CVS Stockholders Beware (But Maybe Not?)

I think we can all agree that smoking can have pretty devastating outcomes on your health. Odds are you know of somebody that's been destroyed by their choices with tobacco.

I see it all the time. I work in a cardiopulmonary rehab center. Patients come in every day hooked up to oxygen tanks, barely able to walk across the room without stopping to catch their breath.

Tobacco kills. 

But nevertheless, it's here to stay. Why? Well, first, because it's addictive. And second, there's good money to be made off of tobacco. I know of people with engineering degrees who went into tobacco farming. Why? Because you can pull in somewhere around $1500/acre (1).  And if you own a 50 (pretty average) acre farm that's nothing but tobacco planted throughout, you can net somewhere in the neighborhood of $75,000/year.

That's pretty stinkin' good.

Farming tobacco brings in big money because tobacco products bring in big money. The tobacco industry is somewhere around $35 billion (2). You can make good money selling this stuff.

And that's why I find CVS's decision so surprising. 

CVS, your local drugstore, has decided to pull all tobacco products from its shelves, forgoing around $2 billion dollars in annual sales. That's amazing. I don't even know what to make of this.

The hope is that by getting rid of all tobacco products, other corner drugstores will follow suit leading to a much healthier America. Conscious driven customers will hopefully respect CVS's decision and shop their more as well.

What's going to happen is completely up in the air, but I personally applaud CVS for taking such a huge step to forgo the sales of a product not in line with its mission. We'll see what happens.

Christians Have Lower Mortality Than Atheists

Here's some exciting research for ya:

Religious people tend to have lower mortality rates than non-religious people.

Yep, it's true. And from pretty much all causes too. Those who regularly attend church services, and practice private religion have:

• a decreased risk of suicide
• lower rates of cancer
• lower rates of circulatory diseases
• less digestive diseases
• less respiratory diseases
• and pretty much just a decreased risk of death all over (1, 2)

Pretty cool, huh? But why is this the case? Well, that's pretty easy when you get to thinking about it. 

Let's focus on Christians. 

 Christians believe the Bible is God's Word, that Jesus was real, and that He's the boss. They also believe in a lot of other things as well. Like how drunkenness, sexual immorality/homosexuality/pre-marital sex, and a host of other factors are a sin. 

Christians are also much less likely to get into fights, use drugs/alcohol/tobacco, engage in violent behavior, have less depression, have higher rates of self-esteem, and have a more positive outlook on life than atheists.

Now if you take a look at the root causes of different diseases and death, a lot of these go hand in hand. Don't want AIDS? Don't emulate anybody from 'How I Met Your Mother' or 'The Big Bang Theory'. Don't want liver cirrhosis? Don't drink. Don't want to die from lung or mouth cancer? Avoid tobacco. 

It's all pretty common sense, really. And if you'll notice, pretty much all of it's in the Bible. 

I don't think that God put all of those rules in the Bible just to suck the fun out of our lives. I think He did it for a reason. He knows the consequences of sinful choices, and He cares about us. Just like a good parent will never let his child play out in the street, God doesn't want us to play with sin. 

And that's something we should be able to live with. 

Why I Don't Think Milk Causes Diabetes

So, I just finished up one of my summer classes called 'Diabetes'. It was an excellent class, and one of the required textbooks for it was an ebook called 'Diabetes Rising' (note: ebooks make excellent textbooks for essays. "Where's that reference again? Oh, look! A search bar!").

Anyway, the book goes over 5 theories as to why diabetes is on the rise in America, which I previously  blogged about here.

Basically, the milk theory says that humans, specifically babies, aren't designed to be able to digest milk. The cells of the pancreas have a hard time with this, and the beta cells that produce insulin are destroyed as a result.

That's a giant container of barbeque sauce, by the way. Yellowhed's idea. We've had it over a year.

Sounds scary, right?

Well, it's certainly a theory, but I don't know how much stock I would put into it. Why? Because of my own little pet theory, which involves the Bible.

Now first of all, the Bible is not a medical textbook. You're not going to find surgical techniques in it, or specific instructions as to how to treat the flu. But it does cover a lot of public health issues. The book of Leviticus is considered the first recorded public health law. Personal hygiene, food safety, community sanitation issues, and a whole host of other potential problems are discussed within the Bible.

