Update – Random Thoughts

Well, when I said I would be writing some more, I guess I lied.  The patients that I’ll be treating in the future are better for it, since I have been nose deep in my computer, notes, and books for most of this academic year.

A quick med school update… I’m in the second semester of my second year of the  4-year to-do.  This is the “money semester,” as I call it, in that it is the last time to get grades for “classwork” and because I take boards in June.  June 15th at 9:00 am to be exact.  Eight hours later, I’ll be done (Lord-willing).  For those of you who might not know, Step 1 of the boards is a pretty big deal.  Passing obviously is good, but getting the best score possible is the best way to get into the residency that you want.  I also have a choice to make on whether or not to take just the boards I’m required to take (COMLEX) or to take both the COMLEX and the USMLE (MD students are required to take these).  I don’t know, so just pray for some clarity on that.  In other Med School news, I got a spot in Knoxville for clinical rotations (3rd and 4th year)  This means I don’t have to worry about getting up even earlier to be at the hospital, or getting an apartment to crash somewhere because home is an hour away. I’m excited, and I know Jen is ready for me to be back home for good.

A couple of other random observations…

ROLL TIDE!!!!!  # 13 is finally here!  I seriously doubt Alabama will repeat next year.  Florida will most likely be the greatest obstacle but, as usual, the LSU and Alabama game will determine the representative from the SEC West.

Go Scott Brown!  I’m glad that his election meant that the disastrous bill that is being touted as the only healthcare reform plan that could work will be derailed.  This plan wasn’t good for the country, and hopefully they’ll scrap it and start over.  I don;t know, maybe they’ll even, this is crazy, I know… Have a few doctors write up proposals, have a few nurses write up proposals, etc.  And for the love… would somebody please put an end to lawyers making money off of not doing anything.  Thy neither performed a service or were harmed in anyway by a doctor’s action, but get more than 30% of the “damages…” Ridiculous!

I hope the Cubs don’t suck this year.  Something tells me that  I won’t get to celebrate another championship this October.

I want to go on vacation.

I (still) miss Milo’s in Birmingham.  Fortunately, I can get their tea (albeit in a gallon jug) at Target and Kroger up here…

That’s it for now.  Thanks for reading… I hope y’all are are doing well!  More to come… I promise.

Great post about Tiger Woods

This is one of those must reads.  Not mine, obviously…

http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/post/Hunting-Tiger-Woods.aspx

Giving Thanks

This Thanksgiving season (I wish it wasn’t just one day) I want to tell you a few things I am thankful for.  First, I want you to know that, above all, I am thankful to God for everything I have.  As I have said before, everything I have is a gift from God.  All the good in my life is from Him.  All the bad in my life, that is bad or that God turns to good is a gift from Him.  And it is SO little…  I hope this Thanksgiving season, you are thankful for all of the blessings in your life, but also thankful TO someone.

My Lord, Jesus, who died in my place, so that I would become God’s son, adopted, saved from wrath, and used as a vessel to display God’s saving grace.  Thank you Jesus.  I believe, please help my unbelief.

My wife, Jennifer.  I cannot imagine a better partner in life, a companion and helpmate, with whom I live and love life with.  I love her the best I can, and pray that God gives me the strength and the courage to move deeper into her life and love her “as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”

My parents, who love me, support me, pray for me, encourage me,  and model as best they know how the love of a father and a mother.  They are not perfect, and yet God uses them powerfully to show me how to raise children in a way that glorifies God.  Thank you, Daddy and Mama.

My sister, who, God love her, is wallowing in sin as an Auburn fan… no seriously… well, okay, maybe not, but anyway.  Jennifer’s persistence and stick-to-it-iveness is inspiring and encouraging,  Keep at it…

My in-laws.  Whoever said that in-laws would be hard to be around have never met Cliff and Deb Meservy.  Gracious, loving, giving, supporting, caring, nurturing, and fun-loving… I hope I am half the in-laws they are.

