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I am running around like a crazy woman preparing for tomorrow’s open house of our Classical Conversations community.
More later on my Halloween evening experiences and a missed opportunity to adequately explain my homeschooling positions. Muddled. That’s about all I was. Too bad people expect me to actually use.my.voice. I communicate so much better in writing when I have that handy DELETE key! 
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A friend posted this on FaceBook. I had to share…if you watch it, did you get goose bumps?
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Jeremiah 8:22
In a long, drawn-out saga detailed below, I’ve seen first-hand many of the problems in our current medical system. Government intervention would do absolutely nothing to fix the universal problem created by poor management and by employees who perform their jobs ineptly…and would instead make them worse! I mailed the letter you see below to the president of the medical center where I had the tests done. Perhaps it will ruffle some feathers. Or perhaps not. My prayer is that it will lead to improved procedures there so that no one else has to experience these kinds of problems–
____________________
I am writing to let you know about the potentially botched lab work that was performed for me at your facility on Tuesday, August 25.
On Monday, August 24, Dr. X wrote orders for me to have specialized lab work done at the laboratory at XYZ Health Center. This was was the fourth time I had been sent to have blood drawn to determine whether or not I had cryoglobulin in my blood. The first test, drawn in the lab of the office of Dr. Z, rheumatologist, was invalid because it was not properly handled, and I had to go back in for a second test. This second sample tested positive for the presence of cryoglobulin. Dr. Z ordered another test to determine the type and quantity of cryoglobulin; because his in-house lab was not equipped for that test, he sent me to LabCorp. However, the LabCorp test was negative for the presence of cryoglobulin. Nevertheless, Dr. Z told me I needed to see a hematologist in order to rule out the possibility of particular kinds of cancers. So, I went to see Dr. X.
Dr X sent me to your facility. The phlebotomist at LabCorp had insisted that “the book” said I needed to be fasting, so I fasted overnight and went to your facility on Tuesday, August 28 in the early morning. Dr. X led me to believe that XYZ was the best place for this test, but I was dismayed at how little your staff knew about it. Testing for cryoglobulin is very specific: it must be drawn into a tube that has been warmed to body temperature, and the blood must be kept at body temperature as it is spun down. At all times the temperature is to be controlled. However, the phlebotomist at your facility was demonstrably unaware of these procedures. Even after I told her she needed to follow a specific protocol, she ignored me and continued to draw my blood into an unwarmed tube. After my blood was drawn, I had to ask her three times to please look up “cryoglobulin” in her book; she did not do so but referred me to the woman at the desk who did look it up in her book, and, in fact, verified everything I had been saying. After five minutes of running back and forth to the technician in the back, the staff decided to put warmers around the two tubes.
If I had not been proactive and insisted that your staff members look up the procedures for my test, the sample they drew would have been invalid and thrown out; I would have had to come up to your facility for yet another test, at more expense to me and my insurer, for a mistake made by you. It may yet be invalid because it was not drawn into a pre-warmed tube; I will have to wait for the test results to see.
Which brings me to another concern. Your staff duplicated tests that had already been done at Dr. X’s office just one day before. Dr. X circled the name of the test he wanted me to have done at the hospital (see attached notes). Your staff assumed that all the tests listed were to be done on me, resulting in yet more blood being drawn and more expense for me and for my insurance company. I tried to tell your staff that those other tests had already been run, but they told me that they had to follow the doctor’s orders. Had Dr X’s orders been transmitted electronically, this mistake would have been avoided.
With all the fuss in today‘s media about the insurance industry Bad Guy, I think it prudent to point out that all aspects of the health care machine share the blame in the escalating costs and decreasing quality of care: patients, physicians, hospitals, labs, and insurers need to work in tandem to eliminate wasteful mistakes and miscommunications such as the ones made between your staff and Dr. X.
I strongly suggest that you establish procedures that ensure that your phlebotomists review the tests they are being asked to do before they even see the patient, especially when drawing blood for tests that are unfamiliar to them and may require special handling. If you do already have such procedures in place, they obviously did not work.
As a patient, I have been on an emotional roller coaster for the past two months, wondering if I have cryoglobulin in my blood, or if I do not. I had high hopes that XYZ would be the place that would definitively find an answer for me — but when I discovered that I knew more about my test than the professionals at your facility, my hopes were dashed.
If I have to have a fifth test for cryoglobulin, I will travel to whatever lab actually processes the sample, even if it requires a plane trip. Surely they will know how to do it correctly. Then again, in this health care crisis, maybe I should go to Germany.