1 Timothy 4:4-5 - "For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer."

Now before you go out saying, "Alrighhhht!!! Bring out the marijuana!!!", let me say that I think you have to exercise a bit of discretion here. Obviously God created tobacco, but that doesn't mean He intended for us to fill our lungs with its smoke. God cares about our being responsible, and making wise and God-honoring decisions, and I think we need to be mindful of that.

But when I saw this verse, it got me thinking about the Israelites.

In Exodus 3:17, God told Moses that He was going to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land. "A land flowing with milk and honey."

The Promised Land was supposed to be pretty sweet. God had everything planned out for them there. Why on earth would He lead His people to a land filled with something that causes diabetes? That doesn't make any sense to me.

This isn't the only example either. Over and over again in the Bible, milk is referenced in a positive manner. Jeremiah 11:5, Proverbs 27:27, 1 Corinthians 9:7, Exodus 13:5, Jeremiah 32:22, and Numbers 13:27 are but a few of the many verses that talk about the presence of milk as a positive factor.

 I've heard the arguments before about how if the earlier doctors had just read their Bible, they would have seen Deuteronomy 12:23 which mentions blood being the source of life, and as a result would have never bled their patients, which often resulted in death. George Washington, and a host of other important figures would have probably lived and done other good things as a result, all if doctors had just read their Bibles.

Is that possible? I don't know. And I'm not saying that my theory is absolutely, positively sound either. There may be some truth to the fact that newborns should probably stay away from cow milk and formula.

All I know is that it wouldn't make sense for God to seem to advocate something that would lead to a very devastating disease.

And that's why I don't think that milk causes diabetes.

Dear Doctors

Dear doctors,

Please don't tell my clients that they need to eat a WHOLE chocolate bar both BEFORE and AFTER their workout.

It makes me upset/my job a lot harder.

The Website That Could Change American Healthcare

If you've opened up a newspaper within the last decade or so, you know that there's been a lot of fuss about the American healthcare system lately.

There's been facts published about how many people don't have access to proper healthcare because they can't afford it. And if you've ever had a procedure done at the hospital, you know that this could be the case.

Hospitals are expensive.

My appendectomy a couple of years back cost well over 20 grand, and that's going to be a pretty tough bill for some people. Granted the surgery did save my life, and without it I would have been dead (me > $20,000).

I'm not gonna get into all of the reasoning hospitals bills are so large, and all that though. Instead, let's just acknowledge that hospitals are expensive.

I bet you didn't know that hospital bills vary WIDELY from one hospital to the next. If you go to the hospital the next town over for your cortisone shot, knee replacement, cath, or whatever, you could potentially save thousands of dollars.

Enter http://www.opscost.com/

This website, and others like it have the potential to change healthcare as we know it. Why? Two words. Competitive pricing.

Let's say more people find out about opscost.com. They find out that they can get dialysis for 15 grand less a year if they just drive an extra 20 minutes to such and such a clinic. The original clinic starts to lose patients/money, and begins to panic. They make a few phone calls to find out that all of their old patients are going the next town over. A few more phone calls and they find out that that clinic's prices are significantly lower.

The original clinic doesn't want to go out of business, and so, it lowers its prices. Original business had to utilize competitive pricing in order to stay in business. This is the essence of the American free market system.

Competitive pricing is a win-win. The customer (you) get lower prices. The business gets to keep its doors open. Win-win.

So, BEFORE you make your next office visit to the doctor, I highly recommend you check out opscost.com. It could potentially save you a LOT of  money.

Seriously. A lot.

And the Drink Came Out My Nose

Two new clients are filling out paperwork, as I drink green tea while working on some computer stuff behind them...

Ms. Laughalot: "Let's see...question 14, "Do you own a bathroom scale?"

Daughter: "Yeah, we have one of those."

Ms. Laughalot: "Yeah, but I never use it. I don't know how."

Daughter: "Mom. You stand on it."

The Desire for Greatness

"Yeah, I thought about going into the exercise field, but I just didn't know how I'd be able to use that for Christ."

When I heard those words, it instantly hit a chord in my mind regarding something that I've been thinking a lot about lately: our desire for greatness.

Humans have an innate desire to see that their life has meaning. We all want to be worthwhile, to be a somebody, to know that our life and what we are doing matters.  If you ask me, this is the main cause of every 20-something-year-old's existential crisis. Attempting to answer the question, "What will I do with my life that will actually matter, and be something that I actually enjoy?"

