Tag: doctor

Seeing The Eye Doctor

Tuesday’s Column: Learning From Lehman

Tim Alexander

Does this look familiar to anyone? Yup, it’s an eye chart that your eye doctor uses to test your vision. Can everyone see the top row? How about the second? Third? Fourth? How far down can you go before you just cant see anymore? The letters on the page never changed but, the further away you got, the less clearly you could see things.

But, then comes the good part. The doctor starts adjusting those lenses until your vision becomes clearer and clearer and you breathe that big sigh of relief because you can finally see the whole picture! But, albeit briefly, when they take away the lenses that gave you such clear vision so you can put your glasses back on, things may become unclear again.

As time passes for many, if not most, your vision begins to change again, your eyes start to lose focus, and you have to go back to the Doctor and let him help you to see clearly again. Some may only need a little adjustment because their vision isn’t too far off, while others may feel like they’re starting all over because their vision is worse than it was before!

Well, you visit your Doctor on a regular basis to make sure you can still see clearly. But, after a while you begin to go less and less until one day you can barely see anything clearly enough to even see where you’re going.

So you finally decide you need to go back so the Doctor can get you back on track but, when you get to the office, the door is locked! You don’t understand what’s going on! 

You KNOCK yet, no one opens the door for you!

There are others getting the same help you SEEK but, you can’t find anyone willing to help you!

You call and ASK for help but, they just won’t give it to you!  

So you start looking around. Finally you see a note on the door. It reads:

“Dear Mr. Smith,

I’m sorry to inform you that I will no longer be caring for you. You knew you were supposed to follow my directions and come back as scheduled to keep your vision on track. Yet, you chose to ignore my instructions and now your vision is so bad you may never see clearly again. From now on you must visit a different doctor to take care of your needs because I am tired of trying to help you when you keep making the same mistakes over and over again by not listening to me. Goodbye and good luck.” 

You can’t believe it. Your doctor turned his back on you? Just because you failed to follow his prescription here and there? What do you do now…?

Let me tell you something friends…

THE WORLD IS OUR EYECHART. Things can get fuzzy from time to time. Sometimes so much so that you may feel you can barely see at all.

THE BIBLE IS OUR GLASSES. As long as we focus on it regularly, our vision can stay a lot clearer than it will if we only make occasional visits now and then.

 BUT, THE BEST NEWS IS JESUS IS OUR DOCTOR! No matter how many times you make a mistake, as long as you do your best to follow His directions, you will never find the door locked when you need Him.

If you just don’t see things clearly in all directions, make an appointment with the Doctor NOW and let Him take care of your needs.

If you are already a patient, when your vision starts to get a little fuzzy, DON’T WAIT! Go back to the Doctor to get things back in focus as quickly as possible! If you don’t, you may find yourself with an appointment you scheduled for later, but later never comes…

When Should You Go To The Doctor?

Friday’s Column: Brent’s Bent

Brent Pollard

I was chit-chatting with a friend from college about his latest work assignment, which took him to the Mississippi delta. He mentioned he had been by the birthplace of Kermit the Frog in Leland, Mississippi. Of course, I know Leland well since my mother grew up there. But sadly, I’ve not had a reason to visit Leland since my maternal grandfather passed in 2004. And while Deer Creek, which flows through Leland, is picturesque, I would have never thought it to be the place Jim Henson would choose to serve as the place of Kermit’s nativity. Yet, Jim Henson had been born in nearby Greenville, Mississippi, and spent his early childhood in Leland due to his father’s career as an agronomist for the Department of Agriculture.1  

Can you believe it has been about 32 years since Henson left this life? Do you realize that there are potentially two generations familiar with Henson’s creations but are unaware of their creator? It boggles the mind of this “middle-aged” man. The older I become, the more I appreciate the Latin inscription on some clocks: Tempus fugit (i.e., “time flies”). But as I ponder the legacy of Jim Henson, the more I am struck by its tragedy. There was no reason that Henson had to die. The illness that took him was easily treatable had it been caught in time. There are certain complicating factors, to be sure. Henson’s parents reared him in the Christian Science faith.2 If you were unaware, Christian Scientists believe they should treat illness with prayer before medicine. In all fairness to Henson, he had stopped being an active practitioner of Christian Science in the 1970s,3 but one wonders if certain aspects of that upbringing did not stick with him. His friends say that he likewise did not like to think he was bothering others. So, complaining about his health or going to the doctor were things away from which he shied.  

