Sense of the Invisible

Only a blind person can really talk about the invisible. In meeting people, even though I cannot see anything, I have a mental picture of their appearance.  I’m often disappointed when a sighted person corrects me on my mental impressions.  For instance, governor Palin from Alaska seemed blonde to me when I heard her speak.  It is rare, even for people who I pay to work for me, for anyone to mention activity of sight which they just take for granted.  One day, a taxi driver was driving me somewhere and he said, “Doc I wish you could see the azaleas and Dogwood, all is in full bloom now”  This was the very first time that I knew the color of spring had arrived. No one had mentioned it and, so it is with everything. 

The entire world would have already been converted to Christ if Christians lived their faith and convictions before the world, so that the world could see that Christians are different, and everyone would want what they have.  The greatest roadblock to Christianity is “Christians”.  Mohandas Gandhi said, “I would have been a Christian if I had not known so many Christians”.  Those he had known were counterfeit.  There is a sense of the invisible when someone knows God.  Like the proverbial candle, you do not put it under a bushel.  One unbelieving male, when leaving my house recently said, “Tom, don’t change. You are the only hope I have”,, he had a need to believe in someone. 

The Red Cross was founded in this country by Clara Barton (1821- 1912) in the19th  century. Previously, since 1550, a red cross had been worn on medical workers with Christian influence, even the crusaders. But, in 1863, the red cross was formerly organized in Europe.  This follows the 1859 book of Henri Durant, A memory of Solferino .  He had seen the need for medical workers in the Italian army.  The red cross, in the beginning, was mostly an organization supporting the military.  Even in my time, red crosses were displayed on army field hospitals, on army ambulances.  It was in fighting the communist, we found that their most effective targets were the red crosses on hospitals and ambulances.  Medical officers, such as myself, other medical officers and workers, learned early to turn our collars showing our rank and the medical emblem (serpent on staff) inside our shirt because snipers loved to kill doctors and those treating the wounded.

Doctors and nurses have a remarkable sense of the invisible. Nurses, male and female, are more sensitive to the invisible then doctors, male and female. Female workers are always more sensitive to other females. 80% of all healthcare is psychological.  The successful practitioner realizes early, that the invisible fears experienced by all of us and our attempt at trying to control these fears, must be considered in treatment. 

The Bible is not a very sensitive book, sensitivity is not particularly evident in the laws of God.  We live in a generation now of being sensitive to everything, every word we say, every action we take.  My life has been too busy to spend very much time with sensitivity towards other people or worrying about their sensitivity to me.  I believe my first experience with social sensitivity, was in the state of Alabama, I stopped by to see a professional friend in his office. I believe he wanted to impress me by sharing with me not only his beautiful offices but his remarkable home, up on a mountain with a magnificent view.  He called his wife and told her he was bringing a college friend home to lunch.  It was evident, from the start, even though we went through the motions, that she resented him bringing someone home unexpectedly.  She was very cold towards both of us.  Now I have eaten enough tomato soup to recognize Campbell’s tomato soup.  She had opened a can of soup which she served to the two of us in the magnificent dining room with some crackers. Of course, I was magnanimous, but I was sensitive to the fact that she was mad and he was embarrassed. Even though we ate the soup by a window with a magnificent view, and I relished in his success.

In direct contrast, another friend in a small southern town, a man of discipline and integrity, was called by a farm family, long time patients, that a visitor had fallen and cut her leg. He told him to bring her to his office (a typical small town office which was closed down at night with no employees), he stitched the cut, but could not have imagined that the girl would accuse him of making a sexual advance.  It was an ugly charge, an ugly trial (a man of well known wealth), the jury always believes the female, he lost his license, he and his family left town, the doctor-less town bewildered by a young female using the invisible. Because of this litigious society in which a male is afraid to be in the same room with a women (doctor, minister, teacher) where anyone can make a charge and many will believe it.

Many years ago, I was engaged in a legal action and I know the exact cocktail party where an opposing couple made a charge against me. As difficult as it is to believe, I was accused with being caught with a women of ill repute in the political headquarters of NC (Sir Walter Hotel Raleigh NC).  I know what it is like to hear people whispering when I walk into a public place.  Since one newspaper editor, knowing my sight condition, realized the improbability of such activity, wrote an entire editorial, “How do these vicious rumors get started”. But, even though everything is totally invisible to some , they want to believe the worst. I was stunned when one of my relatives called and told me that another relative, who should have known better, had called her about the rumor.  It is best, as the great preacher and founder of the Methodist church, John Wesley, said, “if I do not know something to be true, if I do not know if it will do some good, I ignore all rumors and put them out of my mind”.

The invisible, sensitivity, must be shown by teachers toward children. All are very different, they come into a classroom carrying different baggage. Hitler put 275,000 disabled German citizens to death because he felt they were of no use to the state, that they were a burden, and that their “life value” was not great enough. In 1936, Hitler called euthanasia of the disabled, a charitable organization.

In 50 years, euthanasia will be a common place in this country.  As was seen with Terry Chavo, as has already been voted in the states of Oregon and Washington, as is the case with Dr. Tiller in Kansas, as is the case of euthanasia in Holland and the Scandinavian countries, money is more important than life, political correctness more important than principles.

In most killings, from autopsies or other analysis, most things are visible. Even the famous rat poison murders are detected. 95% of rat poison is just innocent cornmeal but the chemist can find the arsenic. In anatomy, we discovered that the only safe murder was with a “hat pin”. Run a hat pin through the pupil of the eye penetrating the ocular bone, causing a brain hemorrhage, and you have an immediate stroke. Unless the Coroner is very perceptive about the cornea of the eye, he will never see where the hat pin penetrated. Is this any worse than the penetration of the expectant mothers womb to destroy the unborn? It is reassuring to know that, if not on earth, the invisible will be made visible eventually.

