Wonderfully Made

Making Changes

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Timothy Howe and Sheryl McWilliams

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Series Code: WM

Program Code: WM000398


00:01 The following program presents principles
00:03 designed to promote good health and is
00:04 not intended to take the place of
00:06 personalized professional care. The opinions and
00:09 ideas expressed are those of the speaker.
00:11 Viewers are encouraged to draw their own
00:13 conclusions about the information presented.
00:35 Hi and welcome to Wonderfully Made.
00:37 My name is Sheryl McWilliams. Today,
00:40 we are talking about a subject that is
00:43 interesting for me because sometimes I
00:45 say that I want to do one thing and
00:48 then it seems that I end up doing the exact
00:49 opposite of the very thing that I have said
00:52 that I wanted to do. To help us discuss this
00:55 today is Dr. Timothy Howe from Parkview
00:57 Adventist Medical Center. Welcome Dr. Howe.
00:59 Thank you Sheryl it's good to be with
01:01 you on this program. So, I say I wanna
01:04 lose weight and I sit down and eat half a
01:07 bag of Oreo Cookies. Why do I do that?
01:10 I'm not sure Sheryl maybe we should talk
01:14 about this further. This topic of making changes,
01:19 I think is one of the most important.
01:21 It's important for me because you know I
01:25 talk about these things quite frequently, but
01:28 then going home in the evening, do I
01:31 always do them. Well not always. You see
01:36 I'm human too and this problem of not doing
01:41 what we know we should is not new.
01:44 You remember the Apostle Paul said that
01:47 which I would I do not and that which I
01:51 would not that do I. That was in the spiritual realm,
01:56 but you know it's true in the physical realm
01:59 as well. It's a natural problem and yet it's
02:04 for today as well. Making changes is difficult,
02:09 but I think at the bottom of it we have to
02:13 realize and recognize with Paul that we
02:16 are in a battle. A battle not only for our
02:21 souls, but for our bodies as well. And I feel
02:25 that because I've known the healthful behaviors
02:29 and healthful choices, but I don't know always
02:31 make them and sometimes I know when I'm making
02:34 an unhealthy choice and I do it anyway and so
02:37 this topic I think is important for everybody
02:40 because you know we tend to know when
02:44 we are not doing well and we do it anyway.
02:46 You know I remember my family and I
02:49 where in Nepal in 1998. We worked for
02:53 Adventist Frontier Mission for a time
02:56 had a wonderful time there in Nepal. I grew
02:59 to love the Nepali people there, so open
03:03 and so warm as one of them said to me
03:06 when I had first met him, he said let's have a talk,
03:10 but let's talk about deep things. It's almost
03:15 characteristic of the Nepali that they want to
03:18 brush aside the superficial and go right
03:21 to the heart of the matter. It was so
03:24 wonderful to be in a culture like that perhaps
03:27 we could learn something from their culture
03:29 and go to the heart of the matter more
03:32 frequently. I realized that I wouldn't be
03:36 in the valley there very long and thought
03:39 it would be best if I spend time educating
03:43 the people that would be there when I left.
03:45 As we read in the book Ministry of Healing,
03:49 A true physician is an educator and I'm
03:53 wanting to be a true physician I took up
03:55 the education. I would speak with the high
03:59 school teachers through an interpreter most
04:03 afternoons during the week. On one
04:06 occasion, the first time actually that I
04:08 had spoken at the high school to the teachers.
04:11 At the end of the lecture, a man stood up
04:16 and through the interpreter said I
04:18 understand very clearly now why I
04:22 should make changes in my life. I'm convinced of
04:27 the truth of what you say. I see how it
04:30 will work physiologically and how I would be a
04:33 better man if I made these changes, but
04:38 already within myself I sense a fighting
04:42 against what you have told me. Why is that?
04:45 Isn't that the most important question that
04:49 any of us could ask. Why is it that I feel that
04:53 struggle in myself? I want to do and yet I
04:58 don't. The same thing that the Apostle Paul
05:01 expressed this wonderful Nepali high school
05:06 teacher expressed when he was first exposed
05:10 to health in a better way of living.
05:13 Interesting so how do I go about changing?
05:17 I think the first and most important thing
05:20 Sheryl is to remember that we are in a battle.
