GroshLink

Thank-you to Miller for passing along A "Duty to Die"? (Thomas A. Sowell, Real Clear Politics, 5/11/2010, http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/05/11/a_duty_to_die_105521.html).  Below's the conclusion:

Much of what is taught in our schools and colleges today seeks to break down traditional values, and replace them with more fancy and fashionable notions, of which "a duty to die" is just one.

These efforts at changing values used to be called "values clarification," though the name has had to be changed repeatedly over the years, as more and more parents caught on to what was going on and objected. The values that supposedly needed "clarification" had been clear enough to last for generations and nobody asked the schools and colleges for this "clarification."

Nor are we better people because of it.

Quick comment:  Just received a copy of The Art of Dying: Living Fully into the Life to Come (Rob Moll, InterVarsity Press, 2010), below's an excerpt.  I desire to explore this topic further in a number of contexts, including our local congregation and our work with budding health care professionals at PSU-Hershey Medical Center. If you have insights/resources to share, please let me know. 

The spiritual preparation necessary for a good, faithful death accumulates slowly over a lifetime. A good death does not occur in a vacuum. Also necessary are a supportive family and caring spiritual community alongside a medical community able to provide quality care consistent with the goals of a patient. . . . Developing a community united about the values we should bring to the deathbed . . . grows slowly as we hear sermons and share stories, as we care for one another and think alone of the fact that one day we too will die. -- http://www.ivpress.com/title/ata/3736-cut.pdf

Last night David Bailey returned to the stage in Buford, GA.  Below's the mass email update which I received. Please join me in prayer for his healing and strength for continued testimony to living One More Day to the glory of God.  For David's website, visit here. 

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Check this out.  I received the below email from my subscription to www.davidmbailey.com.  Great to watch a godly, passionate musician in process!

So I changed my strings and finally started to do a little picking.... grabbed the stack of new lyrics Code-named "40 days of Modern Psalms & Ancient Hope."  Day 10 floated to the top and here it is - raw and unpolished.

 

In case you missed David's story, visit the earlier post Cancer has returned to David Bailey.

The Rice family shared with me at Following Christ that cancer has returned to David Bailey, visit Music and Lyrics at david m. bailey: Home. I've found David's material a great encouragement not only during our family's walk with my cancer, but also through the various dark valleys our family has faced with Eden, Elise, and in the fall out of my cancer treatment (where my levels of energy and focus have varied and I've come to see myself only sustained by the grace of God the Father through His various means).*  Please join me in taking a few minutes to meditate upon some of David's 2008 Survival Lyrics and uplift him in your prayers.

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In the coming months, we're going to take some time to look back on the experience of cancer and how it, alongside the death of baby Elise Faith, taught us to live day-by-day in Christ, dependent upon His Presence/Grace, His People, and His Word. An area of particular concern is delving into how our walk with God demands that we relate to the real world, intersect w/the suffering elements of the fallen creation. If you have thoughts on this topic, please submit so they're part of conversation.