U C CDC

      My initial post on the CDC was about their mask "rule-ommendations", but this one is about the vaccine.  The same abundance of caution theme that demonstrated they did not really think masks were effective is sending the same message about the vaccine. You see CDC:

• If the vaccine only works while you follow the mask and distancing protocols, it doesn't work.
• If it only works when you are with other vaccinated people, it doesn't work.
• If people who have had Covid still need a vaccine, it doesn't work. If the live infection doesn't trigger enough immune response, the tiny inactive dose the vaccine provides is not going to help.
• If the vaccine has to be repeated in a few months, why bother?
• If it may not be effective against variants, you have removed incentive for the remaining vaccine holdouts. 

     Some of these cautious recommendations have since been amended. After waiting a few months to watch for unforeseen side effects (like turning into zombies) in the guinea pigs/volunteers who got vaccinated first, I have now had the shot and so has my husband. But U C CDC, when you are trying to motivate millions of people to get the vaccine, you need to emphasize the positives, not the protocols. If you want people willing to get the needle stick, the carrot should be a return to normalcy, instead of a bloody band-aid.

Korah's Contemplation

     My Bible study for today was Psalm 44, a maschil (contemplation) of Korah, one of the chief psalm writers. What he is contemplating is, if God allowed puny Israel to drive out the inhabitants of the promised land early in their history, why is He allowing more powerful Israel to be defeated and scorned by their enemies when they are being obedient? Age old question--Why do bad things happen to good people? There are no easy answers. The Arminian view is that God is in charge of good things and Satan is in charge of bad things, like a really screwed up custody battle. In that view, God is the one who sends rain to help man, Satan sends hurricanes to harm them. God does not cause the bad thing, but He allows Satan to do it. I wish I could find the sermon I heard by R.C. Sproul refuting this idea, because he said if that were true, we should probably worship Satan because God is not the one who wants to hurt us. The Arminian view is appealing because we don't want God to look bad. But it is not our place to justify God, it is His place to justify us.

     An example I read of the difference between God causing and allowing circumstances, is that of a parent passively watching his toddler fall in the swimming pool and drown versus a parent holding their toddler's head in the pool until they drown. One is more evil and intentional than the other but the outcome for the toddler is not changed by the semantics of allowed vs. caused. If God is sovereign, He is in charge of both the victories and the defeats. God, not Satan, sent the death angel into Egypt and, though He provided a way for the Israelites to be protected, the firstborn of Hebrews who ignored his warning would be just as dead. The same God who opened a path through the Red Sea for Israel, closed it on the Egyptians. He sent hail stones to defeat Israel's enemies and sent His angel to slay 185,000 Assyrians in one night. He sometimes commanded genocide including against women and children, even their livestock. God does not step out and sub in Satan for the messy stuff. They are working opposite plans.

     I am looking forward to the seminars in heaven which tackle the complex issue of the sovereignty of God, the plots of Satan and the choices of man. Though I may have to repeat the class several times, because I know it is more complicated than God controls good things/Satan controls bad. So my contemplation cannot help you with that one Korah, but I bet you have figured it out by now.

Ma Nature's Raspberry

    We are in Gig Harbor, WA this week. While yesterday was sunny and mid 80's in Kalispell, it was cool and rainy here--until evening. About 8 p.m. the clouds parted and out came the sun in all its glory. This happens frequently in Kalispell also but, instead of being encouraging at the end of a dreary day, it feels more like teasing--here's what the day could have been like if the clouds weren't in the way, sucker. Thanks so much, Mother Nature! Yesterday I wrote this poem about it.

 

Ma Nature’s Raspberry

As they often do at the close of day

the clouds decide to go away

to display the setting sun.

 

A parting glimpse of what might have been

had they been so kind as to let it in.

Too late for much enjoyment.

 

If nature is a mother who

must spoil the outdoor things we do

she should seek new employment,

instead of nightly bidding—Pfffft!

