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Have I really not posted in 6 days? How is time going so quickly? I think this impeachment thing during the holiday season with this extended migraine has me all confused. Then, last night, shock of shocks, some evangelical Christians took a stand against President Trump! I thought I was going to fall out of my chair when I saw the Christianity Today editorial! I'm sure that you are aware that 81% of evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump in the last presidential election. I hoped that most of them were voting against Hillary Clinton and doing it as a last ditch effort. Apparently not. Evangelicalism loves them some Donald Trump. Trump has a group of evangelical leaders around him tha

Psalm 90:12 "So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart." I used to read this verse as a call to productivity. If you read it in context, you see that the psalmist is lamenting that we only live 70 or 80 years. It seemed that he was saying that our lives are short, so get cracking, there's work to be done. Closer reading, though, shows us that that's not the case. The beginning of the psalm is a lament of the difficulty of life. "Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures;yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away." (verse 10). The psalmist equates our problems with God's anger and indignation, a common

Today, we're going to talk about something that can tie my brain up in knots - evangelism. Evangelism was important in my life until I left home at 18. It's the main part of the word, evangelicalism. The base of the word - evangel - means "good news" and to evangelize means "to preach the gospel" (Merriam-Webster) or "to share the good news" (every Baptist church I've ever been to) or "to make my insides clench up and make me want to run home and hide" (me and pretty much every other person who doesn't have the spiritual gift of evangelism). Growing up, I was told that the Bible was very clear about our mandate to evangelize. The proof-texts are plenty and obvious. Matthew 28:19-20 Therefor

The Christmas season is a fraught season for those of us with mood disorders, particularly depression. We're supposed to be happy and joyful while being twice as busy, and sometimes, we just can't manage it. Last year, I was also dealing with being post-operative from my hysterectomy. It's been a while since I've had a truly festive Christmas season. I have a couple of particular reasons for my mood to be down during this time of year. I've had friends die in late November and early December over the years, so while we're baking cookies and enjoying parties, I'm also mourning. There are a few other bad memories from this season. One of them is from a number of years ago when I was called int

Just some stray thoughts today. * I have been very active today, but now I need to sit down and quit doing things to reduce the chances of having a migraine. I have to work at not working. Ah, the irony. * My migraines have been a real problem for the last couple of months. About a month ago, I got bilateral occipital nerve injections - anesthetic and steroid shots at the base of my skull - and was put on oral steroids. I felt great for four days and then ended up in the Emergency Department with terrible head pain and vomiting. After that, I had a two week migraine. Seriously not fun. My headache specialist had me do a ten day course of olanzapine, an antipsychotic medication. It did finall

I have become a professional sick person. That is, I do not have a regular job. My life revolves around chronic migraine. Each day, I decide what I can do based on my chronic migraine. And, I have an entire daily routine based on my illness. If I'm feeling well, I spend my morning supporting my wellness by performing certain tasks, including taking medications, meditating, and exercising. If I'm having a bad headache day, I have other "headache" tasks to perform, including taking medication and reorganizing my day. In sociology, there is something called the "sick role". When someone gets sick, they have two rights and two responsibilities. The rights are that they are not responsible for th