Living with the sound off

I wonder what someone would think of my life if it could be reviewed with the sound off? What my actions alone would say about what I value and what I believe? If the words and sentiments and good intentions were removed, and what I actually do was the only standard by which I was judged, how would I do?

I suspect that someone looking at my life from the outside would have to say that I value work above everything else - I certainly spend the most time there.

It is an interesting thought - maybe I should live as if I were living with the sound off?

Real Live Preacher on modern culture

Oh Yes! The Real Live Preacher does it again! This is a blog and collection of essays I have been reading for a while now, but this TV show review just hit the spot! It is about a show in the US which has just aired, about a minister and his gay son, drug using daughter, mafia connections and gay bishop. Wow!

RLP cans the show pretty thoroughly, but not for the reasons you might expect. In the process he makes some very insightful comments about modern Christianity and modern culture which bear repeating (edited for lenth):

Good God, I'm a Baptist preacher and even I was shouting, "OK, he's gay. Leave him alone, you heartless bastards!"

And then, of course, there's Jesus, who drops in now and again to see how the reverend is handling things, and all he does is hand out Life Savers and say things like, "Life is hard, but that's why there's a nice reward at the end." That's no Jesus I ever heard of. Jesus was nice and all, but he was a straight-up ass kicker. Believe it.

Yo, brothers and sisters in Christ. They weren't making fun of you. It's much worse than that. The folks at NBC don't care about you enough to make fun of you. They want to make money, that's all. They're not hypocrites; they're capitalists.

Stop taking things so personally. You're giving the rest of us Christians a bad name. Learn to laugh at yourself, or do what I did. Just turn off your TV, look at the person next to you, and say, "Well, that sucked!"

But I think all the uproar from Christians is symptomatic of a more disturbing trend. More and more Christians seem to think that affirmation from our culture is where they will find their power. Since when do religions need affirmation from television stations? What we should be doing is practicing our devotion and letting our changed lives speak for themselves. And I've got news for you, Christian. If your faith isn't changing your life enough to make a difference in the world, you've got bigger problems than NBC.

Oh, there is something a little ironic that I want to mention. The first six chapters of the actual book of Daniel -- the one in the Bible -- are about a young man named Daniel and some of his friends who are trying to live out their faith in a very hostile foreign land. Trust me, the Babylonians were much worse than NBC. Daniel's solution was to doggedly worship God in their own way, and let their lives be a quiet and steady witness of their faith.

Their devotion produced a living and real goodness that even won the heart of the King in the end. And all of this happened because they were not foolish enough to try to change Babylon, but rather changed themselves.

This is great stuff - I wish I had written it! I so often think that being a Christian should be about changing myself and through that, changing the world by meeting people where they are. Not about criticizing the world for where it is.

Which of course leads me to wonder: could someone tell that I am Christian by looking at my life with the sound off?

No more Solace posts.

I have become aware that some Solace people have been reading here, so I am removing the Solace membership thread. They were mainly my thoughts written for me and it may not be appropriate for them to be so publicly available. I am happy to continue to discuss these issues in private emails, but I plan to spend most of my time concentrating on praying for our direction as a church rather than thinking and writing about it.

Spiritual Warfare

Interesting sermon yesterday on Spiritual Warfare. The pastor I have had mixed feelings about, but this one was right on target. He himself has a son with schizophrenia, so he was up-front about the difference between demon possession and mental illness - two things I think a lot of people confuse.

He also managed to avoid the trap of falling into sensationalism and graphic horror stories about demon possession - I think this is hardly helpful and much too likely to impress people with the power of demons. He emphasized that most Christian teaching should focus on Jesus - in Him we have our victory - and not on demon possession and its manifestations. We should look to the light to dispell the darkness, not study the darkness!

Having issued all these badly needed caveats, he then went on to say that Christians should be aware of the spiritual warfare going on around us, and should be clad in the whole armour of God. It never really struck me before that the armour of God has so many pieces and that we need them all: the helmet of salvation, breastplate of rightousness, shod in the gospel of peace, belted in truth and with the shield of faith to quench the fiery darts of the enemy.

Amen!

Reflecting on needlesticks

Needlestick injuries are a professional hazard for any doctor. Some are more at risk than others, but it can happen to anyone. A needlestick from a person with HIV or Hep C could change our lives forever. Would we want to have children? If so, how would go about it? Could we still work?

Before choosing to do medicine I never thought about this issue. The abstract thought that doctors work with sick people and could catch something is quite different from the reality of a life-threatening illness. I guess when I was high school I was vaguely thinking about getting a lot of colds and the occasional bout of gastro.

As a medical student, in particular after my own needlestick experience, this issue became more of a reality. The impact it has on your life to wait for blood tests (and I was lucky and got mine from a low-risk patient) and potential implications for the rest of my life became more obvious. I resolved to be more careful.

The advent of SARS brought the issue out in a new way. SARS was frightening because being careful didn't seem to be enough. Health care workers were being struck down despite precautions, and for the first time I wondered: should I say no? Should I refuse to risk myself to see these patients? Fortunately, the decision was never seriously asked of me. The SARS patients I was asked to see I judged to be low-risk, and in fact they didn't have it.

Yesterday I realized that no matter how careful, how the risks are reduced, living with potentially infectious illnesses is a lifestyle choice for a doctor. Did we all realize this when we chose medicine? Not at all. Does that absolve us of the responsibility of taking this risk? Not at all. Choosing to be a doctor means taking a small calculated risk. We know how to reduce risk, and how to protect ourselves. We know what the risks are and shouldn't let media "scare tactics" influence our practice.

Doctors (all health care workers really) are privileged to work in a field which gives us the chance to see people's lives changed, and to be a part of that. We get enormous satisfaction from being able to help people (along with all the other stuff that goes with the job). We are supported, trained and educated by infrastructure provided by society and (generally) are held in respect as one of the "learned professions". Sometimes people even say thank you.

I love being a doctor, and if that means living with a small risk of catching a fatal illness, even after my best efforts to protect myself, I have always been ready to take that risk. I guess I never previously thought about how it could impact my family; Dean and our marriage, my (potential) children. How would I feel if Dean was the one to contract a fatal illness? He is actually at higher professional risk than I am.

It doesn't change the basic equation - this is what it is to be a doctor. I know that, and I still choose my profession. The rewards are worth the risk.

Interesting link - Reasonable Faith

Interesting link: http://www.reasonablefaith.com.au I haven't read much of it yet, but I expect to. This may well appear along with my links in the sidebar, sometime soon!

CS Lewis: What Christmas Means To Me

I have just been sent this link to CS Lewis' Christmas essay www.geocities.com/regkeith/linkholidaysCSLewis.htm (sorry about the music). This essay captures very well a lot of the annoying aspects of the "commercial" Christmas. CS Lewis observes, very truly, that there are in fact three different celebrations on Dec 25th:

One is a religious festival. The second is a popular holiday, and the third is of course the commercial racket.

I think the problem I have is extracting and celebrating the first meaning from the "noise" of the other two.

Fortunately in our family the third (commercial) Christmas is becoming less and less prominent every year. This year I think everyone gave and received Oxfam or TEAR charity cards! This is a great step forward from a few years ago when Dean and I were thought to be weirdos for doing this.

I was a little sad to see the Myer windows this year. They were a celebration of "Ex-Mas", which I assume used to be Christmas but is no longer.