05:24 When I'm confronted with wanting to do
05:28 something that I know is not the best
05:30 for me. Let's say something simple like
05:34 oh its morning time and I know I should go
05:38 out and exercise, but bed feel so good and
05:42 I really have had enough sleep. Who is it
05:47 prompting me to get a little more rest? It isn't
05:52 Jesus who wants me to be healthy,
05:54 so who is it? I'm afraid sometimes often
05:59 it's not only my lazy self, but the devil
06:04 himself tempting me to not exercise to
06:10 overeat, because he is intensely interested
06:14 in destroying me. You know, I heard one
06:18 person say. You are not just, let me rephrase it.
06:23 You don't have a body, you are a body.
06:28 And that is so true and the devil knows
06:31 that by attacking our body he attacks our
06:36 soul as well. Well I certainly feel him
06:39 attacking me from time to time. You once
06:43 told me a story about some skunks and I
06:48 would like you to share that story for
06:50 our viewing audience because it made a
06:52 distinct impression for me. Okay well this is
06:55 an interesting story it took place in Maryland
06:58 that's where I grew up and it's one of my
07:01 favorite stories and we will draw the
07:04 conclusions at the end of the story. There was a
07:07 lady whose we will call Aunt Edith and
07:10 Aunt Edith had many children. She had six
07:15 children now that's not many by some standards,
07:18 but it's many since I only have three. Well,
07:22 Aunt Edith was very busy with her children
07:24 as you might expect and she didn't get
07:28 much time to talk to her neighbor, but
07:30 she loved to talk with her neighbor, so
07:32 one day the children were out in the yard
07:34 playing and they lived in a rather rural area
07:38 in Maryland and she looked out at the window
07:41 and she saw the children and they seemed happy
07:43 and busy, so she went over to her neighbor's
07:45 house and decided she would just talk with
07:48 her neighbor. She spent sometime there and
07:51 then as mother's know it seemed to get a
07:54 bit quite outside and she didn't hear the children
07:57 talking quite as much and she said to her
08:00 neighbor you know I better check on the
08:02 children and so she looked out at the window and
08:06 there at the window, where all the children
08:08 gathered together peering at something and
08:11 she couldn't see what it was. They were hurdled
08:13 together, they weren't be misbehaving, she was
08:17 thankful for that at least, so she went out
08:19 the door and there the children were just
08:22 standing there in a hurdle looking at
08:24 something and Aunt Edith she parted the
08:28 children and she look down and she saw
08:33 something black and white and she said
08:35 children run and you know those children
08:39 didn't run, but they each grabbed a baby
08:43 skunk and ran. You imagine what those
08:47 children smelled like because even baby skunks
08:51 are well equipped, but you know when
08:54 we are talking about change. Sometimes I
08:57 think it's important to think of Aunt Edith's
09:00 children. Have you ever met someone who
09:03 had that smell about them. They had a
09:07 trouble, but when trouble had come they
09:10 had clunged with their trouble and you
09:13 know they have that peculiar smell of trouble
09:15 about them. You can meet them today,
09:17 you can meet them in a week, you can meet
09:20 them in two weeks and you know what
09:23 they will talk about. They will talk about
09:25 that time when someone did something to me
09:28 and they have that smell of trouble about
09:31 them no matter when you meet them.
09:33 You know when we were making changes in
09:36 our lives sometimes the first thing to do
09:40 is to let go of past wrongs and past
09:44 bitterness and to start to forgive people
09:48 to clear our minds, so that we can
09:51 then make good clear decisions to move
09:55 ahead on the pathway to health. Too many
09:58 times, we define ourselves by what
10:02 people have done to us. You know if
10:05 you think about it, the person that you
10:08 don't forgive is the one that you handover
10:13 the most control of your life. Have you ever
10:16 met someone like that? Every time you
10:19 talk to them they say you know I just
10:24 can't forgive. I've even heard people say if
10:28 that person is gonna be in heaven I don't
10:30 wanna go there. Wow. That is sobering.