By the time Henson went to the ER, he had already been coughing up blood and had difficulty breathing. His inability to breathe landed him in the ICU and on a ventilator. X-rays showed lung abscesses, and the doctors gave him multiple antibiotics. The antibiotics were working, but Henson was still going into shock, his organs shutting down. Within twenty-four hours of his admittance to the hospital, Henson died from streptococcal toxic shock syndrome caused by Streptococcus pyogenes. The doctor announcing Henson’s death suggested that the medicine would have saved Henson had he come in a few hours earlier.4 Nevertheless, it was a shocking reminder to Americans about the lethality of pneumonia. 

It is easy to armchair quarterback Henson’s decision since we possess hindsight. But when would you have gone to see the doctor? Would you have gone the moment you felt something was “off?” Maybe you would go after having a sore throat for several days? Most people would not have waited until they were coughing up blood. Relatively speaking, disorders of the body are easier to spot. Spiritual sickness, not so much. The presence of such is not to suggest there are no symptoms. There is a lie told here or skipping an assembly of the church there. But things become cumulative and indicate spiritual sickness. Paul said of the Corinthians that their transgressions invalidated their observance of the Lord’s Supper and revealed them spiritually weak, sick, and even asleep (dead?—1 Corinthians 11.30). Elsewhere, the Hebrews writer had to caution Christians of the ease with which they can drift away (Hebrews 2.1). And the problem with spiritual sickness is that a calloused heart doesn’t realize it is imperiled (Hebrews 3.12-19).  

Our time to seek the Lord is limited. Thus, God cautioned His covenant people of old to seek Him while He was available for them to find (Isaiah 55.6-7). And Jesus invites us to enter the New Covenant today (Matthew 11.28-30). We have no more time promised than did they. James reminds us that our physical life is like rapidly dispersed water vapor (James 4.14), and the Hebrews writer says judgment follows death (Hebrews 9.27). So, when should you go to the doctor? I’d suggest that time is the moment you realize you are sick. But when should you go to the Great Physician? “Behold, now is the acceptable time,’ behold, now is ‘the day of salvation ’” (2 Corinthians 6.2 NASB1995). Don’t lose your soul because of something you could have prevented! 

Sources Cited: 

1 Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia.“Jim Henson”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 May. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jim-Henson. 

2 Schindehette, Susan. “Legacy of a Gentle Genius.” People, 18 June 1990. https://muppetcentral.com/articles/tributes/henson/hensonarticle5.shtml 

3 Evans, W. R. “Henson Rumor Is Groundless.” Toledo Blade, 1 July 1990, p. E4. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7ElPAAAAIBAJ&pg=4502,372385

4 Schreuder , Cindy. “Pneumonia Quickly Spread in Henson.” Orlando Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel, 27 July 2021, www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1990-05-18-9005180413-story.html. 

What Are You Consuming?

Neal Pollard

A 17-year-old girl had a stomach ache so bad that she had to go to the hospital. She had lost her appetite, she could barely walk, and doctors for three years had simply given her pain medicine for her inexplicable abdominal issues. The girl’s family had paid over $7000 in medical tests to determine the root cause. The emergency visit, with two CT scans, finally revealed that the massive “tumor” inside her was actually hair—which had formed into a massive hairball. It was her own hair, which she had been compulsively eating for years. The next doctor visit will be for counseling to see if she suffers from trichotillomania (compulsively pulling out one’s own hair) and trichophagia (eating it) (via opposingviews.com).

Apparently, no one ever saw her doing this. It took time for the problem to grow and develop. Yet, there were symptoms that steadily worsened and became more apparent. It was a problem that required help to solve. It is a problem that will require continued efforts to overcome.

This young lady graphically illustrates a pervasive spiritual problem.  Solomon wrote, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). Jesus illustrates this principle speaking of normal, digestible food (not hair) as not defiling a person but rather that which comes from within a person defiling that one. He says that such things as evil thoughts, sexual sins, sinful attitudes, and sins of the tongue “proceed from within and defile the man” (Mark 7:23).

No one may see us engage in it. It may take time for the symptoms to show up in our lives, but they will eventually show up in such things as our attitudes, speech, dress, and conduct. It will not go away by itself without efforts on our part to get rid of it and to stay free from it. Whether we perceive the pain of the problem or not, it is doing damage to us and we must take steps to remove it from our lives.

What are you consuming? Is it consuming you? Get help. Get rid of it. Get over it. The Great Physician stands ready to help, if you will go to Him!

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