An Odd Sense of Humor

This guy has an odd sense of humor, but I kind of like it. Here's one I can relate to:

I went to a restaurant that serves "breakfast at any time." So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance. Steven Wright.

I've been eating all my meals in the 21st Century recently. Quite a switch.

What's your favorite breakfast, and when?

The Heart of the Matter

I love learning about all the technology you have here in the 21st Century but, as a physician, I'm most intrigued by the human body - and all the things you know about it and can do to repair it!

I spent the day with a friend whose wife was in for the day so they could look at her heart - literally! They called it cardiac catheterization. They went inside her heart, took pictures of the flow of blood in the heart's arteries, examined the muscle itself, come out and sent her home - later the same day! In this case they found clear arteries but my friends are left puzzling about the reasons for a very weak heart.

The heart pumps 100,000 times each day, moving 2000 gallons of blood each day, through a series of blood vessels 60,000 miles long. That makes 2.5 billion beats over a 70 year life span. God did some good work! We are fearfully and wonderfully made!

And with so much that can go wrong, it is great to see Wheat Ridge supporting some excellent health and wellness projects like this one among the Navajo people of AZ.

Shazam!

Oh my! Amazing... I had heard a song I liked but didn't know the title or singer. Someone got me a very poor quality recording of about 30 seconds of it (amazing enough in itself). Then another friend had an iPhone (THAT is a whole amazing thing - Paul would have loved one of those on our missionary journeys!) and he said "Shazam". I thought he was trying some magic trick but no, he held the iPhone up to the scratchy recording and nine seconds later "Shazam" had recognized the song, gave me the title and singer, and where I could see them perform next. NINE SECONDS! That "shazam" sure knows music.

If you think that's amazing... Check out Luke 12:22-34. ...even the hairs on your head!

Living well to the end...

I have come across a blog that is a wonderful witness of a faithful servant, Connie Ore, who knows how to live and is learning how to die. She is doing the latter with much grace and with a strong witness to her faith in Jesus. It seems the end is near. The blog has been going for some time, since the medical community thought the end was going to be much sooner. All throughout, Connie shares her story with grace and dignity... and with an ever present sense of her Savior's hold on her life and the joy that comes from knowing that.

Bookmark the blog. Check out the earlier posts. Share it with someone who is experiencing the inevitable approach of death... in the 1st Century or the 21st Century - that includes us all. It will surely be a helpful read and a wonderful witness.

I thought I was well traveled!

So many things here a 1st Century mind has trouble with:

YouTube - keeping a detailed record of your life to watch over and over??... I'm guessing grandparents love this!

Airtravel - So far in so little time - and never touch the ground! I suspect that loyalty to country would still be strong, but you surely must be a friendly world today with so much face-to-face contact all around the world!

A well traveled world: This video blows my 1st Century mind. I thought I was well traveled with the Apostle Paul all through the Mediteranian World. We were pikers! And as a physician I knew well the science of the day. This video shows so much of God's great creation I couldn't even begin to explain it 'back home'.

And Wheat Ridge has projects in many of the countries of the world you are looking at, seeding new ministries of health and hope in the name of the healing Christ!

Here is what someone told me to look for while I watched:
Stay with the picture. You will see the light of the day moving from the east to the west, as the Earth spins on it's axis. Also you will see the aircraft flow of traffic leaving the North American continent and traveling at night to arrive in the UK in the morning. Then you will see the flow changing, leaving the UK in the morning and flying to the American continent in daylight.

This is something that everyone should see. For us old-timers it is really fascinating. For our children/grandchildren it provides a superb learning moment and an opportunity to open up what could be a very interesting discussion. How many people do YOU think are in the sky at any given moment?

