More on Health Care Issues

I saw an  ad on TV warning against the what they call Oboma-care health care  and using scare tactics showing a government bureaucrat getting between the patient and doctor saying you can’t give that treatment.

The big problem, and I speak from personal experience, is that my health insurance company has been telling my doctor for years that I can’t have a treatment unless I am willing to pay 100 percent of it. They are already doing what the ads are trying to scare us with. How dumb do they think we are? They pulled that trick several times before and they think it will work again.

 

Fear of the unknown or what might be moves people to action against their own best interest. It is the same arguments of fear with medicare.

 

The very real issue in these arguments is money. How should health care money be collected and spent? There are no easy answers. Instead of arguments from fear we need to examine other ways of talking about how we do health care for all our citizens with out breaking the bank to pay for it. Clear heads and common ground are needed but political re-elections seem to be the guard at the gate. All we seem to have in both major political parties are self centered career politicians. Well that is what we have to work with and we keep sending them back to congress.  

Trivial Time

The paradox of our time is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

Our time is precious and far too often wasted on trivial concerns. Take a few moments of your precious time to consider your place in eternity and the trivial will melt away.

Personal and Professional Ethics

When I was in seminary I took a required course called “Ministerial Ethics” and had to sign the Minister’s Code of Ethics at the end of the course. I was glad to do so and have lived by that code ever since.  Some years later I accepted a position as adjunct professor of World Religions at Jacksonville University and they required me to sign an educators code of ethics before  I began teaching. Again I was glad to do so and abide by it.

Over the years I have noticed many people who shoot their careers in the foot because they violated their professional code of ethics. These violations often involve money or sex, two very powerful forces in our world. Both as a pastor and a teacher I know that it is always wrong to have sexual relations with anyone under my authority. No pastor should ever have sex with a parishioner. No teacher should ever have sex with a student in a school where the teacher is employed. It is always a violation of the code of ethics.

Any time a professional violates his or her professional or personal code of ethics they destroy a part of themselves and they put their career in jeopardy. It is also damaging to the subordinate over whom they have authority. I am appalled when I see men doing it and totally blown away when I see women doing it. The recent spate of  female teachers in elementary and secondary schools having sex with male students is more than my mind can comprehend.  

Marathon Runners

Many people enjoy running in The Marathon races and that intrigues me. I have watched the New York Marathon and marveled at the number of really old people running and finishing it. For anyone to run for very long distances requires a lot of hard training. The runners of the Marathon race must persevere through the point of collapse. Some call it hitting the wall.   Then they get that second wind and go on and on and on.

Great throngs of runners enter Marathon races and the numbers that drop out of the race along the way is huge. These are hard races to take part in, through city streets - up and down hills over bridges and often in the worst weather. What does it take to finish a race like that?  I had a friend on the board of the YMCA who loved to run long races and he used to speak about hitting the wall and the effort it took to not give up and to on keep running. He would get all excited about the great feeling of exhilaration he would feel once he got past it because he was then able to finish the race he started.

          I remember watching a runner in the New York City Marathon coming in dead last but he finished the race. He was totally exhausted but he did it. That is running with perseverance. That kind of running takes a lot of training. I would not be able to go out and run that kind of race... at this point my legs would turn to rubber. I would need years of race training to even attempt it. To finish the marathon a runner must persevere through the length of the race. Over come every obstacle and reach beyond ones own limits.

Life itself is a kind of marathon where we set high goals and train ourselves to overcome all obstacles including our own pain to reach our goals. It is worth the effort in the long run. - Pun intended.

Christian ??? Marriage

It was about two AM when the phone rang. The Raymore Police needed the Police Chaplain to report for a domestic disturbance call. As I walked up the front steps I could hear the loud arguments and shouting at the police. An officer met me at the door and explained the situation both were violent and neither wanted to press charges. Could I help? 

When I walked in to the house everything got real quiet. Those two officers were impressed with the power of the cross on my collar. What the officers didn’t know was I knew the couple; I had married the couple only three years before. They were embarrassed to have me see them like this.

          I ask the officers to leave and assured them that I would be all right. The couple and I began to remember their wedding and how much they loved each other. I ask how could such a loving couple get in to fighting this way? Several months of counseling followed. One of the problems in that relationship the husband thought that the husband had the right to punish his wife if he thought that she had disobeyed him.

          Many are the men who remember that somewhere in the Bible it says that a wife should be subject to her husband and that the husband is head of the wife. They are correct but they don’t remember enough about that scripture.

          Note how Ephesians chapter five verse twenty-one starts us off; “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.”  Be subject to one another is an important concept in the Christian Marriage. For the Apostle Paul to say this in a very male dominated world is astounding.  Yet through out this section on Christian marriage that theme predominates.

On Fire For Jesus

A church member complained to a church secretary about being burned out on church work. She replied, “Honey you can't be burned out - You’ve never been on fire.”

There is a difference between doing church work and being involved in a ministry for Jesus. That difference is the passion one has or doesn’t have for Jesus. It is a spiritual, emotional and committed passion that takes the first place in your life.

I believe that to be a Disciple of Jesus means I have a passion to love and serve God. That means my number one priority is a burning desire to please God in everything I do.

New Life With A Change

Sadly my lovely yellow rose bush planted in 2006 died in 2009 after producing these lovely yellow flowers for three years. So I cut the bush back to the ground with plans to purchase a new rose bush to replace it.

Last year to my delight the bush grew back but did not bloom. This year rose buds appeared and when they began to open I did a double take - the flowers are RED.

I am amused with this change. The company that produced the yellow rose must have grafted yellow plants on red roots. Cutting the bush back to the roots when the bush died gave the original plant a chance to be reborn in its natural color.

When a child is conceived a physical body is grafted to a spiritual soul and blooms in this world with what ever color and shape is provided by the two parents. For all the years of physical life what is perceived is one thing to the world and and another to God. When the physical dies the immortal soul returns to God in its original form.