Sincerely yours,
________________
Will my letter make a difference? I’ll keep you posted on any response I do — or don’t — receive.
In the meantime, be proactive about your health care. Ask questions. Ruffle some feathers. Look to the Lord for for the balm and ask him to help you find a suitable physician. Doctors are not gods. Only the good ones are actually healers, as I’m coming to understand.
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These crystals are binding fragments of a specific kind of cryoglobulin (protein) that is found in the blood of people who have certain types of cancer, infections, or auto-immune diseases. Although beautiful to behold under the microscope, they are red flags to doctors about underlying conditions such as…
- Lymphoma — cancer of lymph tissue
- Macroglobulinemia — cancer of white blood cells
- Multiple myeloma — cancer of plasma cells in bone marrow
- Leukemia — cancer of white blood cells
- Rheumatoid arthritis — a long-term disease leading to inflammation of joints and surrounding tissues
- Lupus — an autoimmune disorder
- Hepatitis C infection — a viral infection
- Infectious Mononucleosis — a viral infection causing fever, sore throat, swollen lymph glands
- Genetics — some otherwise healthy people have the protein with no known underlying disease.
Imagine my astonishment upon learning two weeks ago that a routine blood test at the rheumatologist’s office showed the presence of cryoglobulin in my blood. The doctor referred me to an oncologist and ordered a follow-up test to determine the type of cryoglobulin.
Immediately I began a crash-course educating myself about cryoglobulin. I found that it means “cold sensitive.” When people have cryoglobulin in their blood and their body temperature drops below 98.6 degrees, the cryoglobulins begin to clump, or form precipitates. When body temperature is raised, the precipitates dissolve back into the blood. I also learned that there are different types of cryoglobulin, and each type is associated with different diseases.
Type I is made up of one type of immunoglobulin and is associated with various cancers. Types II and III are made up of a mixture of different immunoglobulins are are related to auto-immune diseases and infections.
To say that I freaked out would be an understatement. I already knew from my blood test results that I did NOT have Hepatitis or Lupus and that my white blood cell count was normal. I have not been having any fevers or any symptoms of mono. Which left cancer or genetics. I began praying and got my friends and family praying. Then I took a deep breath and went in for another blood test to determine the type of cryoglobulin and was again amazed at the result — this time, there were NO cryoglobulins detected! Praise God!
However, I am still being sent to an oncologist…to be on the safe side. The test for cryoglobulins is extremely specific — the blood sample must be kept at constant body temperature as it is spun down in a centrifuge. I don’t know what one positive test (done without fasting) and one negative test (done with fasting) means, but I will hopefully find out on Monday when I go to an oncologist. My prayer is that there will be some kind of way to rule out all those terrifying diseases and rule-in a laboratory error.
How do I feel about all this?
Confused. Scared. Confident sometimes…and angry at others. Much of my angst has to do with the physician who originally ordered all these test results. One month after the blood test when I had my follow-up visit with him, he did not know the result until he sat right in front of me and read the reports. I could have had nearly a month’s head-start on visiting the oncologist. Then, he referred me to a local oncologist who is NOT accepting new patients and who has recently been sued for malpractice due to two separate patients dying at his clinic of a chemotherapy overdose! When I picked up my medical records today, I found a dictated reference to bilateral x-rays of my ankles…but I never had any ankle x-rays! To say that this doctor is disorganized is an understatement, and I do not plan to visit him again. Ever. Do not be deceived: not all doctors are the same. It is important to take charge of your own health care, ask questions, find your own specialists.
Whatever the outcome, I have been surprised at the veil that has been lifted from my eyes. Suddenly I see how short my time really is here on this earth. I ought not put off doing those things I’ve always wanted to do because there may not BE many more tomorrows. The sky would be falling in on me if I didn’t have the assurance that God loves me and heals me. He causes every thing to be used for his good purposes — and they ARE very good purposes, even if I can’t see them for what they are. Maybe I’m going to be a case study in a miraculous healing. Or perhaps this test is preparing me for another test somewhere down the road — whatever happens, my prayer is that I will draw ever closer to the author and perfecter of my faith. I want to be so close to Jesus that my face shines like the faces of those few who went with him up on the mountain and observed the transfiguration. I desire to have a peace that is not of this world — one that is proof for all to see that a relationship with Christ is not a fabrication. It is not a distortion of Judaism. It is the completion of the story! Because of Christ, death has no sting.
