Marijuana Smoke = Health!

At least that's what those addicted to Pot will tell you. 'Cause we all know how healthy it is to inhale burning leaves. Especially when the smoke comes from plants that just grow naturally in the wild.

Except that we know that the smoking-related effects on the human body just keeps growing. It now includes liver and colorectal cancers, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, erectile dysfunction and cleft pallet in those born to mothers who smoke. We already know that smoking is tied directly to lung, mouth and throat cancer as well as chronic bronchitis and coronary heart disease. So what is the solution?

Let's add marijuana smoke to agenda. That will keep down the costs of health care. Brilliant!

“Something Come In It”

I never really knew my grandparents. I’m the youngest in my family and both of my parents are the youngest of many children in each of their families so my grandparents died before I was old enough to understand who they were. I’ve talked about remembering my alcoholic grandfather on my mother’s side passing out at the table and falling with his face into the mashed potatoes. What I remember of my grandmother on my dad’s side is this. We were standing by the garden, looking at the strawberry patch. Several of the plants were dying and when my mother wondered aloud what was going on, my grandmother pronounced, “Something come in it.” I don’t know how old I was but her odd way of phrasing that thought stuck with me.

In the marriages of the couples I see, something similar happens. Something has come into their marriages. Thoughts and behaviours that are destructive to relationships have been imported from their parent's marriages. That something also resembles cancer.

Like the white cells in a body with cancer, when it comes to maintaining the health of the marriage, one or both cells (partners) have become disloyal to the body (marriage). In fact, instead of working to protect the marriage body, the behaviours of the out of control cell(s) are now actively destroying the marriage. The behaviours have become mutinous, dangerous, destructive.

To turn that around, each partner needs to take a long and careful look at their current / present behaviours, at how they speak to each other, at how they respond to the perception of rejection. They need to honestly ask themselves, “If I continue to act, think, or speak in this manner, can I reasonably expect our marriage to last?”

If the answer is, “No,” then the next question becomes, “What am I going to do about it?”

This has nothing to do with what’s fair. 

It has nothing to do with who did wrong first, or who has done the most wrong. This has to do with recognising that the marriage is dying. This has to do with a willingness, and a maturity to do what is necessary to bring about a return to health.

God Bless
Merry Christmas
Happy Holy Days

Of Tears and Rainbows

I was with a guy yesterday. A middle-aged man who sobbed tears of sorrow over the loss of his mother to cancer more than ten years ago. He was worried that there was something wrong with him to feel this much pain.

I envied him.

To be able to feel deeply is, I believe, part of the abundant life that Jesus promises to those who follow Him. So many, too many spend their lives numbing themselves. Either through work, or relationships, or mood altering chemicals, a fear of feeling is a common theme in people’s lives. Not so for those whose writings have been included in the Bible.

Did you know that seventy percent of the Psalms are Psalms of lament? David wrote, “Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us.”
A New York Times magazine article entitled Depression's Upside confirms this as it explains that the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) is the part of our brain that controls what we pay attention to. This area is activated when we are sad.

“Tears are the material out of which heaven weaves its brightest rainbow.”
So wrote G. M. Meyer

I must admit that for a good portion of my life, I too looked for ways to escape my sorrow as quickly as possible. I now know that it is in the depths of sorrow that we ask the most important questions about life.

What’s the point of life?
Why am I here?
Why did God allow / cause this to happen?
How can I help others who have had similar experiences?

“Every night tears drench my bed; my pillow is wet from my weeping.” Ps.6:6
“I am dying from grief. Misery has drained my strength.” Ps. 31:10

The beauty of being in a healed relationship with Jesus is that “we do not grieve as those who have no hope” 1 Thess. 4:13.

For those who have been called according to God’s plan and purpose, sin and evil do not have the last word in our lives.

For those who have rejected the forgiveness offered by Jesus, this life is as good as it gets.

For those who have accepted the forgiveness offered by Jesus, this life is as difficult as it gets.