The 50th anniversary of The Pill has unleashed a flurry of articles about whether your doctor should have the right to choose NOT to prescribe birth control pills. The goading question in one article was whether family planning was “up to you, your God, or your doctor’s God.” Oh puhleeeezzzzeee!

It seems to me that your doctor should be allowed to withhold prescriptions to which he is philosophically opposed. And, it seems to me you should have a right NOT to go to a doctor whose philosophy doesn’t match yours. In fact, doesn’t it make sense that you’d want to share the same philosophical wavelength with the person who is authorized, permitted and allowed to touch your body in all those private places, ask you all those personal questions, and whose judgment can save your life or kill you?

Now that I think about it, shouldn’t a man over 40 have the right to choose a physician with really thin fingers? (I’m so glad my doc lost 40 pounds.)

These are the deep philosophical things I think about, coupled with analogies that makes sense to me.

Does it work for you?

Wrong thinkers would have us to believe—incorrectly—that the world is a soft, squishy, fuzzy, place of peace, platitudes……..sort of nirvana-esque. ‘Taint necessarily so. The real world is a place of “against.” People against people; systems opposing people; philosophies in conflict with philosophies; ideas at odds with one another……it’s a messy, chaotic, and somewhat dangerous place. Always has been, and always will be.

I go squishy soft when I’m in the presence of a baby, don’t you? Fat babies, sleeping babies, crying babies, laughing babies, slobbery poopy babies……..wow! Who wouldn’t love a baby?

I was reading in the Gospel of Mathew this morning and noticed that the very first thing that happened to baby Jesus was someone tried to kill him—when he was a baby! He hadn’t preached an offensive sermon, violated any religious code of conduct, or challenged authority. The most offensive thing he could have produced up to that moment was a really malodorous diaper. Yet right after his birth, the government marked him for death.

Hmmm.

Soft? Fuzzy? Squishy? Peaceful? NO!

Against.

What I take from that lesson is this: in this world you will have much trouble (Jesus said that). It is a place that is “against” occupied by people who are “against” and any notion of permanent ease and peacefulness this side of Heaven is folly. But I also know that Jesus said “I have overcome the world.” Even in this dangerous place we can live in joy, with happiness and confidence.

I’m going to have a great day. It may or may not  be an easy one, we’ll see. But it’s going to be a good one and I will rest my head on my pillow tonight and sleep soundly knowing that I have done my best to make it better, to make a difference for others, and maximally use the life He’s given to me.

Even in the darkness you can choose to walk in the light.

Listen slowly.

Think deeply.

Pray fervently.

Serve faithfully.

—From Pastor Hosea Bilyea

Right People + Right Thinking = Right Results