10:34 We need to remember those skunks and not
10:38 hold onto our troubles because that peculiar
10:42 smell clings to us if we hold on to those
10:46 grudges and grievances and they keep us
10:49 from making those changes in our life
10:51 that are so important for our health both
10:54 mental, physical, and spiritual. Absolutely, I
10:59 tend to live a very busy lifestyle and
11:03 sometimes it seems that my very lifestyle
11:05 prevents me from doing some of the
11:09 things that I wanted to do. I'm so busy
11:11 with e-mail and voice mail and junk mail and
11:15 answering phone calls and people walking
11:18 into the office that sometimes it seems
11:22 difficult to find the right path. You know
11:26 that also is very important when we are
11:29 making changes. It's very difficult to add
11:33 more to your life. You go to the doctor and
11:36 he says alright Sheryl you need to exercise
11:38 and you say well I already get up at 5:30
11:42 to do my hair and then I have to prepare
11:45 breakfast and then I want to spend some
11:47 quality time with my daughter and then I
11:50 have to get in my private devotions and
11:53 then I have to leave for work. How am I
11:56 ever gonna put in exercise. I guess I'll
11:59 have to get more sleep. What I encourage people
12:02 to do is this. Look carefully at your life.
12:06 You know, stress is often simply busyness.
12:11 I like to liken our lives to a small bridge
12:16 in the country and that bridge maybe
12:20 designed for lets say 15 tons. Year after year
12:25 after year that bridge will hold up very well
12:28 with cars and small trucks passing over it.
12:32 It may stand up to two to three to four
12:36 cars at a time, but if you put 20 cars
12:39 on that bridge at a time. It's going to have
12:42 major trouble. It's going to sag and start
12:45 to buckle and maybe tilt a little bit and it's
12:48 gonna have real trouble. Sometimes when we are
12:51 about to make changes in our life, the first
12:54 thing we need to do is kick a couple of cars
12:56 off the bridge and simplify our lives. What
13:02 I try to do is say are there things that
13:05 I'm doing that are using up time that
13:08 aren't helping me achieve my goal.
13:12 Stephen Cavit has a wonderful square that
13:16 he uses where he divide things into urgent,
13:19 not urgent, important, not important. Many of us
13:24 find that we spend a lot of our lives as
13:27 far as time is concerned in the not important,
13:31 urgent or in the not important, not urgent.
13:36 Think of television watching, think of
13:40 sorting mail, looking at catalogs, magazines.
13:45 How many of those things can you carve
13:48 out of your life simplifying it, so you
13:51 can have time to put in the important things
13:55 and what's most important in your life.
13:58 Do you schedule that? It's so easy for me
14:02 as a physician; I spend much of my time
14:05 in the urgent category. My beeper goes off,
14:08 it's a stat call. I have to run like mad
14:12 for the car drive, well we won't tell you
14:15 how I drive, but to get there and its
14:18 urgent and important, but how about those
14:22 not urgent, very important things like
14:26 time for exercise, time for meal planning,
14:30 time with my wife, time with our children. Do I
14:35 schedule those in, so when I get that
14:38 telephone call. I really could use your help
14:41 now I can say. I'm sorry I have a prior
14:45 commitment. I think it's so important for us to
14:49 schedule the important not urgent things
14:53 into our lives. Bible study, time with family,
14:58 time with friends, exercise and you know
15:02 that's been very helpful me if I can
15:05 combine those things together and make a
15:07 better use of my time. That's why my
15:11 exercise almost always is walking with my
15:15 wife. I can't spend enough time with my
15:18 wife. I would like to spend more and when
15:21 I retire maybe I will, but today I can't
15:25 take a walk with her, we can talk while we are
15:28 walking, we can have very good time planning
15:31 the day and that's why we walk first
15:33 thing in the morning almost everyday.
