S04E054, Medication, Alarms and Ignoring God, Andy B 2 Minute Video
I love how inspiration works. Truly! A friend and I were exchanging some comments on his blog, Devotional Treasures. He was talking about meds, or medication, and that made me think of my alarms – that help me take my meds at the right times.
Medication needs to be taken carefully, having considered all the potential risks and side effects. You expect your doctor to have checked that whatever medication you’re being prescribed is either safe, or at least that the side effects are worth while should they exist.
But, when you start mixing medication, that has multiple applications, you can end up in a world of trouble. Again, this is where we put a lot of faith in our doctor to have thought that through as well, and to warn patients about common side effects, or the issues of other drugs and mediation you could take which might mess with the medication you have already been prescribed.
To make sure I take my medication every day – which I have to do every 12 hours – to stop my heart doing anything stupid, I have two alarms.
While they go off and are very audible, I can be so engrossed in something I hit the ‘snooze’ button and lose 30 minutes or even an hour, before I suddenly remember there was something I should have been doing.
And so it is in our relationship with God.
As we go through life there are all sorts of alarms that God sets off around us, ahead of us, within us. These alarms are certainly unmistakable - the bible tells us, more than once, that the nature of God is very evident, through nature and more, so that none of us can say we don’t know God; none of us can defend the things we do that we know are wrong, by saying we don’t know God, or that we don’t the difference between right and wrong.
God has programmed us to know exactly that.
Those alarms may be described as your conscience, or guilt. But whatever we choose to name them, we all know when we’re about to do something we know we shouldn’t do.
Sure, we can suppress those alarms, just like I do with my twin alarms every 12 hours to remind me to take my medication. But, just like my medication – if we ignore those alarms for too long, we end up doing irreparable damage to our bodies and minds.
Think those thoughts of a woman who isn’t your wife are harmless? We feel uncomfortable because those thoughts are an alarm. We need to act – and renew our minds, and getting those thoughts out of our vision.
Taking some stationary from work, but hiding it; you know you’re possibly owed it, but taking it without consent is still theft, so you hide it in a bag when no one is looking. That desire to hide what you’re doing is an alarm from God, warning us we’re doing something that is not in our best interest.
Driving over the speed limit and you continually sweat and worry there is a police car somewhere back there? That is an alarm form God that you’re driving too fast and need to slow down.
We ignore those alarms at our peril.
Those thoughts of another woman? They can lead to an affair all too easily once we’ve started imagining that image in our mind. God see it as just as serious as a physical affair.
That stationary you’ve been thinking of taking? You could lose your job and end up with a criminal record.
Driving too fast and not looking where you’re going? You could kill someone, or yourself.
It’s easy to wonder whether these alarms that make us feel bad - when we’re doing things that are not God’s best for us - is simply God spoiling our fun.
But, just like the doctor who prescribes us medication, God knows the right way to enjoy life the most.
He never makes mistakes with His prescriptions, and His alarms are always in our best interests.
Just a thought...
Andy B
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Transcript
0:01
Another Andy B 2 Minute Video. And I'im out on a nice cycle today. It's quite nice weather.
0:07
But a friend of mine was talking about meds, medication. And he was talking about how medication can do all sorts of things. Personally, I'm on 3 types of medication one keeps my heart from doing anything stupid. One keeps my blood thin, in case my heart does something stupid. And I've got another one that, because my heart did go stupid last winter, it helps in another way. So there's these different types of medication that I'm on. And they all helped me to stay healthy until I can get my heart sorted properly.
0:37
Now, medication can interfere with each other. You have to be really careful, read the side effects. I'm currently not allowed to take ibruprofen, for example, 'cos it would mess with one of the other medications and these medications can interfere with one another.
0:51
And this got me thinking, because I've got two alarms, one on my watch, one of my phone. They go off at the same time, twice a day, 12 hours apart to make sure I take the medication. Sometimes, however, if it goes while I'm a little bit busy with something, especially computer work where I'm a bit absorbed into something, I can easily forget for 10 minutes, or maybe an hour and a half, which isn't good.
1:17
But it got me wondering. How often do we actually ignore those alarms from God? How often do we have an alarm from God that says, you know, you really shouldn't be doing this? How often do we ignore that?
1:27
If I miss my meds for an hour and a half it's not really the end of the world. If I miss it for a day it could be Let's not miss those alarms from God. They do matter they are important.
1:38
Just a thought.
Andy B, 24/03/2022