Disease (the Amplified version)

The subject came up in my mind this morning, through a series of thoughts that would be complicated to relate in text, of Ease. Gail, the Director of Bus Stop and teacher of my Acting class last semester talks about ease quite a bit. It's one of Michael Chekhov's "Four Brothers In Art," or BEEF: Beauty, Ease, Entirety, and Form. But she comments a lot and encourages her students and actors to be Easy, to move with ease, and not with a sense of disease. It makes sense, and I've seen the difference onstage. Lately though, God's been showing me more and more than every good and perfect thing comes from above-- which means basically that we have God to thank for any and every good thing, yes, but in apply-this-to-more-than-just-church terms to me means, every bit of "worldly" goodness, every solid practice and truthful principal, whoever says it and wherever it's found, leads back to a Biblical principal, and to God Himself.

I was thinking yesterday about a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson's School of Divinity Address: "If a man is at heart just, then in so far is he God; the safety of God, the immortality of God, the majesty of God do enter into that man with justice." I think that Mr. Emerson was a wonderful essayist and philosopher, and in this particular quote he puts forward [in a different sense] exactly the principle I'm observing. If there is good, then there is God. Jesus said no one is good but God... now I'm not trying to make the argument that therefore God is in everyone and so everyone is saved. I'm not talking salvation here. I'm saying that anywhere you see goodness, you're seeing the character of God. And I'm saying that everyone, and everything, be it religious, secular, outside the church or not, are illustrations of "Biblical" principles-- which are, in fact, the principles of nature, the principles of creation.

Take the concept of "Ease," for example. If you do things with a sense of ease rather than a struggling dis-ease, if you will, you will find that you perform better, that you feel better, that your body responds better. You are livelier, natural, believable. Disease, on the other hand is forced, a struggle, unnatural, uncomfortable, incredible, and generally unpleasant. This we can pretty basically observe. But why is that?

In the Bible, and the New Testament especially, we see a lot of references to "peace" and "rest" always as something to obtained, maintained, received. It's a goal to be reached, more or less; it's what we want. Ps 37:37 says "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace." On the flip-side, we have words from Jesus like, "Don't worry about tomorrow", "blessed are the peace-makers" and Paul saying "Cast your burdens on the Lord".. etc. basically, peace = good. Worry/burden/antipeace = bad. I'm seeing a connection here with the whole ease = good, disease = bad concept. So I did a word study on "disease."

Here's a few synonyms for Disease:
distress, or uneasiness of mind-- caused by fear of danger or misfortune.
anxiety
Travail (painfully difficult or burdensome work; toil)
grief
calamity
Psalms' use of "Disease" is confusing, but it's along these same lines..
debility, enervation (to deprive of force or strength; destroy the vigor of; weaken)
enfeeble
ailment (physical or mental disorder)

...how interesting that even though many times it is a physical sickness or disorder (out of order), it just as often (or more) is more mental, and spiritual. And several times in the Bible, wherever the word "disease" is used, it's preceded by the word "evil." (evil disease)
so I think we can all agree that disease = bad, and much more than just physical sickness. It encompasses striving, toiling, sadness, misfortune, pain (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual), disability, weakness, dis-order...

Now here's the fun part. In Matt 4 & 9 (among others) it says that Jesus healed ALL manner of disease (i.e., restoring ease.) Hey, buddy! Let's go through that one more time.. that means He put a stop to striving and toiling (vain effort for something that God's already done), restored JOY instead of sadness, fixed calamities and misfortunes (unfortunate events causing discomfort), relieved pain (physical, mental, emotional AND spiritual), created ability where there was disability, supplied strength where there was weakness, restored order where things had gotten out-of-order. I mean, if that doesn't just make you wanna sing... then read one more chapter. Because in Matt 10 He gave the disciples (and.. I'M a disciple) "power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and ALL manner of Disease."
Heyyy... you know what that means?

That means I don't just move with ease on stage... I don't just abide in peace, and in God's rest..
I create ease. I get rid of ALL manner of dis-ease, everywhere I go. 'Cause I'm with Jesus. Whew! Gail didn't know she was preaching a sermon when she said to move with ease....