15:36 It's doing two things at once it's more
15:40 efficient and it's a great time I wouldn't
15:42 miss my walks with my wife. When my children
15:45 are home, they have left home now, but we often
15:48 walk with them too. Why do we walk because
15:51 I can't keep up with them running any longer,
15:53 so its walk time hiking and we can have two
15:58 things at once and it's so good to do. You
16:02 mentioned Stephen Cavit I've read some of
16:04 his work and one thing that was helpful
16:06 for me in regard to this subject was the
16:09 telephone. My telephone rings of the hook on a
16:13 rather consistent basis and I would in the
16:16 past run right over to it and pick it up. Well,
16:20 I have learned now that whoever is on
16:22 the other side of that line they may feel
16:26 that their issue is important and urgent,
16:28 but that doesn't necessarily mean that
16:32 their urgent issue needs to become my
16:35 urgent issue and take away time from
16:38 my family from Bible study from that sort
16:42 of thing that was helpful to me. It's
16:45 very important to manage the communications that
16:49 we have in our world today. We have beepers,
16:52 we have cell phones, we have instant
16:55 messengers, there are so many ways to
16:58 get a hold of us these days. You know,
17:00 I often say I can't wait till when I
17:03 retire. I'm going to take my beeper and
17:06 I'm gonna go out in a boat somewhere and
17:08 I'm just gonna heave that thing into that
17:11 you know ocean deep six it because it's such
17:15 an electronic leash, but how many of us
17:18 have these electronic leashes that are jerking
17:22 us with the urgent, but so often it's a
17:26 telemarketer or something else that's
17:28 not important and it keeps us from the
17:31 important lifestyle changes that we
17:34 really need to make to make progress
17:37 toward health. Absolutely, from the
17:40 perspective of scheduling time and this
17:43 was another thing that I learned. I have a
17:45 four year old daughter and she is a lot of fun,
17:48 but I quickly learned that if I did not put
17:50 family time into my schedule then my
17:53 adorable secretary would put something else
17:57 into that time, so I literally have to
17:59 schedule time to spend with my family or
18:01 schedule time to be physically active and
18:04 that really has been a blessing in my life with
18:08 that, so when a person decides that they have
18:12 clarified what it is that they want to do and
18:16 they begin taking steps towards achieving their
18:20 goal in variably bounce appear in the road
18:24 and we get easily distracted. Yes, I think
18:28 that is one of the devils main ways of
18:32 keeping us from achieving our goals is
18:35 to get us discouraged. Remember when you
18:39 learn to walk and I remember when my boy
18:42 started to walk. They didn't walk perfectly
18:46 from the first step. I'll never forget my
18:49 eldest boy. I had him all set in the chair
18:52 and I want to take a picture of him in this
18:55 cute little chair and I focused the camera and I
18:58 got it all ready and then he disappeared. He
19:00 was only ten months old and I thought where
19:03 could he have gone and there he was walking
19:05 toward me with his arms outstretched. I was so
19:08 excited, I put the camera and didn't get
19:10 the first picture unfortunately, but do
19:13 you think he ever fell after that. Of course
19:15 he did, did I get mad because he fell? No
19:19 I said keep trying, good work and you know
19:22 he can run and jump better than I can now.
19:25 He determined he was gonna be a walker,
19:28 no matter what and when we are making changes
19:32 in our lives it's so important to remember.
19:34 We are human, we will make failures or
19:38 we will have failures. Don't get discouraged,
19:42 there is no reason to. The other thing is
19:45 chose achievable goals. Small steps at first.
19:50 My son didn't say daddy I can walk, but I'll
19:56 never be able to learn to ride a bicycle today
19:59 will I. No, that didn't enter his head although
20:02 he can ride a bicycle now two small steps.
20:06 As we, I often tell my patients let's start
20:10 with just one thing drink water, just
20:14 drink six glasses a day for the next two
20:17 weeks and see what it does for you. That small
20:20 change will make a big difference. Try
20:23 exercising not a half an hour, try ten minutes.
20:27 Try taking the stairs rather than the
20:30 elevator, small changes make a big difference
20:34 in the long term and you can make the
20:37 changes if you will. Sometimes they feel that
20:41 self concept or when spiritual connection
20:47 has a part in this process. What part do
20:52 you think that plays in helping us to chose
20:56 healthy goals and actually stick with it.
20:57 I think that has a big part to play.
21:00 I think of people who come to see me as
21:03 their physician and sometimes I hear these
21:06 words. Well when it's your time it's your
21:10 time. There is nothing you can really do.
21:12 That's what we called fatalistic. You know
21:16 that is not helpful and it's not the truth.
21:20 You can make a difference in your life
21:25 and in your health by the choices you
21:28 make that is so clear. We do not have to be
21:33 fatalistic certainly God knows the number of
21:36 our days, but he has left it to us to some
21:41 degree at least the ability to shorten those
21:44 days much more than he would desire and
21:48 although we may live short or long we can
21:53 always choose to be thrivers to chose to
21:57 make the very best of life even in the worst
22:01 of life. I think of a patient that I attended
22:06 recently she is now deceased. She had a
22:09 genetic liver disorder, alpha-1 antitrypsin
22:14 deficiency, that liver disorder in her and in
22:18 many people will take their life from liver
22:22 disease. Her brother had died of this.
