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Ambivalence.
Everybody is ambivalent about everything almost
all the time. If you respond to one side of the
ambivalence you push a person definitely to the
other. The harder you push, the harder they are
resolved to defend their apparent position which
isn’t necessarily their position at all. This
difficulty is reflected in opinion polls and bad
research which don’t allow people to respond
on a continuum between the extremes e.g. “always”
and “never”.
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Dying.
You don't die until you are tired of living. You
become tired of living when: a) the pain won’t
go away, b) you have lost all hope, c) there are
no apparent solutions to a desperate enigma, d)
your heart can beat no longer – it has been
broken too often.
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Suicidal
patients. I have interviewed thousands
of suicidal patients but never encountered anyone
who wanted to be dead if their pain, despair, confusion,
alienation or entrapment could be fixed.
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Nidas
of maturation. The young naval officer
makes a deliberate 180 degree turn, from gazing
over the stern to the fading sight of girlfriend
and family to scanning over the bow looking for
the danger and future ahead.
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Decision-making.
The critical components of decision making are,
1) What is God doing? 2) What does He command? 3)
Where are the needs the greatest? 4) What is my
blueprint? 5) Can I find a partner who is going
in the same direction? 6) Am I truly a pilgrim?
7) Am I reenacting unresolved tragedy? 8) do I have
the resources? 9) Do I have the courage?
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Judgement.
We will be judged, evaluated in terms of how persistently
we worked to build who we were to become according
to our God given blueprint.
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Suicidal
missions. There is a relatively common
desire to drive into an oncoming car. That suicidal
ideation is not so different from somebody deciding
to fly an airplane into a building.
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The
demise of medicine. Medicine contributes
to it’s own demise principally by tolerating
“quacks”. It does so because it is not
true to it’s own science and ethics.
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Shameful
history. The world tries to bury it’s
shameful history by honouring and then interring
the unknown, unnamed soldier.
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Reenacting
tragedy. A woman’s deepest hurt,
which results in her greatest bitterness arising
when she sacrifices a baby by abortion in order
to retain a partner only to find he abandons her
anyway. This produces men and self-loathing.
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Who
to trust. Do you trust more in your eyes
and ears or in someone else’s mouth?
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Body
knowledge. Our body knows more than we
let it tell us.
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The
abortionists’ argument. The abortionist’s
basic argument is that it is better to get rid of
an unwanted person now because he/she may, probably
will, cause trouble later. This is disgusting and
they should know better. History certainly teaches
that killing “troublesome” Jews, gypsies,
dissidents etc. doesn’t prevent problems.
It is scapegoating.
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Welcome.
A quote from a patient, “My parents didn’t
open me up with welcoming arms.”
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Defending
Christianity. There is no need to defend
the Christian religion because, 1) Christ never
made a religion, 2) God’s Spirit is all-powerful,
and He doesn’t need people to defend Him.
Jesus Christ is absolutely capable of looking after
His own church and will. He doesn’t need any
church functionaries