 

 

Patching Up

    I recently had an experience so unique it took me a while to process and here, at the hotel in Gig Harbor, I finally have time to write about it. On my mother-in-law's last visit, she returned from her walk with a stranger that needed "patching up". Since we went through a period 13 years ago of housing homeless boys, and have kept various missionaries through the years, we are no strangers to hospitality, but this was the first time I opened my house to a complete (but mentally incomplete) stranger. The missionaries we hosted were known to our church. And the young men we housed were all vouched for--Andy, A.J. and Lance by Tracy, McKenzie, Justin and Loren by Lance, Aaron by McKenzie. Not only were they present to vouch for the newcomers, they were present in our home to intercede if there was any trouble with them. Except in the case of Aaron (McKenzie was living elsewhere by then) whom I had only met once, and for whom I desperately tried to find other housing, but couldn't send back to the elsewhere where he'd been beaten up. Besides, there was always the protection of having Tracy and Reed in our home.

     That was not the case with Julie when she arrived. Pat could only give me brief information on the phone because she didn't know much about her yet and Julie could hear what she was saying. Because my guest turned out to be delusional and mentally ill, I still don't know much about her. She was obviously homeless, since she had spent the night in an abandoned car. She claimed to have escaped men who tortured her and broke her ribs, but she did not move like someone with broken ribs and refused to go to the hospital, which most people prefer after being tortured. Julie also had part of her hair dyed pink and most captors do not accommodate hair color preferences. She said she had removed her patch because it wasn't helping, and there are patches to dispense psychiatric medications but, by the confused condition she was in, I would agree with her. It was not working. It might have been a patch to monitor drug use, but I would not have let her in the house if she seemed high. Frankly, if my mind worked like hers does, I would use drugs too. And drug use would explain why she was more concerned the police would arrest her, than her "torturers". 

   I have both personal and professional experience with delusional people and have found ways to show interest in their conversation without encouraging their delusion. So when Julie said Princess Di had been planning to visit her before her tragic accident, I shared that it was sad she died so young, and how difficult paparazzi can be. Conversely, when she claimed to have $5.2 million in another country, but didn't care about that sort of thing, I did not share that millionaires seldom have to shelter in abandoned cars. So I do not know if she really went to school where she claims, has three children, was widowed in 2017, or has a service dog in the animal shelter. There is no reason to lie about such things, but delusional people often live in a different reality.

    I fed her breakfast, gave her my smallest pair of shoes to replace the oversized men's shoes she had been wearing, hugged her before she left and told her "God loves you and you're going to be all right". And, although I was really uneasy about letting a mentally ill stranger with a knife, ride with my mother-in-law, especially when I found out afterward how difficult she had been in the car, I also really wanted Julie out of my house. It was Grandma day and Brie could not come over until it was safe. After refusing the hospital, Pat wound up taking Julie to the mental health center, where she was known and welcomed. Hopefully, she got the patching up she needed, but there is a difference between needing help and wanting it. And it is good to know, if it happens again (there are problems with mentally unstable people in our police reports daily) that the mental health day program takes walk ins. But if I found a wandering stranger in need like Julie, I would give them food and clothing out on my porch, and let the police handle the transportation. God sometimes calls us to do the unexpected, but not the unwise, we could have been the ones who wound up needing patching up. 

    I am trusting the God who kept us safe then, both with Julie's problems and the fact that she knows where we live. As for the men who victimize women like her, I pray for God's patching up--after His punching down.

     

   

   

In the Line of Duty

      A Facebook friend posted today about a local game warden who died in the line of duty--car accident. I sometimes struggle with the description "in the line of duty". All death is tragic, especially car accidents because there is no time to prepare. A loved one is suddenly gone. In the line of duty certainly applies to soldiers killed in war, and first responders killed on the job, but is the death of one of those individuals in a car accident going to or from work any different from other people heading to their jobs? When Trooper Mike Haynes died in a head on collision caused by the drunk driver he was pursuing, it was in the line of duty. The officer crushed by the car of the stranded motorist he was helping, died in the line of duty. Those committed to our safety and protection deserve special honor, but that doesn't necessarily merit the words in the line of duty.