So bring it on. If the sky falls I know the Lord will shield me. If not in this life, then in the next.
To be continued…
Where does faith come from?
That question popped in my head today after I read this in Romans 4:
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”[d] 19Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Where did Abraham’s faith come from, and where can I get faith like that?
I have faith that the ground is going to hold me up when I stand up to walk. I have faith that the trees outside will most likely stay rooted in the ground and won’t come crashing down on me when I go for a walk in the woods. But that’s a different kind of faith, isn’t it?
In Romans 10, Paul teaches us that we get our faith from hearing the Word:
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
There are so many references to faith in the Bible that I can’t possibly write them all here. I’ve looked at many in the New Testament, and in each one the Greek word is pistis, which means conviction and strong belief in the truth as it pertains to God and to Christ.
I am somewhat encouraged in my need for a refill of faith when I see that Peter — the Rock — the same one who saw all Jesus’ miracles first-hand, had trouble believing. Peter was amazed to see that a tree that Jesus cursed had withered and died within one day:
1Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” 22“Have[f] faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Usually I pay attention to the part of the verse about the mountain falling off into the sea, but today a tiny verb grabbed my attention…the word HAVE. Jesus gave us a simple command about faith. He tells us to HAVE it. The word for HAVE is echo, and digging deeper into what it means reveals a little more about what Jesus meant. HAVE isn’t just HAVE the way we use it casually, as in, “have a good day!” No, echo means “to have” in the sense of holding onto something in your hand or in your mind…it means to own, to possess, and to cling to.
Hmmm. In light of that definition, I see that Jesus is telling me to cling to my faith in God. Hold onto it like my daughter holds onto my hand when we cross a busy street. Possess it in my mind. Keep it ever present in my thoughts…keep a strong conviction in my mind that God WILL DO what he promises.
The act of clinging to faith implies that faith is something that can be grasped. It is an invisible power that is grasped in our minds and in our hearts.
Who would have thought a little bitty word like HAVE could change the landscape of my ideas about faith? Now, that’s what I call getting a refill!
One of the most difficult things about having a husband who travels is figuring out what’s for dinner. I know it seems a trivial concern, but to me the question of What’s for Dinner is indeed a big deal.
Rather than having food issues, I guess you could say I have Non Food issues. If there was a way to fill up my family the way I fill up my car with gasoline, I’d do it. It’s not that I don’t enjoy cooking — it’s just that I don’t enjoy food. Except perhaps for Dove dark chocolate, I am content to fill up on whatever so long as it is suitably bland and tomato-free and dairy-free and pecan-free and carrot and sweet potato-free….you see my problem. It’s not so much that I am a picky eater as it is that those foods make me feel nasty.
I think I must be the only person on the planet who takes her daughter to Baskin Robbins and doesn’t get something for herself. I can’t eat ice cream. I love the flavor…but as soon as I swallow, it feels like it’s going to come back up. Instant heartburn. TMI, I know.
So, back to the meal-planning angst of this evening. I didn’t. Frozen waffles for her. Almonds for me. Yum yum.
Add my food sensitivities to my daughter’s pickiness, and you get some very small parameters for meals. I have been down the “you must eat whatever I’m eating” street, and it is not pleasant. She gags the whole time, which ruins my appetite as well as hers, and neither one of us ends up eating anything. So, I refuse to make mealtimes battle times. If she doesn’t want what I’m fixing, she can cook something else for herself. But then there’s no shared experience, and cooking for one is so NOT fun.
I blame myself. I always fed her bland food because that’s the way I like it. She came back from camp exclaiming over the grilled chicken they served. Grilled chicken? Can this be the same child? The very same one who wouldn’t touch a chicken unless it was properly breaded and fried to a crisp? Apparently, she liked the chicken because it was very peppery.
She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
-from Proverbs 31
That is so not me! The Proverbs 31 woman is somehow erased from my DNA. I wish I could find her somewhere. Is it wrong to wish the Lord had molded you a bit differently on the inside?
Lord, you made me. You know me. You renew me each and every day. I can only pray that my weaknesses in this regard will somehow be made strong in You and will somehow glorify you. Maybe not here and now. But someday I’ll stand confident and know What’s for Dinner without feeling so inadequate.