22:25 Her sister had died of this and she knew
22:28 that she would inevitably die of this
22:31 disease. She was admitted to the
22:34 hospital. She was swollen terribly and
22:38 you would think well she will be nearing
22:40 death and she will be dying and not very
22:43 alive. I walked down to the room the first
22:46 time I met her and you know I have never
22:50 seen a more alive person than this woman
22:54 who would go on to live not weeks, not months,
22:59 but merely days. I'll never forget the time;
23:03 it was around Halloween this year. I walked
23:06 into her room and she had one of these
23:09 things on her head. They called them a cone head,
23:12 stuck onto her head and she looked up at me
23:15 with sort of a quizzical look in her eyes and
23:18 she said doctor I have noticed the strange
23:20 swelling. Well, she was swollen all over and
23:24 I said have you been swelling more and
23:27 then she pointed to her head and she said
23:29 yes its here can you help me? And I said
23:31 well sure and I just reached over and
23:33 pulled it off. Her family was there. They had
23:36 a big laugh, you know amazing how alive
23:40 this woman was, it was almost as in her dying
23:44 she was giving life to us all and even in the
23:48 midst of dying or if you are in a prison
23:51 cell if you have a chronic disease, if you have a
23:56 terminal condition. You know, though that
23:59 where terminal condition, none of us
24:01 who are living in Jesus have a terminal
24:06 condition. We have life eternal promise to us
24:10 us and it is worth making changes for
24:14 this life and for the life to come. This
24:18 woman taught me that in any situation I
24:22 can chose to have life and have it more
24:26 abundantly that's part of being human you
24:29 know the ability to make choices, Christ death on
24:34 the cross guaranteed that you can make a
24:39 choice and your choice will be meaningful
24:43 and real. It will make a difference. It's so
24:47 important for us to internalize that truth.
24:51 Our choice is thanks to God's grace make a
24:57 difference. It seems that the choices that
25:00 we make with regard to health are often
25:03 influenced by a persons' philosophy of health.
25:06 Tell me a little bit about that and what
25:09 perhaps your philosophy of health might be.
25:11 Philosophy of health is really the way we
25:15 think about health or a belief system. I have
25:18 mentioned one of them a fatalistic. When it's your
25:21 time, it's your time. There is really nothing
25:23 that you can do about it that's one philosophy.
25:27 Another philosophy is genetic or hi-tech
25:31 it's in my genes. You know they say obesity
25:35 is genetic. I don't know if it is or not,
25:38 but you can sure see it in the genes. Not
25:42 everything is genetic and even those that
25:45 are modifiable with choices and the hi-tech
25:49 oh I'm waiting for a new pill or the new
25:52 treatment just out. Sir William Osler once said
25:56 use a medication while it works. You know
25:59 so many of our medicines seem not to work after a
26:03 while as people lose interest in them, but
26:06 it is important for us to have a good
26:08 philosophy of health. It's not a fatalistic,
26:11 it's not a wait for the latest, it's not what I
26:16 call new age which is just getting tune with
26:20 the harmonies of the universe. Yes, we want
26:22 to be in tune with God, but that God is not a
26:26 non-specific depersonalized force.
26:30 Our God is a personal God. Yes, I believe in
26:34 selflessness, but I do not believe in lack of
26:39 personhood or down plane individuality that
26:44 belongs to God or individual nature in God
26:47 alone. He loves us the way we are and as we see
26:51 how valuable we are to him that gives us the
26:55 wonderful ability to change. If you know you
26:59 are valued you will take care of yourself, well
27:04 just like your car. If you value your car you will
27:08 wax it, you will wash it, you will change the oil,
27:11 you will take good care of it. If you value your
27:15 body it's the same thing. What a wonderful
27:17 gift he has given us in these complex and yet
27:22 simply beautiful bodies. We can be so thankful
27:27 and we need to take care of them. Remember the
27:30 scripture, you are not your own, you are
27:33 bought with the price. Therefore glorify God in
27:37 your body. Yes, we should. We should
27:41 glorify him in what we eat and what we drink
27:44 and in everything we do because our choices
27:48 make a difference both for now and for eternity.
27:54 Our bodies truly are gift from God and a
27:58 Merry Heart Doeth Good Like a Medicine.
28:01 Thank you Dr. Howe for joining us today and
28:03 thank you audience for joining
28:05 us on Wonderfully Made.


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Revised 2014-12-17