     What about the young teacher killed by a drunk driver on her way to the school?  Or the mom bringing her kids to school who was permanently disabled when an oncoming car knocked a deer through her windshield? She was also a teacher there. What about the tow truck driver recently struck by a car on the side of the highway? He was on duty at the time. Truck drivers killed in crashes? Loggers struck by trees? There are many kinds of duties beyond those of first responders and many kinds of people have tragic accidents. If killed in the line of duty means everything, including car accidents that can happen to anyone at any time, then it really doesn't mean anything. And the words become a token, not a tribute.

Behind the Scenes

    In a previous post, I expressed how irritating I find the patience of God, ironic as that sounds. One of the other irritating things about God is that He is not always a good sport about letting us see what He is doing. A lot of His work is behind the scenes. It is said that coincidence is God working anonymously, and sometimes it is so anonymous it looks like God isn't doing anything at all. Times when there is no visible interest on our prayer investment. The truth is, the Bible omits many more things than it tells. A lot of that unreported backstory is what God is doing behind the scenes. We get a rare glimpse of these divine inner workings in the story of Job, although the readers got the explanation in the preface while Job had to wait for end credits. And there is another glimpse of unseen spiritual battle in Daniel 10, where the messenger sent to answer Daniel's prayer had to call Michael for back up to battle demonic forces trying to shoot the messenger. After times of hardship, we can sometimes look back and see God's purpose in it, but we rarely truly understand God's purpose in the midst of trial.

    So even though I am baffled by why my sister and her husband will not be spending the week of their 25th anniversary at the condo in Hawaii I reserved for them many months ago, I know God has a purpose in it. My sister's 2 mm breast cancer could be dealt with after the condo week. The trip could have been a welcome respite between diagnosis and treatment. But her husband's kidney stones, surgery, and (pardon the pun) rocky recovery was not conducive with long days of flying and relying on the medical care available in rural Kauai. No one wants a kidney stone as a souvenir of Hawaii. I do not blame them for cancelling. God's message could not have been more clear if He had provided stone tablets by the bed--with Braille subtitles. 

    Spending their 25th anniversary, on May 25th, in Hawaii, sounded perfect to me and there was a a lot of prayer on my part involved in making arrangements, especially when Kauai, because of Covid, closed to travel for months. So there was nothing wrong with my motive, prayer is never wasted, and yet, there is a lovely, two bedroom condo in Princeville that will go unused. I had hoped we could go ourselves, but while calling everyone we could think of, Reed realized he had made a prior commitment to one of those everyones during that time. There is an unseen purpose for this trip cancelling, and I have finally reached the point in my life where I can put on my spiritual big girl panties and be content not knowing the reason. Because I trust God even when He's irritating, and even when He's working behind the scenes.

Jacob at the Finish Line

     My BSF study has ended for the summer and this is the time when I look back at my personal take-aways. For one thing I had never considered why the Pentateuch was written when it was, during Israel's wilderness wanderings. Although I'm sure their ancestral stories had been passed down in other forms, Genesis explains how everything came to be, how the Jews came to be God's chosen people, God's promises to them, and why they were to displace the Canaanites when they arrived at the promised land. I know God's timing is perfect, but it seemed to me that it would have been handy for the fathers of the faith to have had the preface to their own lives written down ahead of time.

    But what made the biggest impact on me this time through Genesis was the life of Jacob. Jacob spent much of his long life drifting spiritually, but God would graciously step in, remind him of His promises, and point his prodigal to the proper path. Jacob did not have a Bible, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, or other believers to encourage him. He had only God, who is faithful to the faithless. So faithful, in fact, that the Lord chose to identify Himself as the God of Jacob.

    And it was especially encouraging to me that, despite everything, Jacob finished well. As the physical strength (moving stone well cover/wrestling Lord) that marked his life dwindled, his spiritual strength rekindled so much that his deathbed blessings to his sons also prophesied of the future Messiah. The Egyptians, who despised Hebrews too much to eat a meal with them, so respected Jacob that he was buried with the full honors and attendance of the Egyptian nobility. One BSF group member said she liked these lessons because Jacob's family was messy and, despite the best of intentions, so was hers. For me, Jacob's story was a reminder not to put a period where God has put a comma. Those spiritual drifters may yet finish well.