So what happened - part 1

A month has passed since my entry. I thought maybe we should go back and do a recap. 

In the middle of July I had an infection in my throat and armpits. I had it treated with antibiotics, but it didn’t seem to get better and toward the end of the month things were not right. My walks were shortening and I was becoming more and more tired and had to stop on my walks. I thought the infection was spreading to my chest. 

Dr Ahern as mentioned previously sent me to A&E with my heart arrhythmia. The angiogram, as I learned later showed, showed a near 100% blockage, a 95% blockage, and one that varied from about 50% to 80%. The only option was the triple bypass. 

After a whole battery of tests and examinations I was moved out of CCU to the Moat Ward to await transport to St James’ Hospital on the 7th of August. The following Sunday I had a terrible pain in my angiogram leg. They never figured out what it was, but I think a bruise pinched a nerve and finally released (while Eddie was praying by the way). 

On Monday I started hearing the operation might be the next day, the 11th. 

After a long evening wait I was transferred to St James’ for my operation early in the morning of the 11th of August. 

Friday, 31 July, 2015 – From the Coronary Care Unit at Naas General

Who would have thought just a few days ago that I would be writing those words. I had not been feeling great since I was sick a few weeks ago, but who knew! 

I have lost a bunch of weight, I walk forever, I watch what I eat, I don’t drink or smoke. I could this be? 

I came to hospital on Tuesday after a visit to Dr Ahern. My heart was out of rhythm and racing. I was admitted through A&E and the search began. The first couple of days everything looked okay. Blood counts are good, cholesterol is good, etc. 

So let’s find out what the problem is. 

So off to Tallaght for my angiogram. The wait wasn’t too bad, but the news wasn’t great.I have three partially blocked arteries, one of them 90%. So here I am, at a healthy 60 years old, having triple bypass surgery. I have quite a wait, and it looks like it might all be in the hospital. 

I can only guess there must be lessons to learn here. There must be something I need. 

It will be an interesting road. 

On the Confederate flag debate

I have been watching the flag debate from afar, but the Confederate flag debate is an issue that I think I need to finally comment on. 

Though not born in the South, I am an Alabama boy. I lived there from the time I was 5 in 1960 until I got married in 1978. I then lived Chattanooga until 1984 when we moved back to Alabama and stayed there till we moved to Ireland in 1995. I am a Southerner and yes, I am proud to be from the South. 

I went to primary and secondary school in Alabama. I went to college and seminary in Tennessee. 

My secondary school had a huge Rebel flag on the wall of the gym. We were called the Rebels. We waved the flag and sang Dixie at sporting events. I never gave the racial implications a second thought. 

As the years have gone by I have become totally ambivalent about the flag. I, as a rule, think folks can get far too worked up over a symbol on a piece of fabric. 

I have been amazed at the speed with which the Rebel flag has become the target of a backlash  of the Charleston shootings. It seems like the strangest of targets. The banning and removal of this symbol will be accomplished and everyone will feel much better about themselves. 

But what is really going to be accomplished? Will racial hatred be abolished. Some white guilt might be assuaged, but will the next black church be any safer from a lunatic racist attack? 

Of course not - the removal of a symbol is not going to do anything of real value, And, outside of public and government facilites the Rebel flag will be more popular than ever. Cancelling 'The Dukes of Hazard' will be agreat victory over racism. Everyone will feel better, but nothing of substance will be accomplished and racism will be as popular as ever. 

So take down the flag, repaint the General Lee, cancel the shows. 

But some day we are going to have to face the real issue here.

A recommendation

Stop Worrying About Politics

A lot of Christians seem confused today about the relationships between and our responsibilities to our heavenly kingdom and our earthly nations. This excellent little book is concise, well written, and thought provoking.

Heterophobia?

Something has crossd my mind over the last few days. I have been a little surprised at the absolute contempt and near hatred expressed by some gay activists and not so acttivists against those who disagree, even respectafully disagree, with them. 

I 'lost' a very dear friend last week simply because I expressed a few that America has much greater sins that gay marriage. I watched a video where a gay avtivist crowd resonded to street preachers with pure anger. I am sure that the preachers were there to antogonise, but the response was way over the top. This week in the White House several gay activists were photographied 'giving the finger' to a portrait of President Reagan with 'f*** Reagan' captions. 

It does not seem to be enough to be tolerant. It looks like those who do not agree with gay marriage and the gay agenda should not only tolerate, but must embrace the concept with open arms. I saw this years ago with a gay character on a televison programme told her mother 'I don't want you to just accept what I do and love me, I want you to love what I am.'

So while some see every straight person who disagress as being 'homophobic' are we not seeing a rise of 'heterophobia?' 

Half way through another year

Half way through another year

In my mind 2015 still sounds like a date from some futuristic science fiction story. When I was young 2015 seemed like it was some far off time when we would be moving around in flying cars and perhaps going into space on holiday. Images were of a whole different world where people walked around in shiny clothing and, according to the story, we had reached either utopia of dystopia.