And in order to live a life full of meaning, we come to the conclusion that we have to do great things. And that makes sense, right? To be great, you must do great things. But this is the point that I think that we tend to misconstrue.

Great things, according to many, are to be like Billy Graham and lead hundreds of thousands of people to Christ. Great things are to be like Jerry Falwell, and to start up the largest evangelical Christian university in the world. Great things are to be like Hudson Taylor, who brought the Bible to the Chinese people.

In our minds, being like these people becomes the true definition of being great.

We set these extremely lofty standards for ourselves as to what doing great, and being great really is. And when we fail to meet these expectations we view ourselves as failures. We are no longer a missionary in the jungles of Africa, but are now just an insurance salesman. We failed. Guilt sets in over a matter that it should not even be involved in, and we let ourselves become miserable because we are now worthless. We are no longer doing something that matters, we're not doing anything of eternal significance.

This undeserved guilt is a powerful tool of Satan. If you can convince a man that he is guilty of something, and he accepts it, you can have enormous influence over his life. Happiness is no longer an option for the guilty man, because he will have a sense that he does not deserve it. This lack of joy, this unyielding guilt will then creep its way in towards other areas of this man's life until both he, and others find him to be a miserable person, and as a result, someone who is not as effective of a Christian as they could be.

I had a teacher in high school once who would constantly say that you can glorify God even if you're just a ditch digger. I never really thought too deeply about it at the time. It was just another teacher's sayings. But I think that he said that because he knew what kind of thoughts we were going to wrestle with in the future when our livelihoods occupied a much larger portion of our minds than before.

Sometimes I wonder if this is not a form of spiritual pride, if you will. "Well, having a normal job is ok for other people, but not for me. I need to do something better. I need to do something that will actually reach people."

And this is a superficial way of thinking that has predominated over many of our minds. We get the sense that there are the higher 'spiritual' occupations, and then there is everything else. I think this is the thinking behind why almost every other person I met at college wanted to go into the mission field, myself included. We all wanted to do something meaningful with our lives, and that was the only way that we thought we could do it. (I sometimes wonder if overtly-mission sending churches cultivate these ideas within their youth groups without even realizing it. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. It's just something I think about sometimes.)

If you're not working for a non-profit, if you're not serving in the middle of a jungle somewhere, or the like, is what you're doing worthwhile? I say yes. With the exception of prostitution, drug dealing, and other similar vocations, every job can be used to not only bring glory to God, but to show people Christ as well.

Is this to say that some people are not called to other countries? Absolutely not. Some people are undoubtedly called to the mission field. But at the same time, I think that it is a dangerous mistake to assume that if that is not your calling, what you are doing is not of any eternal significance, and that you should feel guilty.

This world could not exist if everybody had the exact same job. If everybody was a pastor, who would collect the garbage? If everybody was a missionary, who would grow our food? If everybody was a worship pastor, who would manage the hospitals? Does this sound eerily similar to 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 to anybody?

Is being a missionary applaudable? Absolutely. But the public school teacher who teaches her class to the utmost of her ability, the football coach who leads his young men to become more responsible, and the businessman who constantly do their best to create innovative solutions to problems and provide people with the products they need also hold applaudable positions.

As to going to a 'mission field', I would point out that even America in itself is a mission field. Have you read a local newspaper lately? Have you seen the moral crises that this country is going through? Abortion, homosexuality, wicked government, lies, and sexual immorality are rampant. We NEED strong Christians within our workforce. We need Christian politicians, Christian business owners, Christian teachers, writers, lawyers, legislators and so on. Why? Because if Christians do not seek out these positions, who will? It will be the people without any sense of morality, the people who do not know the difference between right and wrong, and the like. America needs Christians.

So, to wrap it all up, yes, being a missionary is awesome. But so are being a hotel manager, a pilot, a movie director, or even a personal trainer. You can serve God and do great things for Him no matter where you are. When we get down to the very root of the matter, I don't think that God is concerned as much with our specific vocation as He is with our hearts.

Are you loving God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and showing love for other people with the same intensity that God does for us? Because if you are, I would argue that even if you are just digging ditches, what you do, does matter to God.

And that would be pretty great.

Love God, and do what you want. -St. Augustine