You can tell it was spring time in the north by the sun's foot print over the planet. You could see that it didn't set for long in the extreme north and it didn't quite rise in the extreme south. We are taught about the earth's tilt and how it causes summer and winter and how we had to imagine just what is going on. With this 24 hour observation of aircraft travel on the earth's surface we get to see the daylightpattern move as well. Remember watch the day to night..... Day is over in Australia when it starts.

forMemory

I spent some time this past Monday with two sisters who are 'forMemory' (one of Wheat Ridge Ministries many projects). Chris and Mary Kay both have early onset Alzheimer's disease and have a mission to help those in similar circumstances. It was a wonderful visit. They were both engaging, entertaining and capable. What a blessing from God! And one they are anxious to share.

Chris had her first symptoms at age 41 (in 1989 before early-onset was acknowledged). By 1998 she was in marked decline and couldn't function well due to memory loss. Her and her sister's stories are remarkable. This last Monday she was nothing like the woman she described back in 1998.

Lots of help is available on the web site including a way to get a booklet and longer book about their experiences. You'll also find some very helpful questions to ask and many resources...

They will be a blessing to many people who are experiencing memory loss. Thanks to 'forMemory' and to Wheat Ridge Ministries.

Family Fitness

Well, I got a lot more help from this newspaper - about Family Fitness. Seems family is just as important now as in the 1st Century... perhaps a bit more challenging now with all the competition for family time (and I've also noticed that everything seems to be 'sponsored').

Keeping in shape (not something we had to really think as much about back in the day) is important for giving God our best - "Heart, Soul, Mind and Strength".

Wheat Ridge has a variety of projects that focus on health and wellness. Here's one in the Arizona desert.

Observations About Mothers

Moms... they are as smart now as they were back in the 1st Century. I'm checking out what other observers of 21st Century life have to say:
I can remember the first time I had to go to sleep. Mom said, "Steven, time to go to sleep." I said, "But I don't know how." She said, "It's real easy. Just go down to the end of tired and hang a left." So I went down to the end of tired, and just out of curiosity I hung a right. My mother was there, and she said "I thought I told you to go to sleep." - Steven Wright

So Much to Read

Picked up a newspaper to study 21st Century life. It happened to be "The Onion". Seemed like a good idea but - big mistake! Now I'm really confused!

So much to read these days...

Very clear need for having an anchor in unchangeable truth: Luke 1:1-4 and Acts 1:1-11.

So Much To Learn...

I came across a young, well educated man who seems to be very interested in the brain. As a 1st Century physician it is clear that I have much to learn from 21st Century medicine, but it would appear there is something you can learn from us.

Jonah Lehrer shares about some research (I'm still totally amazed at how much you know about the workings of the body) that gives some very early evidence of how a chemical that the body itself produces (BDNF - I've read some amazing things about that in another context... more on that later) MAY be a factor in reducing cancer.

The thing that I find most interesting in Jonah's blog is what he calls the "startling demonstration of the brain-body loop". Now, we 1st Century medical practitioners certainly don't know as much as your 21st Century doctors do about the workings of the body, but Christian tradition certainly has a rich history of seeing the body and mind as a whole... no 'surprises' for us in that regard.

I'd encourage you to check out the Johan Lehrer blog, and this one on BDNF and Cancer in particular. Can't wait to see what further study shows in this area since Cancer is clearly a major disease to contend with these days.

I'm going to visit some friends of Wheat Ridge tomorrow who focus particularly on Alzheimer's Disease. More on that in another post.

Illegal Aliens

Illegal aliens. Legal aliens. We had both of those in the 1st Century. Alien aliens... that's a new one. I've been encouraged to watch "Mork and Mindy". I wonder where to look for them?

My friend Matthew wrote about some aliens - some of them who came following a star, looking for a Savior. They found what they were looking for. That visit turned the Savior into a young alien himself in Egypt. I wonder what kind of reception he and his family faced while they were there? Matthew 2.

Some getting used to...

OK - this will take some getting used to. Hang in there with me. I'll be sharing my observations about life in your world... very different from what I left as a Physician in the 1st Century - Antioch was home, to be specific. Pace, patterns, people, places - all different.

But I've found a friendly place: as a physician I've quickly come to appreciate Wheat Ridge Ministries... I'll be sharing lots more about what I'm learning about them.

For now, can anyone tell me why they call it 'rush hour'?