And yet here we are. We are still using our inefficient and polluting internal combustion engines. We have not run out of oil or food or water. We have not conquered cancer or heart disease.  We don't have world peace. We don't life in some horrendous post apocalyptic world. Life has changed a lot, but if the twenty year old me had travelled here from 1975 it would not have taken long to adapt and figure things out. Life has changed, but it has remained the same.

In just a few days I will enter my 61st year of life. Turning 40 and 50 didn't phase me, but for some reason turning 60 is a wake up call of some sort. No matter what happens I have lived more years than I will live. It is an old saying but the weeks and months and years are flying by now and I wonder how I am using my time.

Am I, as I am challenged to do, redeeming the time? Am I working while it is day? Indeed the time is coming when no man can work.

I was challenged recently by a message I listened to about how those of us who are slowly inching closer to eternity need to be those who are most motivated to redeem our time for Christ. That idea has really sunk in - when I find myself wasting time I wonder what I could be doing to serve God.

As our society turns further and further from God and goodness and morality I need to be motivated to stay busy and stay active and stay serving. May the passage of time and new years and half years and birthdays always motivate me to be steadfast and immoveable and always abounding in God's work remembering that none of my labour for Him is in vain.

Huh?

I have seen this posted on Facebook a few times over the last few days. I am not sure why it is appearing, but I think it is evidence that people don't grasp the world's relationship with God.

My answer to the photo is - of course. The world is at enmity with God. What do we expect? Do we really expect society to he careful not to offend God?

Frankly, I am surprised at how much respect the world DOES show God.

Today's message

A whole lot of Christians are up in arms right now about all kinds of things going on. I don't know if is is just social media or not, but it seem like Christians main focus is a mixed bag of disliking President Obama, defending their rights to own an arsenal of weapons, keeping their Confederate flags, and thinking the legalisation of gay marriage is the end of civilisation as we know it.

This world is not the safe haven for believers and their ways that it was once was. It never was meant to be that way.

As I preached today from 1 Thessalonians 5.16-17 I was impacted by how dissimilar our response is to what Paul told the Thessalonian believers. I intended to preach in a much larger segment today, but only got through theses two verses and the three lessons they give.

So what do we do when things are going? Do we tell the world through Facebook and Twitter how we are not going to put up with it?

Paul doesn't say that. He says:

Keep on rejoicing
Keep on praying
Keep in giving thanks

I wonder how we would do if instead of telling the whole world how upset we were we we rejoicing, praying, and thanking God? What if our social media presence was full of joy and prayer and thanksgiving?

I wonder which would have a greater impact for the cause of Christ? I wonder which would better tend to draw men to the Saviour?

To the new readers

Thanks to those who have expressed an interest. Please ignore the earlier posts if you wish. I didn't know where I was going with this page. Please feel free to input and ask questions. I am looking forward to this new venture.

Thoughts on recent events

In the last few weeks both my birth country and my adopted country have taken a major step in societal change. Back in May Ireland adopted gay marriage by national referendum and yesterday the Supreme Court of the United States decided that gay couples have the right to marry in all fifty states.

This ought to be an easy issue for me.I am a Christian and the Bible is clear that marriage was designed by my God as between one man and one women and it is designed to last for one lifetime.

But as a matter of civil rights I am not so clear. Apart from what the Bible says it is hard to come up with a solid reason why any two people should not be permitted to make a legal commitment to each other. There are plenty of non-conjugal and conjugal situations where two parties could afford themselves of legal protection of property, possessions, and even the right to make decisions on the other's behalf in case of incapacity. I think those civil rights should be preserved and protected.

My issue is with marriage and the fact that we have allowed government bodies to get involved in it. To me there is a simple solution. The state should issue a civil contract and then the parties involved could decide how to proceed with their concept of marriage.

I voted no in May - but only because I could not endorse a legal redefining of the word marriage. That is God's domain and as a believer I must hold to His definition.

I was frustrated yesterday when I read posts coming out of America that implied that this was the final straw for God and now He must act. This redefining of marriage pales in comparison to other national sins like the legalisation of the killing of unborn children. I could go on with other heinous national sins, but don't want to get started.

The church needs to cease its efforts to moralise the world around us. This world is not our home, we have a better heavenly kingdom. Our focus must be to go into all the world and preach the gospel creature. The legalisation of gay marriage is not our death knell - it may be our rallying cry to love and share the word of God more and more.

And then there is the whole concept of love - 'above all else' we are told 'put on love.' 'Faith, hope, and love remain, but the greatest of these is love.' 'Let your love be without corruption.' When Jesus summarised the Law he said simple 'love God and love others.'

Our attitudes and responses must always be motivated by, based on, and covered in love.

And then we leave the rest to God and keep our eyes open for our better heavenly country.

Another attempt

I am going to try this one more time. While my blog has morphed into a devotional blog I have wanted to have a place to post random thoughts and notions. I want to put them down some place since this was already here.

If I fail this time I'm going to shut it down for good :-)