I grew up before cell phones and social media.  So my world felt smaller and I was more sheltered.  I realize that for many years my view of others was limited by what I and my nuclear family were like.  I thought that either everyone was like us and thought the way we thought….or else maybe they should.  I know now,  or perhaps am beginning to realize, how limited I was in my thinking.  I believe there are absolute truths.  It is just that they do not extend out to the point of all my preferences and opinions!

One absolute truth taught by the word of God is that every person is created in His image.  What I did not fathom is how vast and wide God is.  He has people who love Him who are vastly different from me.  They have different pasts, different cultures, different ways of approaching problems, different gifts, different weaknesses, different looks, different tastes….and the list goes on.  Diversity can be so beautiful.

The world has opened up for me in so many ways compared to when I was young.  I have learned that the few boundaries that God did set down for all men and women not to cross are actually for our protection….not to limit us.  I am truly awed and amazed at the variety to be found in people and country and nature itself.  It all points to the glory of a magnificent creator.  How sad is the  blindness of many who have been brainwashed into believing evolution.  Apes and monkeys are magnificent in their own right, but they are not our ancestors.  Our heritage is so much more glorious.  There is such potential in each and every one of us!

At Christmas  I wonder……….

What if Christ had not come?

I am so glad that I don’t have to live with the cost of Christ’s “not coming.”  I know that He did come!  He came to this world quietly, like a newly fallen snow.  Not a lot of fanfare.  The shadow of the cross hung even over the manger.  But come, Jesus did…. and He came to die.  It makes all the difference.  He died so I can live.  Apart from His grace, I would have no hope.  I would live out my life with some days being good and some days being bad, but the end would be tragic.  No matter what I did, I would never be able to stand and argue my way into heaven.   I would never be GOOD by God’s standard and that is the only standard that counts.  Fortunately, there IS GRACE.   His name is Jesus.  He came to die for MY sins.   He changes the world and builds His kingdom quietly….as life by life He redeems.

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,

for His steadfast love endures forever!  Let the redeemed of the Lord say so………………….

I just went to London for the first time. I was excited to see, with my own eyes, things I had only viewed in photographs. (I would have loved to see some of the royal family, but it was not to be.) Anyway, though it was fun, It seemed to me that London resembled other big cities. And when you go underground…….all subways are the same. There is something dehumanizing about them. I always end up feeling like a sardine…..packed tightly with all the other fish! No one smiles. Is no one happy about where they are headed? Or maybe they just hate the method as much as I do. I suppose it is a necessary evil in a metropolis, but I always come away thinking that we were not meant to live like that….. all so impersonal, strangers to each other.

Of course, there are similar problems above ground. Something is wrong when homeless people fall asleep on a sidewalk and everyone just steps over or around them. Is it compassion fatigue? Self-absorption? Fear? I do not know, and I don’t know how to fix it, but I know that it isn’t right.

I realize that small towns have their own unique problems. And sometimes it is nice to be anonymous…..for a short time. But as for day to day living, I prefer less traffic, even though it comes with fewer options for restaurants, shopping and activities. I prefer to have people know me. I want people to greet me. I want a place where, if I fall down, someone will pick me up. If I were to become homeless in my small town, someone would know my name and likely would try to help me. Those are reasons I traded a small town for the rhythm of a city. I want that sense of community.

I believe that everyone, no matter where they live, longs for community. I believe we were created for love….to love God and ourselves and each other. So maybe….just maybe…. there is something that could be done to increase that sense of community in all of our towns….great and small. After all, is it not when we love our neighbor as ourselves, that we really have that sense of belonging?

One of the things that has intrigued me as a small town physician is that when I take a few extra minutes to get to know a patient, I always come away amazed. There is always a depth of potential and talent and experience hidden beneath the surface of every human being. I am always left richer by the discussion. So wherever you live, small town or big city, it is always worth the effort to get beyond a superficial knowledge of those you interact with. You know that small town mentality where everyone knows your business and you know theirs? Well, it is really not so bad. In fact, it is a blessing. People are isolated and lonely. We need God and each other. We need to care and be cared for. We need to have that sense of belonging. The world would be blessed if we could spread that small town mentality everywhere!

