as i was going from point A to point B this morning, the radio in the car was on. My kid likes one station, I like another, but the news channel i like is generally pretty repetitive, so we listen to his choice a lot, and when i'm in the car alone, it's news.
a big story today is that many people think that certain meds, cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, to name a few should be over the counter. There are 2 pharmacists where i get my prescriptions filled and i would trust either of them to advise me (THANKS, ERIC and STEVE at the Clinton Macy's) but....
we used to get a presecription for some kind of allergy medecine for my son. The insurance covered the doctors visit (with a small co -pay) and there was a $3.00 co pay for a month's worth of pills. One day i went to get a refill, only to find that that medecine was now over-the-counter, so instead of a co-pay, i was allowed the privilege of buying it retail for $22.95 for the same 30 days worth of pills.
so now that everyone is forced to pay for insurance, a lot of meds will no longer be covered....something just doesn't sound right.
it should also concern us that people will avoid going to the doctor because the pharmacist at the local bigbox store is so much more convenient. Like i said, i trust the guys at the pharmacy i use, but i would rather them be filling my prescriptions than spending an hour with someone who doesn't want to or can't afford to pay to see a doctor. and if i go ask about blood pressure medecine, the doc might actually look and find out that it's something else, while the pharmacist will probably just talk BP pills.
just sayin'
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Review: Soul Detox
You know there is something holding you back from being the person that God intends you to be. We may think we’re different and unique when it comes to the toxins that are polluting our lives, but as Solomon reminds us, ‘there is nothing new under the sun’. A limited number of toxins: behaviors, emotions, and influences, raise their ugly heads and make us sicker than we realize.
Pastor Craig Groeschel in Soul Detox: Clean Living in a Contaminated World (Zondervan, 2012), encourages us to identify and treat the toxicity in our Christian lives. I enjoyed his conversational style of writing, and it wasn’t until late in the book that it hit me that I could have been listening to a series of sermons. The main point that I took away from this book is that as we are in the world, but not of it, it’s often hard to see how we are conforming to the world rather than to the image of Christ. We become conditioned to things that used to be off limits, and the example we set doesn’t glorify God. We forget how powerful words are, and unintentionally inflict deep pain on others, even as we suffer the pain of words spoken long ago by someone who has probably forgotten that he said them, and has no idea of the pain that those words are causing today.
Millennia ago, the religious leaders thought that they had it covered; they took the Ten Commandments and ‘clarified’ them by breaking them down into over 600 bits and pieces of things to do and not do. The problem is that in most cases they got so wrapped up in memorizing and obeying man’s rules that they had no time to experience the heart of God. Groeschel wisely points out that the toxins that affect us as individuals can and do spread into the church also. I was left with the sense that as we conform more to the world, and in doing so become less Christ-like, that in our churches we are becoming more and more religious: we demand that others act like the Christ-like person that we’re no longer interested in becoming.
Lots of scripture references help the reader in the quest to identify and treat the toxic reactions from behaviors, emotions, influences and religiosity that keep us from achieving our full potential.
I received an e-copy of this book in exchange for my review.
Pastor Craig Groeschel in Soul Detox: Clean Living in a Contaminated World (Zondervan, 2012), encourages us to identify and treat the toxicity in our Christian lives. I enjoyed his conversational style of writing, and it wasn’t until late in the book that it hit me that I could have been listening to a series of sermons. The main point that I took away from this book is that as we are in the world, but not of it, it’s often hard to see how we are conforming to the world rather than to the image of Christ. We become conditioned to things that used to be off limits, and the example we set doesn’t glorify God. We forget how powerful words are, and unintentionally inflict deep pain on others, even as we suffer the pain of words spoken long ago by someone who has probably forgotten that he said them, and has no idea of the pain that those words are causing today.
Millennia ago, the religious leaders thought that they had it covered; they took the Ten Commandments and ‘clarified’ them by breaking them down into over 600 bits and pieces of things to do and not do. The problem is that in most cases they got so wrapped up in memorizing and obeying man’s rules that they had no time to experience the heart of God. Groeschel wisely points out that the toxins that affect us as individuals can and do spread into the church also. I was left with the sense that as we conform more to the world, and in doing so become less Christ-like, that in our churches we are becoming more and more religious: we demand that others act like the Christ-like person that we’re no longer interested in becoming.
Lots of scripture references help the reader in the quest to identify and treat the toxic reactions from behaviors, emotions, influences and religiosity that keep us from achieving our full potential.
I received an e-copy of this book in exchange for my review.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Secret Service in the fishbowl
Recent news reports indicate that 11 members of a Secret Service detail along with 5 military members were involved in a prostitution scandal. They were in Columbia as part of the advance team assigned to protect our President. The President has indicated that if the reports are true, then he will be angry, and that the individuals involved are representing the USA and should maintain the highest standards. Agreed!
But my concern is that the emphasis so far seems to be on the fact that they’re not representing us well, and that even though the President wasn’t there, and they weren’t directly assigned to him, that the behavior was unacceptable for someone in that capacity.
Excuse me… drunken behavior that results in the police being called, and hiring prostitutes should be unacceptable behavior for anyone. Once again it seems that the issue is not what they might have done, but that they got caught, and the behavior was made public. And oh yeah, very rarely does the first time someone gets caught correspond to the first time they engage in the behavior.
Why aren’t we hearing that working in the sex industry does irreparable harm to people, and robs them of the dignity that everyone should have. Where is the outrage that prostitution “isn’t illegal” in Cartagena? Why aren’t people talking about broken relationships and lost trust because of marital infidelity? Why aren’t we hearing more about responsible drinking? Where are the reminders that promiscuity, legal or not, means a higher probability of STDs?
Where do people get the idea that they’re above the rules? Above the law? Above God’s law? Why do we think that just because we’re away from home that we can do things that we wouldn’t do at home. I’m thinking that if I wouldn’t do something here because I would be ashamed to have my wife, my son, my church family, my neighbors, my friends, or my co-workers see it, then I shouldn’t feel free to engage in that behavior some place where no one knows me. But that’s me.
I’m sorry there’s going to be an investigation. The money that Congress will spend in their efforts to find out if there is a problem, could be better utilized in fixing the problems that we already know exist.
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