Are germs good or bad for you?
Laughable question to my mother in 1960. Once we entered the house from anywhere else, we heard the command barked, “Wash your store hands.” “Wash your playground hands.” Anything we might have touched outside the house must have contaminated us. “Wash your school hands.”
All that hand-washing by millions of children must have worked. The relatively sanitary world in which we live has made cholera and dysentery rare. But in a Newsweek article, Jerry Adler and Jeneen Interlandi argue that too few bacteria in our lives (and in our digestive systems) is bad, too.
“In terms of infectious disease, the environment of the American suburb is unquestionably a far healthier place than most of the rest of the world. But we’ve made a Faustian bargain with our antibiotics, because most researchers now believe that our supersanitized world exacts a unique price in allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases, most of which were unknown to our ancestors.”
In plain talk, our bodies are hosts to billions of microbes, many of which actually aid the digestive process and assist the immune system. The more we use drugs to kill germs perceived to be bad, the more drug-resistant they become, and thus the more deadly. A new paper in The Journal of the American Medical Association reports on the prevalence of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which was responsible for almost 19,000 deaths in the United States in 2005—about twice as many as previously thought, and more than AIDS.
Is it possible that this is a model of how God keeps us spiritually healthy? Do think it just possible that God allows us to struggle, to fail sometimes, to be hurt….for the very same reasons? If our lives were “sanitized” to the point where no trouble ever appeared, why would we need him? Wouldn’t we assume that our stress-free life was all our own doing?
Like my mom, I will keep asking my kids to wash up when they come into the house. But I won’t mind if they’re playing in dirt all morning. I will also choose to trust God if he lets hardships come into our lives. They will drive us in humility to the cross for forgiveness, to our baptisms for certainty of our adoption into his family, to the Word for understanding, and to prayer for strength.
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Straight talk. Real hope.
11/5/2009 - Posted by B2
Another perspective on this issue. It's necessary for any kind of athletic team to practice for playing against opponents. But, sooner or later, the team (and all the individuals on it) MUST get into a real game and deal with their own mistakes, the strength, power and "tricks" of their opponents. Teams must also learn how to accept defeat sometimes and move forward to the next game. Personally, I often feel God "testing" me in several differnt ways. Sometimes members of my family challenge my faith in various ways and I must respond to that. Within our congregation, there are problems and controversies that need to be dealt with. Yet dealing with these issues within the parameters of my faith both help me (and us) resolve these situations as well as strengthing my(and our) faith. This is one of my concerns about some of our Faith Development programs, i.e., they talk about faith in a far too sanitized environment. Staying faithful in the real world is a difficult and demanding task, but with God's help, it can be done.
11/4/2009 - Posted by RIS
Many use key pads on devices or keyboards on computers. How do we clean them? Anti-bacteria hand washing is not as good for our skin as just soap and water. What about handshakes? I wish we still used little white gloves for women.Years ago women were not into handshaking! The best hand washers I ever noted at the hospital I worked at were chaplains from BLH. Between each person they saw, and when they arrived on the unit and before they left. It is all part of good habits. All within reason and good sense. I recall the days before we used disposable gloves when we cared for sick people. Being equipped with the knowledge of God's word and going out among others to work or living in any group means showing our actions to be loving and not paranoid. Jesus touched the lepers and others considered untouchable. He cares for those of us in health care situations. We can teach good habits by our actions. God is always with us (end of Matthew) in all situations. R
11/3/2009 - Posted by B
You make an excellent point Pastor and one that needs to be repeated. Often we think that God uses "hard times" to punish us... I love the passage where God tells us: in this world we will have trouble, but I have overcome the world. Thanks be to God!