My church, Fellowship Evangelical Free Church in Knoxville.  A church that loves, honors, cherishes, pursues, engages, and lifts high the name of Jesus.  The Gospel is preached with clarity and grace, and we expect God to do His thing as a result… and He is.

My friends, both near and far.  Our lives are meant to be lived in community, not isolation.  God has blessed me with people who care for me, love me DESPITE who I am (and thankfully not because of who I am).  They call me out when I’m wrong, never tell me I’m right (a good thing, might I add), and give me fun breaks from the real world.  For those of you I don’t see often, I hope the random phone calls saying hey, or the Facebook wall posts, or the e-mails find you missing what once was, but knowing the best is yet to be.  The Lord bless you and keep you.

My school.  I spend more time with schoolwork than I do my wife.  I wish that was different, but unfortunately, that’s the way it is right now.  And Jen will tell you that  I complain a lot about lectures, or not sleeping, or any number of things.  And yet there is NO place I would rather be right now than where I am, doing what I’m doing.  This is a gift from God.  Thank you to Dean Stowers, Associate Deans, our incredible faculty, our support staff (from Financial Aid to our housekeeping staff that keeps our building a place that I am proud to call mine.  Thank you to all of you who put in long hours, hard work, time away from your own family… all so that I can succeed.

My health.  I take it for granted almost everyday.  I hope that the privilege of being entrusted with the care of others will teach me to be thankful, day in and day out, that I can walk, use my hands, and use my mind in a way that serves others.  If you are like me, be thankful that you are healthy.  And take care care of yourself.  Eat right, exercise, and be thankful.  We are all getting older.

Technology.  My dad always reminded my family of what Samuel Morse said, after inventing the telegraph: “What hath God wrought!”  It is amazing to me that God gives us the ability to come with new ways to communicate, more efficient ways to produce, better ways to conserve, and easier ways to live.

Our military.  I owe you gentlemen and ladies a debt of gratitude that I can’t repay, and almost everything I listed here is kept that way by your willingness to put yourself in dangerous situations so that I don’t have to, so that our country will still be a place where we can live lives the way we wish, worship the way God leads, speak what we think ought to be spoken, and change what we think ought to be changed.  I hold y’all in the highest regard, and I want nothing more than that everyone of you comes home safely, and to a country that honors your work and sacrifice.

There are so many more, and that is the point.  This Thursday, enjoy the turkey, and the stuffing, and the cranberry sauce, and the pumpkin pie, and the Sister Schubert’s rolls, and the Lions getting crushed (yet again), and the backyard football games.  But Friday, when you’re up at 4 am to go shopping, be thankful for the opportunity to go and buy stuff that you want.  On Monday, be thankful that you have a job to go to and earn money by providing something for someone else, and that that job enables you to do the things that you want to do when you aren’t working.  Sixty days from now, be thankful for the dreary rain that gives nutrients to the trees that will, like last year, give you beautiful buds in the spring, shade in the summer heat, and those gorgeous fall colors.  When you wake up from a bad dream, be thankful it was just a dream, and not actually real life, real life that someone else might be dealing with.  When you get the clean bill of health from your doctor at your annual physical, be thankful for it.  Be thankful for all the things in your life – they are gifts from God.  And tell Him thank you.  Tell others thank you for what they mean to you and what they do for you.

Why I Do (and Don’t) Like ‘Glee’

I bet half of you are saying, “really? Would have never expected that from Michael” (the other half is saying they totally expected it, so hey, everybody’s happy!)  ’Glee’ is a show about a high school glee club (show choir) that could have taken place at most any of our high schools.  It comes on at Fox at 9 pm Eastern.  As with everything, this is my opinion, and I welcome comments and criticisms, of me/the show/this review.

Why I like it…

It’s fresh.  Who would have thought that a show about glee club would be in primetime on a major network.  I mean, maybe Bravo or TNT, but Fox?

It’s funny.  I like shows that have a narrator to them, and the show is usually narrated at the beginning and the end, as well as the transitions.  The writing is great!  Whoever writes it is witty, but not over the top.  They make jokes, but most of them have been PG at worst, with the occasional R rated one to remind me I’m not watching ABC Family.