There is a beauty in the rhythms of life. It is reassuring that the sun rises every morning and sets every night. One can go to sleep knowing that the sun will come up again. And every day closes with the same predictable event, even though each sunset is also gloriously and often breathtakingly unique.

The same is true for the seasons. Spring…..summer….fall….winter…..and then spring again! It helps us to feel secure to have this rhythm. We did not design it (for one thing, who would design winter???) but there obviously IS a design. It is beautiful and something to be thankful for.

There is a beauty, also, in the design of the species. Both we and the animal kingdom have within us an ability to adapt to change. Birds can have their beaks grow longer or shorter. Humans can, over generations, develop a different skin tone to respond to a different climate.  Chameleons really can change their colors.  Old dogs can indeed learn new tricks. The adaptation of species is truly amazing.

What about all this rhythmic beauty? We would never expect a Shakespearean sonnet to suddenly fall from the sky….and yet we are expected to believe that there is no designer behind all of this design? How can that be? We are a brilliant human race and can do much. We can predict the weather. We can manipulate DNA We can even clone. But we only do this by understanding the design and laws that are already present. God’s word says it is the glory of God to conceal things and the glory of kings to search things out. As kings (or scientists) continue to search things out, I wish they would not miss the grandeur of the universe…the magnificent RHYTHMIC BEAUTY in life.

WE ALL NEED OUR OLIVET!  I read this line this morning and the truth of it struck me.  It was referring to that quiet place of separation from the hammer of life.  That “alone with God” space that we all need.  What stress we all live with in our world.  There must be an escape valve.  There must be a way to release the pressure that builds in all of us. Otherwise there is a form of internal combustion. We can call it by different names.   Nerves, anxiety, stress, OCD, insomnia….the list goes on and on.   An extreme form is post traumatic stress disorder.  In some cases the result can be extreme depression or addiction or even killing rages.   In everyone ‘s life rain does fall, plans go awry, dreams die, regrets fill us, tragedies sideline us.  No one is exempted.

How shall we cope?  As a physician, I have watched people try many ways, but there is only one that truly works long term.  The Olivet.  It is the means to “get away” and access the wisdom needed to ascertain truth or have your vision realigned so that you are able to weather any storm.  Storms of loss or loneliness, illness or poverty, fear or regret.

One of my biblical heroes is Daniel.  I named my son after this man.  The biblical Daniel was, as a teen, ripped from his home and made a slave in a foreign land.  He saw brutality and warfare.  He knew the immense loss of having everything he held dear stripped from him at a young age through no fault of his own.  But he had his Olivet, amidst Babylon’s noisy world, by a window in his upper room.  It is where he went to escape the world and commune with God.  Though it landed him in a den of lions it also kept him sane.  He found the strength and wisdom to cope.  We can learn from men like him.

We live in such a broken world.  We are all constantly in danger of falling apart.  And physically we all eventually do!  Death is that reminder of our need for something this world will never offer.  It is a historically, well-documented fact that here has only been one to conquer death and rise again.  And we need to have communion with Him.  And even He, when he was here, had his Olivet where he communed with the Father.

I am amazed by the grandeur of nature.    I cannot comprehend the unfathomable vastness of space.  The Grand Canyon can take my breath away.  An eagle in flight can make my spirit soar.  But it is the small and nearly invisible things that truly put me in awe of creation.

An example of this came to me recently as I was reading about, of all things, an egg.  An egg you say?  Yes, a simple egg.  Every living person could probably write a short paper about the “incredible, edible” egg.  Could there actually be a fact about the egg that I have never heard?  I’ve eaten and cooked with enough eggs that I should, along with the rest of the world, be an expert.  I have never raised chickens or scooped eggs from a nest but I have a friend who does this, and I have visited her chickens.  I have studied the content of the yolk and the white.  Good for you?  Not good for you?  (I will not comment other than to say I would have a very hard time not eating eggs!)

Anyway,  I have never thought much about the shell, other than how to crack it one-handed like they do on cooking shows, and still keep the shells out of food.  But to a chick, this shell must keep it safe while it is developing.  That means it has to be tough!  Then when the chick is ready to hatch, it must release the chick.  That means it must be weak!  How is that possible?

