Not Home

I’m not a poet, but sometimes I like to pretend anyway. So even though a Pulitzer isn’t in the works here, I thought I’d share a feeble attempt at describing my recent week apart from my family.

Not Home

I took my normal route, the same road                                                                                              I always travel, to that little abode                                                                                                  We moved our things into last August, but I’m not home.

The key turns the lock just right,                                                                                                   And the switch for the front room light                                                                                            Is exactly where it should be, but I’m not home.

I walk in and wash out my coffee mug                                                                                             In the sink with dirty plates and the empty jug                                                                             Of orange juice you left me, but I’m not home.

The kids’ toys haven’t changed places                                                                                         Since Tuesday. And the frames with faces                                                                                          So familiar still smile back, but I’m not home.

Books closed, alarm set, I settle into bed                                                                                             Searching for rest and eager to shed                                                                                                     This momentary loneliness, because I’m not home.

Tomorrow (!) I leave behind this housed filled                                                                            With our stuff, and I’ll be more than thrilled                                                                                     To be reunited – and finally home.

Responsible Gambling?

I listen to talk radio a lot — perhaps too much, but that’s a discussion for another day. More often than not I manage to tune out radio ads, a gift I’m happy to own. But this weekend on our journey home from Fresno I kept hearing the same commercial for a local casino. The part that really drew my attention was the public service announcement (required by law???) tagged on to the end. “PLEASE GAMBLE RESPONSIBLY.” Call me crazy (you will, I promise), but I’ve spent a little time reflecting on this series, and I’ve reached the conclusion that “responsible gambling” is indeed an oxymoron. More seriously, I think this is a subject Christian young men in particular have been quick to embrace and slow to consider. Here are two highlights from the link I posted.

1. Gambling is inconsistent with biblical virtue. It is fueled by—and it fuels—covetousness, greed, and materialism. It is associated with crime, vice and corruption, so that wherever gambling exists, crime rates rise. And it is contrary to the biblical work ethic, because it is an attempt to gain wealth without working for it.
2. Our possessions are not our own to squander. They are given to us as a stewardship, and we will be accountable to God for how we use them. To put God-given resources at risk is to fail in the faithfulness required of stewards.

I’m not ready to call down fire and brimstone on your Friday night nickle, dime, quarter poker game, but perhaps you might be challenged to consider whether your gambling activities are really that fruitful?

Deadly Happy Ignorance

Stephanie and I recently enjoyed the guilty pleasure of a sappy movie, The Time Traveler’s Wife (Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana). If you can tolerate an unabashed romantic drama with rather gaping holes in its plot (or in this case, slightly awkward plot devices), then it’s worth the $1 at Red Box and the 100 minutes you’ll spend as a resident couch potato. On a serious note, in a particularly moving scene, one of the characters faces a serious medical condition (work with me, I’m trying not to give too much a way), and his wife pleads with the doctor that there must be a way, “there must be a pill or something” to fix this serious problem. Leaving aside that juicy softball about “pills,” it’s perfectly natural that in crisis we become aware of our mortality. Yet, it reminded of something we’ve all heard in one iteration or another — we are all dying, but only a few know it. Most of us meander through life happily ignorant of the basic truth that we are but a vapor. Thank God (really!) that for those who cling to Christ happily ignorant that they are dying just like everyone else, death is not our final enemy. But what a deadly happy ignorance for those who don’t.

Politics is no Savior

Quick reaction to the election of 2010.

Living in CA I was less enthusiastic about the elections than other conservatives across this great country. I am perplexed why a state that has been run into the proverbial ditch continues to re-elect the fools that put us there. I’m frustrated by the class warfare that is so effectively used, and the attitude of entitlement that prevails among our people, including many so-called conservatives. Mostly, I’m saddened that one of the pivotal issues in the voting rubric for many (most?) Californians is the preservation of our legalized ghoulish butchery of children.

Praise God our country has taken steps to pursue another course of governance. Yet, God is no more sovereign today than he was when Barack Obama was elected, and he won’t be any less sovereign in 2012 if Obama retains the presidency. Of course I pray that whole “change” thing continues.

Lastly, I caught this gem in the comments thread over at Dan Phillips blog:

“we have an ideologically entrenched population – wealthy liberals who are insulated from the problems they create, and an enormous number of recipients of their “generosity” who can’t see any other way to live or think, and who pay zero taxes. The only way for the conservative movement (as opposed to what passes for the Republicrats here (hello, Arnold)) to prosper is a intentional, stubborn in the midst of stiff arming, pursuit of minorities and the poor. And I think the only people in the conservative movement who can, and must, do that, are the church. And not first for the sake of our state, but for the sake of the souls in our state. 

Your Mother Always Told You to Wash Your Hands: Doctors and Arrogance

This past July JAMA published a paper highlighting how nearly 100,000 people every year die from hospital acquired infections, and an additional 44,000 to 98,000 die from preventable mistakes. TWO. HUNDRED. THOUSAND. HUMAN. BEINGS. The study’s author Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD reports that one of the greatest barriers to protecting patients are doctors “who are overconfident about the quality of care they provide or always believe things will go right and aren’t prepared when they don’t.”

Arrogance kills.

Physicians aren’t the only group prone to pride, but it wouldn’t hurt if we learned a lesson from medical history. Ignaz Semmelweis originally sought a career in law, but wised up (ha!) enough to pursue medicine. After his training he took a position at First Obstetrical Clinic, one of two maternity clinics in Vienna. First Clinic functioned as the training facility for medical students whereas Second Clinic was staffed exclusively by midwives. As it turned out the mortality rate at First Clinic was consistently higher year-to-year than at Second Clinic. Things got so bad that women assigned to First Clinic would literally get on their knees and beg to be reassigned, or they would pretend to go into labor in the streets (in this way they would still retain the “free” benefits associated with giving birth at the clinic).

Skipping forward in our story, Semmelweis suggested that First Clinic’s higher death rate could be attributed to poor hygiene by attending obstetricians who would go from an autopsy to a delivery without washing their hands. By simply cleansing with a chlorinated lime solution (common in household bleach today) the mortality rate would eventually drop 90% at First Clinic to a rate comparable to Second Clinic.

Despite the success of Semmelweis’ implementations, his theory identifying poor physician hygiene as the root cause of the problems at First Clinic was *rejected* by the medical establishment. Why? It’s true that germ theory had yet to be popularized by Pasteur and Lister, but that ignores the heart of the issue. Doctors thought of themselves as gentlemen, and it was beneath them to consider their hands might be dirty. Simple arrogance. Semmelweis’ story turns out rather tragically, but certainly provides an effective salvo against the potentially lethal dangers of pride.

John Calvin’s Prayer of Reflection – Jeremiah 18:14-17

“Grant, Almighty God, that we may in due time anticipate thy wrath and never so kindle it by our perverseness as to preclude every remedy; and then also when thou for a time chastisest us, do not wholly cast us away, but let this resort ever remain to us, to seek thee in the day of calamity and to find thee accessible, so that being reunited to thee we may find that thou rememberest mercy even in wrath, until we shall enjoy a full and real participation of thy favour and paternal love in thy celestial kingdom, which has been procured for us by the blood of thine only-begotten Son. — Amen.”

Live Streaming of Page CXVI Hymns

Page CXVI has generously provided free live streaming of their first two albums. Enjoy.