It’s real.  For those of you who went to high school, can’t you relate to this show?  I read something about how the reviewer thought the show was boring because it has all the stereotypes that we’ve already seen before in tons of shows before this one.  But that’s why people like it.  People can relate to the show.  people remember what it was like to be popular, and to be unpopular.  People remember what it was like to have to deal with the changes in body image, the first loves and break-ups, the hormonal rage that is jr/high school, all of it.  It may be PG-13 or R, but isn’t life?

It paints teen pregnancy as something difficult to work through, but not impossible.  If the head of a high school cheerleading team, President of the Chastity Club at the school (which is a joke, because they gush about pushing the line with their boyfriends) can get pregnant and decide not to have an abortion but bear the weight of her decision, what about teenagers these days?  Why can’t they?  If we would learn to accept the consequences of our decisions and make the best of our situations, I  think we could move forward

I like to sing.  This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone who knows me, but I love music.  I love good music, whatever genre it is.  I love theater.  I love shows.  I was in choir from when I was “this” high to now.  I’ve been in “Broadway” shows (not on Broadway, of course).  I’ve been in show choir.  I’ve been in church choir that was basically a show choir.  So I can get into a show that puts a premium on good music, strong performances and the like.

Why I DON’T like it…

It celebrates adultery.  The main character, William Shuester, is a spanish teacher and the leader of the high school glee club.  His wife is kind of annoying, and has a “Miss Priss” attitude about her.  But she does not deserve to be cheated on by her husband, who has developed an emotional affair with the guidance counselor at the school he works at.  The guidance counselor, Emma, has done nothing to stop the relationship from progressing.  I am waiting when they consummate the relationship.  This is HUGE… At some point, I hope that his students start to catch onto the relationship and call him out on it.  They know it’s not right, but why doesn’t he?

It celebrates and promotes lying.  Shue and his wife want to be pregnant, but they are having trouble getting pregnant.  They had a false pregnancy test and his wife has not told him about it yet.  So she is going to try and get Shue’s pregnant student who is in the glee club to give her the baby… ALL SO SHE DOESN’T HAVE TO BE TRUTHFUL WITH HER HUSBAND!!!!! Also tied into this is the fact that Quinn, the pregnant teenager, has not told her boyfriend, Finn, that he is not the dad.  Finn’s best friend on the football field is the dad, and she won;t tell the truth, nor will he.

I can’t think of any other reason right now that I don’t like it, although I can probably think of more.  Hopefully, I’ll have some time to extrapolate this out and describe some of the social and spiritual ramifications of this show… for now, though, if you haven’t watched ‘Glee’, watch it.  It’ll make you think, so long as you DO think.  Don’t NOT watch it just because it has some racy themes.  Life is racy.  Life is tough.  How you view it and how you respond to it makes all the difference in the world.

It’s been a long time…

I’m working on a very simple post, but one that will help me get back to blogging a little.  I can’t blog a lot because of my time constraints and studying, but I do want to do it a little more than I have the last 4 months –  So I hope you stay tuned…

A Thoughtful piece on Healthcare, Abortion, and the root of it all…

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/september/17.78.html

Government-Run Healthcare

Well, I’m obviously not surprised that President Obama and the “wise beyond their years” Democratic Party is attempting to regulate / run/ “compete” in healthcare.  and make no mistake about it – they intend to win.  Here’s just a short snippet of what I think.  I have already addressed this topic, but I feel that it needs to be visited again – and again, and again, and again… until we get the point.

What they are attempting to do is to create a “public option” for people who don’t have health insurance.  now, as I have said before, healthcare and health insurance are two different things.  Healthcare is what you receive when you are sick or what you do to ensure you don’t get sick.  Heath insurance is the way to pay for that care.

When Democrats say they want to reform healthcare, they are only halfway honest.  They want to “change” healthcare and health insurance – and while they promise that if you like what you have, then you’re on their side, because all that will happen is that your premiums will go down.  Once again, if you believe that, I have some oceanfront property in Kansas that I would love for you to put an offer on.

