Tag: bible

The Dental Saga: A Rant and Public Service Announcement

~ JodiLea ~ 1 Comment

I got a thumbs-up from the surgeon yesterday! He said to keep doing what I was doing and see the other doc often. He prescribed 6 more pain pills (this translates into one day’s worth). California (and possibly other states) has this new database that tracks prescriptions written by doctors for patients getting pain meds. The surgeon said they will give him a “warning” if he doesn’t cut me off soon. What?!?

I was venting to my best friend (via email- still can’t really talk), and it occurred to me that I should copy/paste part of it for my Saga because I know my readers enjoy a good rant now and then.

What politician put this ridiculous database law into play? If you want to solve the opiate problem, don’t track patients getting legitimate meds. This will get you nothing. Go after the black-market dealers. They (meaning the government) always do this. Make a stupid law so people think they are trying to solve the problem, but the law does nothing except cause desperate people to hunt street drugs. I am a grandma. How many dealers do you think I know? None. Yet.

The dose I am prescribed does not do the job, not completely. It does keep me out of prison, however. I don’t know why someone would want to take this drug for “recreational” purposes. Tiny amounts certainly do not get you high. Personally, I do not want to be high. Just pain-free. I am a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen of this country. A country that develops and has the technology to provide effective pain blockers. So, why can’t I purchase any? Why am I tracked like a criminal and treated like a junkie?

The truth is, I am angry with the entire pharmaceutical situation. Let me explain…
My hubby has to take a drug with a brand name – very expensive. There is a generic form of this drug, but you cannot get it. His doctor prescribes the generic, but it is always substituted with the band name. Maybe you are a victim of this legal scam. A month’s worth (30 days) cost anywhere from $500 to $800. Your insurance can’t help you out because you are supposed to get the generic one in order for them to pay for it. He can get all the COVID vaccines he wants for free. I know I am not the only one seeing this injustice.

OK. I am done ranting. Now I am calm enough to think clearly and read one of my favorite scriptures from the Bible, which puts things into perspective for me. Yep. If you are not a Bible reader, try to stay with me here. I think you may be as surprised as I was that this is even in that 2,000-year-old book.

“But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves,  lovers of money, boastful,  haughty, blasphemers, disobedient, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God.” -2 Timothy 3:1-5

Does this sound a lot like how things are going these days? It does to me. If you want to read the words of Jesus on this subject, read Matthew 24: 3-14.

Some of you, my dear readers, may think I am on more drugs than I admit. It’s true that I don’t normally cite scriptures, but today is a very special day – the Memorial of Jesus Christ’s Death. You know, “Do this in remembrance of me?” At any Kindom Hall (all over the globe) will be the special annual celebration. If you did not receive an invitation, please know that all are invited to attend. More information can be found at: https://www.JW.org/

So, until I rant again – I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and evening.

TTFN

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

~ JodiLea
And here in California we thought we were special!

Around 5:00 pm, PT, there was a jolt and a little shaking. Another and slightly larger jolt followed that with a considerably longer shake that rattled everything in the house. In the next 10 minutes there were three aftershocks in a row. Maybe it was three more earthquakes, and the aftershocks came later. I’m no seismologist. I am, however, a native Californian and I have felt earthquakes before.

You get complacent because you feel itty-bity shakes often, that register as earthquakes in your brain, but they do not effect you otherwise. Last night was not like that. Just when you relaxed another shaking would begin. My eleven year old granddaughter (also a native Californian) never experienced such a disturbance in the force. Grandma never had either – not since the Bay Bridge collapse in 1989.

Seeing the map this morning made me think of Jesus’s apostles in Matthew 24: 3-14.

While Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives,  his disciples approached him privately – ‘Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the end of this system of things?”

In answer, Jesus said to them ”… You are going to hear of wars and reports of wars.  See that you are not alarmed for these things must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another.  All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress. Then people will hand you over to tribulation and will kill you. You will be hated by all the nations on account of my name… And because of the increasing of the lawlessness, the love of the greater number will grow cold.  But the one who has endured to the end will be saved.  And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then, the end will come.”

Okay then. I think we know we are feeling ‘pangs of distress’. My question is – Just how close are we to preaching the good news to all the inhabited earth?

TTFN

Sunday Reflections

~ JodiLea

April is National Poetry Month & I plan to write some. The following is not one of them, however.
It was written by Judge Roy Moore in Alabama, after being sued by the ACLU for displaying the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. I feel it should be read again this second Sunday in April.

~~~~~~~~ *** ~~~~~~~~
AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
America the Beautiful, or so you used to be.
Land of the Pilgrims’ pride; I’m glad they’ll never see.

Babies piled in dumpsters, Abortion on demand,
Oh, sweet land of liberty, your house is on the sand.

Our children wander aimlessly poisoned by cocaine,
Choosing to indulge their lusts, when God has said abstain.

From sea to shining sea, our Nation turns away
From the teaching of God’s love and a need to always pray.

So many worldly preachers tell lies about our Rock,
Saying God is going broke so they can fleece the flock.

We’ve kept God in our temples, how callous we have grown.
When earth is but His footstool, and Heaven is His throne.

We’ve voted in a government that’s rotting at the core,
Appointing Godless Judges who throw reason out the door,

Too soft to place a killer in a well deserved tomb,
But brave enough to kill a baby before he leaves the womb.

You think that God’s not angry, that our land’s a moral slum?
How much longer will He wait before His judgment comes?

How are we to face our God, from Whom we cannot hide?
What then is left for us to do, but stem this evil tide?

If we who are His children, will humbly turn and pray;
Seek His holy face and mend our evil way:
Then God will hear from Heaven and forgive us of our sins,
He’ll heal our sickly land and those who live within.

But, America the Beautiful, if you don’t, then you will see,
A sad but Holy God withdraw His hand from Thee.

– Judge Roy Moore

~~~~~~~~ *** ~~~~~~~~

As I mentioned, this is not the way I would have written the Judge’s message. But I sure see where he is coming from.

J