I guess I’m a typical guy in that I don’t really like doctors. It’s not that I feel that I’m invicible or that “it can’t happen to me”. I just don’t really trust them. My experience is that I see arbitrary applications of drugs and healing methods without due process. Teh reality of course is that there IS due process, only the doctor isn’t feeling compelled to share that process with me. I’m a guy that is full of questions. I tend to set out to learn things that most people don’t bother with. This is something I noticed long ago when I was in high school raising questions that teachers found irritating because they weren’t a part of the curriculum. What can you do.
If I was interested in the working on people, I’d have been able to be a doctor. The reason I’m not is not because the subject matter didn’t interest me. I just didn’t want to do all the work to end up dealing with people. The other thing is that I’m pretty lazy in school. I do what I need to though I know I could achieve really high marks if I applied my mind. I know I could do, I just also knew that I could NOT do it and still get by. So perhaps in that regard I couldn’t do it.
My point is though that I find doctors irritating because most of them simply don’t divulge enough information considering what they are working on. I want to know everything. In essence, I don’t go to the doctor to be treated blindly. There’s that feeling when you’re around doctors that your just another case. I don’t feel dignity and respect are high on the list for them. It’s all about efficiency of treatment which leaves people as being kind of subjects and that’s about it. Doctors might argue with me on this one and they can if they want, but the mere fact that so many men won’t go to the doctor proves my point. If you didn’t know, most men shut down when they feel they are not being respected. If a man dosn’t feel respected somewhere, he will avoid being there. This is true in all kinds of areas - especially marriages. Perhaps one day I’ll write my undertanding of marriage and men and women sometime.
I want to go to the doctor to be informed about what I have, what causes it, and what can fix it. I suppose that’s an inefficient way to run a practice - taking the time to keep all your patients up to speed on everything you are thinking and planning in regards to their ailment.
So I think I am destined to always be irritated by doctors. At least…some of them.
My family and I often speak about the election that is coming up on June 24th for Calgary’s next bishop. (That’s Anglican Bishop for those of you who don’t know). I have been thinking a lot about the whole situation and one of the hot issues this time around is the whole same-sex blessing issue and the whole deal around marriage and the Anglican Church of Canada. It’s been a mess to say the least regardless of what side of the issue you stand on, people have been hurt and displaced. It really has been a mess.
What’s worse is that it’s been a huge distraction for some people. Kingdom work is not getting done in some places because the leaders are focused fully on this issue. It’s kind of ironic if you think about it. We’re concerned about the bible being held up as an authority when it comes to marriage. There are a few areas that speak to marriage in the bible, but in my opinion it is not the main point of the book. The bible’s main point is to inform us of what the main point of our lives should be and it doesn’t flag marriage issues as being what the main point of our efforts should be. So I think one needs to be careful as a church leader these days. The evil one would like nothing more than to distract you from the main point of your ministry and the main point of your lives.
That being said, I think we are facing a dangerous possibility coming into this election. The Bishop serves many roles. One of which will be to clean up some of the mess of all the stuff that’s gone on in the recent past. Another role will be to create a stable environment for this whole marriage issue to get sorted out. This role will mean that the person needs to be a good pastor and a good listener.
In my opinion it would be nice if it were someone who would put their foot down when it comes to things like same-sex blessing. In this regard I’m a conservative. I think the bible is pretty clear on it. I must say though that my position is not based on a phobia or anything. I’m not afraid of the idea of there being homosexuals at my church or in my life. Actually I find myself torn on the issue sometimes because I have close friends who call themselves homosexuals.
Here’s what I’m really afraid of. I’m worried that the election of the bishop will be about same-sex blessings. I’m concerned that people will vote such that the person to be elected will represent their standpoint on this issue. What’s even scarier is that someone might vote conservative purely because of the same-sex issue. So now instead of seeking the correct person for the job, we are simply looking for a conservative, or perhaps a liberal if you are on the other side of the same-sex blessing issue. There’s more to the job than this one issue. And when you think of it, you can’t do blessings now and you won’t be able to for a while even if it is going that way, so perhaps what we need now is a person who can heal and patch up. Maybe the whole marriage thing is taking too much of a chunk of the consideration pie.
What if we manage to get a conservative guy in who think liberally on the same-sex issue? Or what if we get a conservative guy who is conservative in regards to marriage, but is also very conservative in regards to liturgy and decides to remove the BAS from the churches in Calgary and area?
My whole point here is that the term conservative or liberal, or pro same-sex blessing or anti-same-sex blessing, does not give us enough to be able to determine who is the right guy for this job. He (or she) needs to be balanced and needs to go far deeper than any agenda based on this marriage thing. In fact I think he should have one agenda and that would be to be wholly devoted to pursuing the will of God on all things and to be committed to his own relationship with Jesus.
I’d love to see a bishop that actually sets out to try and inspire deeper relationships with Jesus - both with the clergy and the laity. I’d like to see a bishop that is more Christ-like in his appointment. I don’t think Jesus would spend a lot of time on the same-sex blessing issue. He’d say his thing on the issue and get back down to spending time with the people, playing with the kids, and being a pastor and leader to his disciples. Bishops, in my experience, are too busy to do that and that’s really too bad.
So that’s about all I have to say on the topic. I just hope that the voters at the election will take the time to look at the bigger picture and to not base thier vote simply on this one issue of same-sex blessing.
A link regarding this election:
calgarysnextbishop.com
Wow. Reality is really reaching now. I caught an ad for a new series that’s coming up on A&E. It’s called “God or the Girl”. The goal will be to follow I think 4 guys around as they are deciding whether or not they should choose the girl (I presume they are all dating) or to become a Catholic priest.
Wow. I’m not sure what to think of this. We’ll lets be honest, it doesn’t really matter AT ALL what I think. Still though, is this really good TV? I’m not sure. How is it entertaining? I must say, I feel drawn to catch an episode to see what kind of spin the producers take on the show. But I’m not sure I’d be entertained or not. At this point, I’d just call it curiosity. But what could their take be, I wonder?
The up side is that there might actually be some people with integrity shown on TV. The reality TV phase has been filled with producers taking normal people - well, lets just say “people” and putting them in clearly abnormal circumstances. Like white rats in a maze, the rest of the world can watch the “action” unfold. When things get uninteresting, the men int he white lab coats will add a rat to the maze, or gather all the rats together and have them compete for the chance to stay in the maze. ??? It’s bizaar and anything but reality. The only thing that might be considered real is the people, and even that is a stretch because normal people do abnormal things when in abnormal situations. Some could even argue that the people who seek to be on TV are abnormal to begin with. So I think it’s safe to say that television networks have anything but a firm grip on what reality even is. To them, the only thing that’s real is the money. It’s no secret.
So what about “God or the Girl”? What part of this can be real? Maybe more than some of the competition shows because I think it’s supposed to be more of a documentary than a game as many of the other reality shows are. Are these guys just going to be paraded into everyone’s living room as being kind of… off or wierd? Will they make Christians look sickeningly pious and righteous? You know, too perfect. Will the girls who are not chosen understand?
I suppose these are all the questions the producers are wanting us to ask in order to get us to the watch the show. I could be interesting, or really quite shallow. I suppose there’s only one way to really find out.
Check it out on the A&E site - pretty non-informative and therefore useless page, by the way…
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