The “public option” is going to be a taxpayer-funded, government-worker run system to pay for your healthcare.  Now, here’s the KEY POINT.  President Obama would like you to know, especially for you moderately conservative voters who like to hear certain buzzwords, that this public option will create “competition”, and in theory, they are right.  More participants in an industry creates more competition, which would lower the cost of the goods or service provided.  But here is what is conspicuously missing from this argument.  The fact that the Democrats have not been talking this “competition” point up means only one thing – if they did talk it up, they would not be able to back it up, because they know how the discussion would end… Here it is…

The government entering into an industry with private enterprises to create “competition” is no competition at all.  Here’s why… The government is, by default, an unlimited competitor, both in reality in theory.  When the government decides to “compete” in the free market, they will compete for a little while, but then it will begin doing something very dangerous. Government will begin to drive out it’s “competition” by lowering it’s price so low, even if it means losing money for a short period of time.  Thus, when it lowers it’s price enough, people who were in the private sector insurance plan will see the government plan as more attractive, and will switch.  This will either make the private plans lower their premiums more to compete or force them out of business.  If they lower their premiums, they will not be able to provide the same level of benefots once enjoyed by their customers – THE QULAITY OF THEIR CARE WILL GO DOWN.  And of course, if they can’t provide that level of care people were accustomed to, they will lose customers and eventually go out of business.

Thus my theory of Government as the “Unfair Competitor.”  (I’m sure someone has already trademarked this phrase, but this is an important point to make) Governmnet cannot be a fair competitor in any free market system.  It’s resources are unlimited.  If you don’t believe that, simply look at what has happened in the last five months (almost to the day) since President Obama and a Democrat-controlled House and Senate have enjoyed free reign to spend money.  He claims that he will institute PAYGO (pay as you go), essentially a balanced budget, but when will that take place?  After they have passed legislation that could create THE LARGEST SINGLE TRANSFER OF POWER in our nation’s history?  Nah, thay’ll keep on spending, because they made a promise to deliver this new healthcare plan (at least they are doing the right thing and keeping their promises).

This country cannot afford this healthcare strategy, and that is a key point.  It’s not like we just an’t afford this particular plan or that particular plan, but we can’t afford this strategy of the governmnet being involved in healthcare.  And once again, if you would then argue, “Well Michael, we’ve had Medicare, Medicaid, TennCare (here in TN), SCHIP, etc. for years.  What about that?”  Well, what about that?  You think those programs are successful?  Sure they have provided care, but if that is the sole determining factor as to why you think those ideas work – simply that they have provided care – then you could argue that the private plans are just fine the way they are, because they have provided care, too – no change is needed.

And yes, I will restate my ideas to reform the system we have now.  I don’t quite have the time right now, but I will do it very soon. In order for the Democrat’s plan not to be enacted, another plan must provide a better way – and there is one out here.  But adding an “unfair Competitor” to the mix is no competition.  Government cannot compete fairly because of unlimited resources.

Death is not Dying – Cancer

This is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful presentations of the Gospel I have seen in awhile.  It is presented not by a powerful Professor of whatever or Senior Pastor of wherever, but by a wife, a mom, a stay at home mom.

http://deathisnotdying.com/eventvideo/

I’ll leave it to you.  Carve out about an hour to watch it, or do it in bits – you will not spend a more worthwhile 55 minutes doing just about anything else.

Praise God for her life – and may it be said, as she herself says, “Praise God for my death,” that He would be glorified.  You can follow her story at the same website – http://deathisnotdying.com

Worthy is the Lamb Who Was Slain

A blog that I frequent a lot had a link to a video that, to be quite honest, shook me up a little bit.  It is one thing to make statements like the title of this post (“Worthy is the Lamb Who Was Slain.).  It is another thing entirely to make that real.

Imagine yourself in Israel 2500 years ago.  You are a farmer, or a wife or son/daughter of a farmer.  You live a nice little life(for 500 BC standards).  You grow enough food for you and your family, you enjoy your children, you enjoy going to the tabernacle.  But every year, this thing called Passover comes around, and it just tears you up – as it should.

