The 3 Things That Make Us Whole: BODY, MIND, and SPIRIT

This is us—all three elements: Body, Mind and Spirit. All three are of relatively equal

importance. All three must work together. All three must be in balance if we want to live

happy, productive and creative lives. One way to judge a society is to look at how they nurture

all three in the raising of their young. So how are we doing?

BODY

We know the basics: nutrition, hydration, exercise and rest. We schedule annual physicals and

get our children vaccinated. Never in the history of the world have we had more information

and medical science to assist us in the care of our physical bodies.

MIND

On an intellectual level, we send our young to good schools, where they have better access to

data and information than at any point in history. When it comes to mental health, we’ve

made tremendous progress here in my lifetime, though we have a ways to go. Discussion of

mental health has emerged from the closets and is much more a part of our society’s

conversation. We have learned a great deal about brain chemistry, depression, and anxiety.

Seeking therapy no longer carries the stigma of shame that it once did.

SPIRIT

Where did we come from? Where are we going? What are we supposed to be doing in the

meantime? What is our purpose? What is the meaning of life? These are universal questions

that every person must contemplate. At its best, religion has been a traditional framework to

grapple with these questions. But as less and less children are being raised within a religious

tradition, what is taking its place? How are we nurturing the souls of our children?

In the Gospel of Matthew, a paralytic is brought before Jesus. It’s interesting that the first thing

Jesus said was not the obvious response, “Be healed”, but rather, “Your sins are forgiven”.

Maybe Jesus is trying to tell us that the matters of the spirit matter at least as much as the

matters of body and mind. Perhaps, as we read in Mark 8:36, “What good is it for someone to

gain the whole world, yet forfeit their souls?”

When I was a child, I did pretty well in school. I wasn’t always the sharpest tool in the shed

(especially in math) but I got decent grades and I tended to behave pretty well. Why was that?

Body, mind or spirit? Well, yes—I was fortunate to have good physical health. My parents

made me eat my vegetables and I had a reasonable bedtime. And yes—my intellectual and

mental health was nurtured by loving parents who read to me, took me to museums and

concerts, and talked to me about my feelings. But I also was raised with this basic idea: that

God created me with a purpose…that I had a responsibility to develop my God-given gifts as

best I could. It wasn’t a fear thing—like God would only love me if I got good grades. It was just

an understanding of how we should do our best to respond to our creation.

As a school teacher for 30 years, I found it interesting that, when dealing with a “troubled”

student, the “experts” immediately suspected the problem was with the “mind” and not the

“spirit” (or even “body”). And yes—it often was a crisis of the mind. But oftentimes I thought

that it was actually a crisis of the spirit—a lack of any guiding force in the student’s life. And, of

course, it was often probably a combination of all three elements.

In our Sonshine musicals, we often see characters experiencing a crisis of the spirit. In “Dream

Maker”, Joseph prays, “Lord, why me—am I someone special? Is it I—the one who seems to

hear you?” In “Chains”, Saul cries out, “The hurt I feel so deep inside of me. It longs for love;

Oh God, it longs for you.” In “Chosen”, the Everyperson faces a spiritual crisis and exclaims, “I

am not some type of …of marionette who you can control with the movement of strings. I

seem to have no place in your orchestra, so I leave you. I quit!” And in this year’s musical,

“Spark From the Ashes”, a grieving Jairus sings, “But now my precious daughter—she grows

weaker every day. Why would God give her life if he was just going to take it away?”

Sonshine is more than a musical experience. It’s more than a drama experience. We design

Sonshine to be a convergence of all three elements—body, mind, and spirit. We provide a safe

space where young people can develop not only their body and mind, but their spirit as well.

We do not seek to indoctrinate, but to provide a framework—rooted in Christian

spirituality—for young people to contemplate the hard questions of life. We lift each other up

in prayer. We perform for God’s glory, not our own. We see in each cast member the very face

of Christ.

Perhaps this is what is missing more than anything in our society—the development of the

spirit. Perhaps this is why young people need activities like Sonshine more than ever.

-Written by Mark Fox