Out of the Basement

For the last couple months I have kept a secret. That is not something that I tend to do... I really prefer to keep things out in the open; if its out in the atmosphere it can be much more easily managed than within the confines of the mind! But I was tasked to hold my tongue... so I did! It all started with Angie's return from a visit with her endocrinologist. Having been diagnosed with diabetes last year, she makes frequent sojourns to his very busy office for random blood-lettings and lectures about insulin and all its wonderful purposes for the body! She made mention to me that she had detected a lump in her throat and that he had paid alarm to it, going so far as to schedule a sonogram and an aspiration biopsy. Upon sharing this news with me, she also asked that I keep it between us and to definitely not "put it on Facebook" or tell a bunch of people about it! If she didn't speak it into existence, then it might not be bad. Hence the secret! I have been swell

For those who have not been paying attention... the Healthcare bill will most likely pass today. But before it does; just a thought... When people look back, they will not recall the supposed entitled benefits of the enlightened ideology reflected out from the progressive thinkers of our time. Oh no, more likely, they will bitterly and sorrowfully recall the mistaken abandoning of the freedoms long battled for and won to enjoy this great culture! Of course by then, the despotic tyrants (that historically always follow those ideologues) will not care for the mournful remembrances of freedoms, which by then, will have long since been revoked.They will know what is best for us whether we agree or not! Sound familiar? It is amazing to see the price people are willing to pay... Liberty is not as often taken as it is just given away...one lethargic concession at a time!

There is never a good time to get a call that starts with the phrase "I hate to have to call and tell you this...but...!" Still they come nonetheless. I am certain that no one is ever prepared when it does... not really! We got one of those calls last week. It was reminiscent of similar calls from the past, and it brought the same awkward rush of anxiety, fear, and emotion as those before it! You really are never prepared... Angie got a call concerning her dad's emergency admittance to the hospital. He is almost 82, and has struggled with several difficult health issues for a while. She was told that the doctors were at wit's end with how to treat him! The fear was that he might have had a heart attack. Turns out he did; or at least half of one. The incomplete heart attack is apparently quite a risk in that the heart still wants to correct itself . Therein lies the jeopardy for an octogenarian with a very weak and frail heart. He had valve replacement surgery 21 yea

I went to the doctor today...upper respiratory infection with a side of sinusitis! At least that is what I was told! Isn't that how it works with doctors? We wait in the "waiting" room and then are herded into some triage area for them to add to the bill with temperature, weight, and blood pressure checks! I am thinking maybe to fore go all the perfunctory "padding of the bill" and get to making me feel better! But instead, I get to read the equivalent of War and Peace in out dated magazines as I am attempting to tune out what is surely the spawn of Satan while hoping that the noxious chemical smell causes me to pass out so that time will pass more quickly. I am certain that all 26 of the people who work in the office have some role that keeps them busy, other than, of course, caring for the patients! I have learned how to cook chili, paint cars, and cheat on taxes all from the other side of those smoky glass windows of the "Reception Office." Al

Last night in our Bible study I taught a lesson called "What God does and doesn't want." I taught from one of my favorite verses, Micah 6:8. The verse in its simplest forms tells us to act justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly. The narrative prior to this verse describes the many things that God did for Israel and leads to verse 8 where the prophet simply asks, "and what does God require of you?" Verse 8 is the answer... Three very simple things...but oh so hard to accomplish! I started my study in the Book of Genesis where Adam and Eve first discover that they are naked and ashamed. Shortly following, God comes into the garden and they are hiding from him because their eyes have been opened to their sin and the shame. In this verse, we see the essence of humanity's struggle; we long for things forbidden and we smother from the weight of the guilt that it brings! I also taught from the fifth chapter of Galatians as we discussed what God does not want. It s

I start a new bible study with my college career group next week and I will be teaching a fourteen week series I call, "Surviving now...Back to the Basics." As i mentally prepare to dig into this study, I am forced to ponder how this study is so relevant to what is going on in the world. I have so many concerns for what all these young adults are facing and my fear is that they will not be grounded enough to withstand the torrent of these times that they will face. As I watch the news every day, I am baffled by the insanity of a culture seeking to bury the truths that were the building blocks of its foundation while at the same time offering no replacement for it other than a me-centered philosophy wrought with hostility and abusive intolerance! Forget the polarity between liberal and conservative ideology; we have become a country full of dissensions and schisms that prohibit free or independent thinking...some day it will be the right to speak that that will no longer be fr