Forgive the weirdness of this post. I miss my husband who will be gone this week on our 14th wedding anniversary. I miss his strength carrying me through on days like today when I don’t feel myself. I’m tired and out of sorts after a whirlwind homeschooling conference and am now embroiled in a very busy VBS at church. My stomach isn’t feeling great and has been yucky for the past couple of days…which ramps up my anxiety level, on a scale of 1 to 10, to about a 50. Tonight I skipped dinner because every time I eat I feel sick. I know that’s not healthy and is not advisable for my 90 pound frame. I also know that the Lord heals me and will give me the strength I need to bring the story alive tomorrow for our 277 kids at VBS. What a blessing and a privilege to share the message: Fear Not! God is Powerful!
Now if I can only listen to what I preach!
I really admire you for homeschooling your daughter. I wish I could do that with my kids!”
If I had a dollar for every time I have heard those words, I’d have enough to take myself out to Starbucks a few times! Neighborhood moms often shake their heads when they learn of our homeschool status. Some moms look at me as if I’ve suddenly grown another nose. Others confide that they would be all over homeschooling if, like me, they were trained teachers or had the slightest inkling of what to do.
The purpose of today’s blog is encourage these moms who may be toying with the idea of homeschooling. If this is you, then please know that I have been praying over this blog — and you — for a few weeks now. My wish is to give you something to ponder.
You are already homeschooling successfully.
Does your child know how to tie his shoes? Does he speak? Is she able to use a fork? What about making the bed or putting away clothes or singing the ABCs? Parents are their children’s teachers from the get-go. We teach them to say “Mama” and “Dada.” And they learn! Your kids’ brains are wired to learn. They are like little impressionable sponges. What goes into their heads in the elementary years helps shape the people they will become.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
There are large cities in this great nation of ours where nearly sixty percent of high school students fail to graduate. In the Dallas ISD, the graduation rate hovers around 50%. Nationwide, 30% of high school students do not graduate. I think this statistic says more about the schools themselves than about the students. Wisdom is NOT being taught in public schools in America anymore, period. Students are learning how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. They learn how to write a five paragraph essay. They may learn that the ulna and radius are the two bones in the lower arm and that the outer layer of skin is called the epidermis. But they will not learn wisdom.
Why? Because public schools do not teach the fear of the Lord.
If you choose to trust your child’s education to the state, then understand that he or she will spend 16,900 hours under someone else’s authority than the Lord’s over the course of kindergarten through twelfth grade. This means that, as a Christian, it is entirely up to you to teach your children to fear the Lord, and thus start them down the road to wisdom. If you are homeschooling, you have a 16,900 hour head-start in which to do it.
Homeschool curriculums are prolific
There are so many outstanding curriculum programs for homeschool out there that the difficulty lies not in finding them, but in finding the ones that suit you and your children. Many of them are simply modified curriculums that were written for Christian schools, such as Abeka and Bob Jones. Others, such as My Father’s World and Sonlight, were specifically written from the ground-up for homeschool families. Teaching Textbooks is a math curriculum specially made for homeschools, while Saxon Math is successfully used in public schools, private schools, and now homeschools. Homeschool Book Fairs are held all over the country and are a wonderful resource to new and veteran homeschool families. Publishers bring samples of their books; many bring entire sets and families buy at the book fair so they can avoid shipping charges. With the plethera of resources available, not to mention the (free) local library, there is no limit to the quality of education a homeschool parent can provide. Many curriculum programs include teacher’s guides which break down the subject into daily and weekly readings and activities; the Saxon math program even provides a script for the parent to read aloud in the early grades.
If you can read this blog, you have the ability to homeschool.
No one knows your child — or loves him — better than you and the Lord.
You raised your child and know without a doubt that he is going to someday work with his hands. He fidgets even while watching television and taps his foot when he reads. A child like this often suffers in a traditional classroom setting because large class sizes mean kids need to conform to a set of rules — such as sitting still. Maybe your child is very immature and is just not “getting” the reading thing. It could be that she just isn’t developmentally ready yet. I know a twelve year old who has recently finished reading The Lord of the Rings. He did not know how to read until he was TEN…and now, two years later, he is reading books that some adults have trouble comprehending. How is this possible? His homeschool mom read to him and taught him, and one day, when he was ready, something “clicked” in his brain.