Well……….it turns out that the eggshell has 2 outer layers that are made strong by a protein that binds calcium.  Then when the chick is ready to hatch, the calcium from the inner layer is released and becomes part of the chick’s bone structure.  At the right time, the chick gets stronger and the eggshell gets weaker and then……….peck, peck, peck until the sun shines into the chick’s little world!

When someone asks “May I help you” or ” Do you need anything?”, how do you respond?   I am prone to say “No thanks, I am fine.” I HATE to appear weak or like I don’t know something I feel I should know.  But I recently read something that made me realize how off the mark I am.  It was a simple story about someone who was working hard to help a seriously ill family member.  She put off other things…….like looking at her messages…but when she eventually did, one was from a friend asking if she needed anything.  Her first response was to say no, because she was embarrassed!  That’s me!  I am embarrassed to ask for help!  Many times I have been too embarrassed to even ask a question!!

But I have been thinking lately about truth.  I value honesty, both in myself and others.  I am realizing that there are subtle ways we deviate from the truth. There are little ways we lie to others and ourselves.  It is a truth that if you are human, you are not truly self sufficient. There have been many who have helped and sacrificed for me in order for me to be where I am today.  No one can truly raise themselves and provide all of their own opportunities. We all need help in different ways.  I am realizing that my go to “I’m fine” answer says more about my pride than my real need.  I don’t like to admit that I need help.  I want the world to think I can take care of myself….that there is no problem I cannot solve.  I am NOT needy!

I need to try to understand better when and where I need help.  That would be a better use of my energy than hiding my needs from the world and even myself.  It is not a sign of weakness to admit you need help.  It is often a necessary first step to moving forward.  So I am resolving to admit I AM needy.  After all, it has been true all along. .. and pretending not to be is not healthy.  Besides, pretending to have it all together all the time is exhausting!

America’s trust in her government may be on the cusp of disintegrating!  Crispin Sartwell, a philosophy professor at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. says that “The basic problem isn’t that people don’t trust institutions, but that the institutions aren’t trustworthy.”  Amen to that!  But neither is much of the media.  Or advertisements.  Or churches.  Or schools.

The downward slide toward allowing just a “facade of truth” has been a long one.  Think about it.  As a society, we have decided that truth is relative.  My truth may not be your truth.  But what you believe is equal to what I believe, regardless of whether or not either of our beliefs are true. How crazy is that?

No longer do we delve deep into a subject, searching honestly for the truth of a matter.  It is more important to uphold what is profitable, self-serving, politically expedient, or advantageous.  Lying for the greater good has become a normative behavior.  We lie to avoid hurting others. We lie to sell something.  We lie to avoid exposing our sins.  We lie to cover our previous lies.   You often cannot believe your neighbor or friend or work associate.  So if everyone has become a liar (and there are not little lies and big lies…..just lies), it is of course folly to believe an institution made up of liars.

I live in South Carolina and for days we have been wondering what effects hurricane Florence would have.  Though it was downgraded from a category 4 to a category 2 before landfall, it has certainly been destructive.  For some it has been truly devastating.  Suffering comes in all sorts of ways, but when it comes from something that we have absolutely no control over, it causes its own sort of anxiety.  And hopefully, it provokes deeper thought.

Control over our lives is pretty much an illusion, anyway.  We certainly have the ability to choose different paths.  But our vision of what is down those paths is very limited.  It is often the unexpected, good and bad, that shapes ours lives.  And sometimes what is painful redirects us to a better path.  Years ago, someone wrote “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn…”

My daughter was married this past weekend. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was so much fun. It is always wonderful to get a large group of friends and family together with great food and music….it definitely is a wondrous “moment” in life. I have been married 34 years and still look back at my wedding day and honeymoon with wonder.

Listening to my daughter and son-in-law say their vows made me remember how marriage is to be a mini-example of the relationship between Christ and his bride, the church. Each of them said to the other, “With all that I am, and with all that I have, I honor you” So simple. Why can we say that to another human and not to our creator? That is all he asks…for us to love Him with all we are.

So we should live with those words in our consciousness….

Lord, with all that I am and with all that I have, I honor You.

Such a simple way to change the world.