Seeing and Believing

#456


Everyday of my life, and I believe if you are honest everyday of your life, you will say “I just don't understand how people can be so wrong.”

Exactly 37 years ago, the Supreme Court of the United States, more or less, approved murder for the most innocent of human life. This is the famed Roe v. Wade decision whereby over 50 million babies have been aborted in the holocaust of death which has gripped this country in absolute unbelief. No one with a clear mind, can understand how any mother, any doctor, any clinic, could go into the safest place on earth, the womb of a mother, and destroy God's greatest creation. At 30 days the baby is about the size of a grain of rice, at 180 days you can definitely see the little fingers and little toes, at 9 months the baby is fully developed, ready for birth, in most cases weighing from 5-8 pounds...ready for life, ready to bring happiness to the family, the joy of living to this new citizen of the world. How terrible it is to see the abortionists tear up this baby with forceps. Little hands, little feet, little body parts, many times to be used in experimentation, presumably trying to save the life of adults. Who can understand this? Who can understand that a president, a congress, a political party (Democrats), could support such a horrendous action? Who can understand that in the partial birth abortion procedure, forceps are stuck into the cranial cavity, the brain sucked out just before the head is removed from the mother, while the little legs and hands are moving? And we think that God will not hold this nation responsible for this hellish event. I tell you, on the authority of God's word, God who made heaven and earth and everything in it, that this country, and certainly this political party and those who are members of the Democrat party (some Democrats actually call themselves Christians), will not escape. We do not understand why Herod the Great killed all the male boys two years of age and under while trying to kill the Christ child. We do not understand how Joseph Stalin, a former seminary student, killed 26 million of his fellow Russians in his rise to Communist power. We do not understand how Adolf Hitler, a former Catholic altar boy, killed 6 million Jews in the death camps of WWII on his rise to power. We do not understand how Mao, who went to a Christian Normal school, killed an estimated 50 million Chinese coolies on his way to power.
From Cane killing Abel, the first two children in the world, we have never understand man's inhumanity to man.

Christ combined all the commandments, all the laws for living in this world, into two. Most find it easy to serve God who gives us everything, but it is hard to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mat 22:39).

There are some people, neighbors, family members, etc., which most of us have much trouble LIKING, but we should love everyone...certainly children and the most innocent children, the unborn.

On the walls of my den, for many years before all were sold online, I owned one of the world's largest collections of masks. Whether from the oldest civilizations, the Dogons, or the people of New Guinea, humanity has worn masks to hide their true appearance. Life is difficult enough for the blind, but not being able to see facial expressions, body language, or even non-human items or things, such as, actually a new automobile, is a matter of great concern and a reason why we are so easily fooled.

In the old cowboy movies (bad guys in black hats), the comic books, Darth Vader, all crooks were depicted as dark and evil. Costumes and camouflage have always hidden evil. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent is portrayed as evil.

Animals have pedigrees or bloodlines, art treasures have signatures and brush strokes (even then some art treasures are found to be fakes). I own one painting by a famed European artist that only an expert could possibly identify as a reproduction. So real, I went to the expense of finding where the real painting is displayed in a gallery in France. The real painting is worth millions, my reproduction (which only an expert with a magnifying glass would be able to determine) is worth a few thousand at most. This is the value of seeing and believing.

The genuine, highly paid athlete has a record of accomplishment.
The politician may make great promises but he has a record of his activity. Mr. Obama did not have a record of accomplishment and he received a Nobel Prize for doing nothing. But, the greatest fakery, the greatest snake oil salesman of all times, sold himself to enough uninitiated voters that he is now in the White House, slowly and surely destroying this country. A blind person's other senses are greatly enhanced. I have never seen this man but I could detect his fakery, his inconsistencies, his absolute wantonness in everything he said. Why could not you sighted, semi-intelligent people, sense the deception of this one man?

It is in religion, economics, business, if you pay close attention you can easily determine the belief intent, the passion, of what these people are selling or promoting. I can listen to any minister of the gospel for ten minutes and know, at least in my opinion, whether he believes in the gospel he preaches. The bed is too short, the blanket is too narrow, his real self always sticks out. There are many wolves in sheep's clothing (Mat 7:15). Don't confuse accomplishment with celebrity; think of Madonna and Helen Keller.

Most important, whether sighted or not, remember the inconsistencies of what someone has told you. Truth is always consistent, speech pattern is always consistent. The polygraph was discredited long ago. I have never known a con man I did not like. During this time of the Haiti earthquake catastrophe, the con people are out in force. Many organizations, many overpaid executives in these organizations, will get rich off this earthquake. In 2005, the president of the American Red Cross received a salary of $650,000. Look up the salaries of these “do-gooder”, charity, organizations...especially the United Way. It will sicken you to know that there are organizations, and organization hierarchy, who get rich off the misfortunes of needy people. Elizabeth Dole, champion of the little man, received twice as much money as the president of the United States. I will tell you this without fear of contradiction, as a field grade (field grade major and above) medical officer in army hospitals and as a patient in military and V.A. hospitals myself, I never saw the Red Cross do anything for anyone including myself. These highly paid charity groups (Red Cross, United Fund, Catholic Services, Salvation Army) are in business to serve themselves and their elitist officers. This you can write in stone, other than the U.S. Government, the greatest scam of the American experiment. Competitions and regulations will keep most businesses honest and peer review, and the human nature of decency, will keep most true professionals in line.

We were taught, as children, “Honesty is the best policy.” In today's world of “Get him before he gets you”, dishonesty is considered the only policy. Seeing is believing, use a three ply cord to help you, get advice from three other people (Ecc 4:12).