Of course, sometimes children have challenges which go beyond our ability to help. As taxpayers, homeschoolers in Texas and Florida have the right to request that local school districts perform educational diagnostic testing. Private firms also provide diagnostic testing. The great thing is, if a challenge is noted, the homeschool parent is in a much better place to address the concerns than a teacher who has twenty five other students to teach. A friend of mine had suspicions when her third grader had over-the-top problems in spelling, and she initiated diagnostic testing. When she learned her child had dyslexia, she was able to connect with a therapist who meets with them twice a week and helps her know the best way to teach. As a homeschool parent, she is in the driver’s seat.
Flexibility is key
If you choose to homeschool, you get to be the principal, the teacher, and the student! If your children are night owls, let them stay up late and start school at 10. If you are early risers, you may get finished with school by noon. The only field trips you will be required to attend are the ones you plan, and you can make them be about whatever subject you happen to be studying or about whatever has sparked interest in learning. If your kids get sick, you don’t have to worry about make-up work or about information they may have missed in class because, as teacher, you can postpone class a day or two until they are feeling better. A homeschool family doesn’t have to take family vacations during the fiery summer; they can visit Florida during the off-season and save lots of money! The photo above is my daughter when we took an out-of-town trip. She found that interesting tree while we were on a walk and just had to investigate!
Support groups are everywhere
They are coming out of the woodwork — homeschool support groups are all over the place on the national, state, and local levels. The Home School Legal Defense Association is a support group and a legal resource; members receive free legal assistance if circumstances demand it. For example, sometimes school districts don’t know their state laws about homeschooling, and they contact a homeschool parent and demand that Billy attend school or be cited for truancy. The HSLDA keeps track of state laws throughout the nation. Often all it takes to resolve issues with local school districts is a brief phone call from one of the attorneys employed by the HSLDA. It’s nice to know they are there if I ever needed them!
On the local level, support groups range from mom’s meetings to co-ops. Classical Conversations is a fast-growing community nation-wide that strives to teach classical education with a biblical worldview. Students and moms attend class and learn techniques together. Children get valuable social interaction and academic competition as they compete with their peers — and their parents — in academic contests. Some co-ops are taught by parents; others are taught by certified teachers. Most meet once a week, although some meet twice a week and others meet only monthly.
If you are home during the day…if you have wistfully wished you could homeschool…you CAN. The Lord is there to help you, and so am I, and so are many others who are willing to share their expertise and knowledge with you. Please feel free to leave a comment if you’d like more information on how to get started. If I don’t know the answer for your state, I’ll at least find out where to go to get them.
My prayer is that a remnant of our population will achieve wisdom and not simply knowledge…through a fear of the Lord and an understanding of his ways and his overwhelming love.
This is a quick, broken-arm update.
Today’s x-rays showed that my daughter’s bones are not growing straight. Apparently, the bones shifted when her swelling went down. Now new bone is growing in such a way that her arm bone is “bowing.” Her bone sits at a 10 degree angle, whereas “normal” ones sit nearly straight on the vertical with perhaps a 1 degree tilt.
The good news is that the doctors *think* that as she grows, the bone will naturally straighten itself out.
The bad news is that there is a chance the bone won’t, and she could end up with a permanent “bowed” appearance in her lower arm.
I saw the arm without the cast today. The bowed-ness is visible.
The alternative is invasive surgery where the doctor re-breaks the bones and then inserts rods and pins to hold them in place. This procedure would leave two scars, one on top and the other on the bottom.
I have to say I don’t like either of those choices.
I don’t want my little girl to have any defect in any way! Is that shameful of me to feel that way? My head knows that these bodies are just temporary carriers until we get to heaven. But my fleshly heart is weeping. I know it’s silly. It’s just ten little degrees. Ten little degrees that show up as an obvious slant.
Today I can’t see the forest. I can’t see God’s plan for my little girl in all of this. I just wish it had never happened. I wish she had never fallen off the balance beam. I wish that God had answered my prayers in the affirmative when I asked Him to send his healing down to her.
Instead, He said He would heal those bones…but not in the way that they were before she broke them.
What’s up with that?
I am squirming in this chair as I write these words because I know what God’s answer is to my questions. He would likely answer my questions just as he answered Job’s in chapter 38:
Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone-while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?“Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?
I’m just a hunk of clay that gave birth to another hunk of clay. The Lord is the one who knit her in my womb. He put all her pieces together. If He wants her arm to be different, who am I to question him? I am her mother. Like a she-bear protecting her cubs from danger, I have an instinctive impulse to lash out when she is in danger. But to whom do I lash out? There is nothing in my power that will make things right in her arm. Only in the LORD’s power, through Christ, can her arm be made whole again in the way it was before it was broken.
