study based on Five Ways to Wellbeing, a set of guidelines created
by nef (the new economics foundation). These guidelines aim to improve and
maintain mental health and wellbeing.
Each study considers one of these Five Ways from a Biblical perspective to see how
it fits with a Christian understanding of life. The studies should encourage us to take
seriously a positive initiative in our society. However, they should also help us to
challenge some of the assumptions the Five Ways make. Can we work out distinctly
Christian Ways to Wellbeing?
STUDY 3: TAKE NOTICE
Examples of TAKE NOTICE that nef give are: be curious, catch sight of the
beautiful, remark on the unusual, notice the changing seasons, savour the moment whether you are walking to work, eating lunch or talking to friends. Be aware of the
world around you and what you are feeling.
Do you take notice of what’s going on around you? Or are you preoccupied
with you own thoughts and plans?
Sometimes Christians are criticized for being ‘so heavenly minded that they are no
earthly good’. (This saying is the basis for a song by Johnny Cash!) But the Book of
Genesis says that God created the whole universe and that he saw that it was
‘good’. Maybe it is a creation that has been spoilt by the effects of human rebellion
against God, but there is still something of God’s goodness in it. The Christian poet
and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.
(from the poem ‘God’s Grandeur’)
What do we find beautiful in this world? What effect does it have on us?
Jesus often used people and objects and incidents from the world around him in
order to draw out spiritual messages. We see this, for example, in the many parables
written in the Gospels, in which Jesus compares something in the physical world to a
spiritual reality. For example, Jesus says:
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man
found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had
and bought that field.
(Matthew 13:44)
How can taking notice of ordinary things around us draw us closer to God?
How do we explain our Christian faith to others?
The wonder of God’s presence in the world is a theme in some of the Psalms, which
were poems or hymns written for worship. Read this Psalm:
LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory in the heavens.
Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your
enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honour.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
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all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
(Psalm 8)
The writer of this psalm says that ‘the praise of children and infants’ can
‘establish a stronghold’ against enemies. What do you think this means? How
can praise be powerful?
What do you think it means to say that we are ‘crowned with glory and
honour’?
Do we sometimes get so wrapped up in day-to-day concerns that we miss the
big picture?
What does being human mean to you?
People often complain about being too busy - even though the ‘working week’ is
much shorter than it used to be for most people. Indeed, the new economics
foundation recommends moving to a ‘normal’ working week of 21 hours to help
address such problems as overwork, unemployment, over-consumption, high carbon
emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities and the lack of time to live
sustainably, to care for each other and simply to enjoy life.
Do you think we are too busy to notice what is going on around us?
How do you set your priorities in life?
Jesus taught this to his followers about the need to get our priorities in life right:
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or
drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food,
and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do
not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father
feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one
of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
‘And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field
grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon
in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God
clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is
thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little
faith? So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we
drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these
things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
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But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things
will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its
own.
(Matthew 6:25-34)
NOTES
Solomon was one of the greatest kings of Israel, famed for his
wisdom and wealth.
Jesus uses the word ‘pagans’ to refer to those who are not
believers in God.
Is not worrying about tomorrow - living in the moment - irresponsible? Or is it
a sign of true faith in God?
How might taking more notice of what is around us help us to worry less and
focus more on what is really important?
TAKE NOTICE - A FURTHER THOUGHT
Jesus told his followers to take notice of things in the natural world, such as
birds and flowers. Does that differ from what we notice while watching TV or
using the internet?
CHALLENGE - WHAT NOW?
What practical steps are you going to make to take more notice of the world
around you? And what do you learn from your observations? Write something
down.
Take Notice!
© 2013, David A. Lamb. All Bible quotations are from the NIV 2011 edition.
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