Passover IS the Gospel.  That God would accept the death of an innocent lamb as “payment in full” is the best news ever.  Now imagine your family preparing for Passover.  You don’t just take any lamb in your flock.  You have to take a young lamb, a lamb without any outward spot or inward disease.  Perhaps it’s your favorite, because it is the one that gives the best milk or the one that you think follows your lead the best.  Nonetheless, the Torah is clear – only the best.

So you prepare for Passover.  You make sure all of the food is ready.  You make sure the choice wine is ready.  You have the children all ready, maybe even teaching your older children what you’re doing.

And then it’s time.  Now you take that unblemished lamb, the best of your flock, the one with the most potential, and you take it to the High Priest.  He prepares the lamb.  He shaves its neck to make sure that bare skin is available.  He has his assistants hold the lambs legs.  Imagine being the lamb.  “What are they doing?  Why are they holding me down, and why is everyone chanting and singing.  Now why is it so quiet.  What is this guy doing?”  And the Priest says, “Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the world, who has sanctified us with his statutes and commanded us concerning the [ritual] slaughtering.” And the priest takes a knife, and with bowl underneath, slits the throat of the lamb.

Now imagine that lamb is a man.

Could you imagine having to kill your own lamb?  How about your own son?

Maybe this helps… (and an explanation of why this is important)

Now imagine that lamb is a man.  Imagine that lamb is your son, your only son.  This is hard to stomach.  It’s not easy.  But this IS the Gospel.  That God would send His Son here, for you, and that His Son, named Jesus, would die in YOUR place.  The name for this is Substitutionary Atonement.  Substitutionary because it is your sin and his death, not his sin and his death or your sin and your death. Atonement because by His death, your sin is atoned for – forgiven, cleaned, taken off the ledger sheet. And not only is your sin taken off the ledger sheet, but you are given the righteousness (perfectness, in God’s eyes) of the Man that just died for you  Both Christ dying for Christ’s sins and you dying for your sins don’t solve the problem.  If you die for your sin, then you can’t live with God.  If Christ dies for Christ’s sin (Christ didn’t have sin, but for argument’s sake), it would be the same thing – it doesn’t take care of us (or him, for that matter).  The only way salvation works is if someone innocent (without sin) does for someone who is sinful.  And that’s what happened two thousand years ago.

Jesus was real.  He died for you, in your place, taking your punishment on Himself, that you would be able to live with Him and God forever. Yes, we can celebrate Easter on Sunday, and yes without the empty tomb, Christ’s death would be pointless.  But the Cross – the alter of the Lamb of God – IS the Gospel.  “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:9-10.

Kudos to President Obama… really…. well, sort of…

This story is one of the first times that I have been truly proud of an Obama legislative signing (I think in this case, it is an executive order, but nonentheless).  Note: I have been proud of him before, but just not his legislative agenda.

President Obama has signed an executive order that allows federal funding of stem cell research on new lines of stem cells, not just the 20-some-odd lines that were in existence before President Bush limited funding on new lines early in his presidency.  Why am I excited for this?  Well, I’m not actually.  In fact, I am opposed to federal funding for stem cell research for multiple reasons (1.Federal dollars shouldn’t be used for scientific research – The private sector has done more in the avenue of science than the federal government could have ever dreamed of. Private dollars should be used for this sort of thing. 2. I don’t believe that embryos (human lives) should be sifted through,  like we are panning for gold. These are human lives.

What I am happy for is a declaration that federal dollars (under his watch) will not be used for human cloning research.  Obama calls it “dangerous” and “profoundly wrong.”  I applaud my president for taking a stand on a moral issue.  He should be commended for this.

There will be a time and a place to discuss this action further.  Plenty can be said about the reasons for this decision, but today, our president should be commended for one stand he took.

My hope is that whatever moral backbone birthed this decision would start to permeate other areas of his legislative policy, including embryological stem cell research and abortion