Strange Ideas

I just started my Theory class yesterday and it definitely has me thinking. Some of the articles talk about nursing as integrating illness into the wellbeing of the person so that total health may not be the ultimate goal. I think this idea will help me in my practice to have realistic goals and thoughts regarding outcomes for my patients. Maybe I can help them to integrate the unexpected event into a new version of life for the patient and family.  Other articles I've been reading have me wondering where the Christian viewpoint comes into play and how I as a Christian nurse should view my profession and ways of thinking about people and nursing theory. One article I read was about getting away from the rigid the-truth-is-out-there-somewhere thinking to a truth-is-relative-and-dependent-on-individual-experience thinking. I have been fighting against these ideas since high school. I believe the truth IS out there. I believe God is truth and by knowing Him better we know truth better.  Does this prevent me from being open to new ideas? Maybe.  I'm trying.

We are charged with reading the book Peace and Power by Peggy L Chinn by next week. It explicitly states that it is feminist literature (which already gets me riled as I'm not a feminist). I agree with some/many of the precepts of the book, but I also think that the Bible said them first which is probably why they work.  The PEACE acronym stands for praxis, empowerment, awareness, cooperation, and evolvement.  These are addressed Biblically with verses such as:
Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." Matthew 7:3-5
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.  Ephesians 4:22-24

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:9-10

And the book also talks about PEACE-power rather than power-over which is again Biblical:
Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—" Matthew 20:25-27
No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. 1 Corinthians 10:24
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:3-4

Since the words are different from the Bible's words, it has me rethinking my ways of behaving and interacting, but when I really sit and analyze what is being said I feel it fits with my belief system all along.  And it is certainly something I should do better at putting into practice.