I must trust today that God sees the forest. He is drawing out her life and has a plan. Maybe this experience will guide her toward a medical profession. Or maybe this is a test for me to prove that I really can let go and let God. Because all I can see today is a section of the forest choked with weeds and dirt and nasty things that scurry on the ground, I have to trust that the Lord guides my feet and her feet — and her arm bones.
We’ve decided not to do surgery — the doctor recommended that we take the “wait and see” approach. Is this the right trail through the forest?
Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21
What are we becoming? A modern day Sodom and Gomorrah? Compare Genesis 18 and 19:
So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. 21 I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.”
And then, in Genesis 19, the three men who had previously visited Abraham went to see Lot in Sodom. The villagers were so crazy with lust for these men that they tried to break down the door and harm Lot who was trying to protect them. Lot even offered (if you can believe it!) his virgin daughters to try to appease the crowd, but they didn’t want a woman. The situation deteriorated very quickly:
“Stand back!” they shouted. “This fellow came to town as an outsider, and now he’s acting like our judge! We’ll treat you far worse than those other men!” And they lunged toward Lot to break down the door.
But the two angels reached out, pulled Lot into the house, and bolted the door. Then they blinded all the men, young and old, who were at the door of the house, so they gave up trying to get inside.
Meanwhile, the angels questioned Lot. “Do you have any other relatives here in the city?” they asked. “Get them out of this place—your sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone else. For we are about to destroy this city completely. The outcry against this place is so great it has reached the Lord, and he has sent us to destroy it.” At dawn the next morning the angels became insistent. “Hurry,” they said to Lot. “Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out right now, or you will be swept away in the destruction of the city!”
When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the Lord was merciful. When they were safely out of the city, one of the angels ordered, “Run for your lives! And don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape…or you will be swept away!”
Then the Lord rained down fire and burning sulfur from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah. He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation. But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt.
God heard a “great outcry.” Who was it who he heard? Does God “hear” sin in the same way we “see” it? Or were the prayers of the outnumbered righteous people the ones that he heard? It’s worth mentioning that the “righteous” one who God spared committed a sin himself when he offered his virgin daughters to the mob. Rather than calculated and cold, I can picture him being frantic and worried and ready to say just about anything to get the mob away from his guests. What must his daughters have felt? Perhaps they knew that this crowd had no interest in male/female trysts and thus believed their father’s offer was an empty one. The angels acted quickly before Lot’s mouth got him in more trouble and brought him inside to safety.
Fast forward to 2009. Take a look at the lead from a story, titled “Work that Tiara, Boy!” that appeared in the Washington Post yesterday:
Spend time with George Mason University senior Ryan Allen and it’s clear why he’s a Big Man on Campus. He wears size 12 pumps.
Allen is now — as of halftime at Saturday’s sold-out basketball game against Northeastern at the Patriot Center — the school’s homecoming queen. He received more votes than the two women who vied for the crown.
My dismay at this story may surprise you. I am actually hurting for Ryan Allen. I feel so sad that he is trapped in a pit of sin that is not much different than the pits I am constantly trying to climb out of. My pits are many — anxiety…selfishness…materialism…depression…self-reliance rather than leaning on God…laziness, and the Lord knows probably many more that lurk in my heart. The difference is in the fact that I KNOW I am a sinner and have turned to Jesus to set me free. I KNOW I am in a pit, and when I reach my hand out to Christ, he hauls me back up and sets me back on my feet. Because of Christ living in me, I feel my feet slipping and sliding and take courage and strength to resist the pits. Does Ryan Allen even know he is living in a pit? Do those who voted him in as “queen” realize it?
No, my dismay is that our nation is so blind! Our need for a savior is made so evident in stories like these….stories in which sin is glorified because the people are living in darkness. I do not cry out to God to destroy us or to destroy those who are living deep inside the pit. I cry for a way to be made that they will see the truth and freedom that is in Jesus. That college administrators touting “diversity” will no longer equate “diversity” with “immorality” or even “amorality.” I cry out for a spiritual awakening — and I ask God to soften hearts and open eyes to truth….and to show me and use me in the purpose for which he made all of us, which is to glorify him.
…lest we all, in the name of tolerance and diversity, turn into a giant pillar of salt.
One of my facebook buddies posted this video. I don’t watch Ellen, but I may have to now just so I can hear Gladys! Honestly, I laughed so hard at this my stomach hurts!
