Category Archives: Faith

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Deciding on the H1N1 Vaccine

Last week a friend of mine encouraged me with the zeal of an evangelist to get a shot as soon as the vaccine was available.  She told me that there are churches encouraging their congregation to get the vaccine and perhaps our church should do the same thing. After all it is the responsible thing for community leaders to do.

This morning I received an email from another friend that discussed the dangers of the vaccine and warned me not to get it or at least consider the risk of the vaccine.

Today the Globe and Mail ran an article saying “fewer Canadians are interested in getting the H1N1 flu shot”.  I’m still sitting on the fence on  this one.  Maybe it is Canadian to be skeptical of hype.  All the  hype around this flu and the vaccine concerns me as much as getting the flu.

While I am sure the risk is real – we’ve all seen the news clips and read the horror stories – I also wonder how severe the risk is.

According to an article I read on CBCNews.ca,

GlaxoSmithKline, which is under contract to produce 50 million vaccine doses for Canada, released the initial results of its first trial on the inoculation on Monday, based on tests on 130 healthy German volunteers aged 18 to 60.

The trial was designed to test the safety and effectiveness of the company’s swine flu vaccine, which includes an adjuvant to boost strength and stretch supplies of the serum.

More than 98 per cent of subjects who received a first dose of 5.25 micrograms of vaccine and the company’s AS03 adjuvant showed signs of protection three weeks later, compared with 95 per cent of those who received the vaccine without the adjuvant, the company said. But the study did not look at the dose GSK is using in the Canadian vaccine, namely 3.75 micrograms plus adjuvant.

A statement from GSK said the formulation tested was “comparable to the expected final formulation of the adjuvanted vaccine.”

The company will also need to produce safety and effectiveness data for the smaller dose, said Dr. Allison McGeer, an influenza expert at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital.

It is the adjuvant that worries many people as well as bad memories of past vaccines like last year’s flu shot that targeted the wrong strain of flu or more extreme the 1976 swine flu vaccine that led to an autoimmune disease that caused paralysis and death in some recipients.

It’s a tough call.  Do I want to be a human guinea pig? Is this vaccine all government hype? And where does GlaxSmithKline fit into this question?  Clearly the profit they will make on this vaccine will be huge.  How does that impact their credibility?

I’d love to hear what others are thinking.  I need to make a decision soon.

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Stressed or Pissed

I realize this may not be the nicest title for a blog post but it came out of a conversation I had with my daughter this week.  I really liked her honesty in the conversation and the title came from her mouth (so I’m off the hook!).

I had been doing some reading on coaching and was processing with her some of what I had been thinking about.   One of the things was about learning to live in the moment.   We interpret the events of our lives internally.  Some of us spend a lot of time in the internal world.  As a result we struggle to live in the moment. We are constantly unpacking events, thinking about what is next or reliving the past.  We can spend so much time doing this that we miss out on what is here and now.  It is hard to focus and just be.

We become worried about the future and consumed by what if. Or we constantly revisit choices we made and live with regret.  As I was talking to my daughter about it she said that was exactly what she does and as a result of worrying about her future she was stressed and when she thought about decisions that she had made that had led her to where she is she feels ‘pissed’.

I think this all has an impact on our joy. We become discontent because we aren’t who we thought we should be. We aren’t living up to our full potential, etc.  Our own thoughts condemn us.   It takes time and effort to free ourselves from this habit of living in the past or the future.

Jesus tells us to consider the lillies.  Stop and smell the flowers we might say today. Look at the reality around us.  “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or many not happen tomorrow.” (Matthew 6:28 The Msg)

It isn’t easy to give our attention to right now.  Even as I write this email notifications are popping up and fading in the corner of my screen.  My mind is flooded with things I should or could be doing.  At the end of the day when I lay in bed and think about the day I can be stressed about what didn’t get done or pissed about the choices I made.  Or I can let it go and attend to where God was at work in my day and find consolation in knowing that there is an alternative to stressed or pissed.

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Shabbat Shalom

One of the great surprises for me after my niece converted to Judaism and married a great Jewish guy was how much I enjoy being invited to participate in celebrations with her new family.

Today was a baby naming service at her shul.  It was a long service being part of Shabbat.  There were many things I didn’t understand and many things that felt ritualistic as well.  In the midst of it though it seems like the divisons between sacred and secular are not the same as in my evangelical Christian culture.  At her wedding blessing were said throughout the reception. We tend to have the religious service and then the reception after the ‘religious’ part is over.

Today at the meal following the service people would grab a piece of bread and just pray a special blessing with someone or on their own and then eat.  It happens without missing a beat.

The service itself had an informality with the formality.  Lots of greeting when people arrived (and people seemed to arrive all the way through it). Lots of talking back and forth and turning around to look at other people, etc.

What I really loved though was how the whole family is involved.  During the baby naming (our equivalent to a baby dedication) all the other children in the family are present and even the grandparents are up at the front with this group of people who are singing and praying together.  After the name is pronounced the whole congregation sings Mazel Tov!

Maybe it is just because it is so different from what I’m used to but at every Jewish meal or wedding I’m invited to I leave with an understanding of how special this culture is and how important family is within it.  The next time we have a baby dedication at our church I’d like to see all the friends and family up at the front – not just the parents.  And then how about a little back slapping and cheering after?  Let’s try and blur those lines between the sacred and secular.

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Wisdom

I’ve been reading the organic God by Margaret Feinberg this week. I am enjoying her writing and have been especially challenged by her chapter on wisdom.

Last week before I met a friend for happy hour I emailed her to confirm our  meeting and I added, “please bring the wisdom of Solomon”. I am feeling completely over my head about an issue in my family. I have no idea how to parent in this situation. I’ve bounced back and forth between being full of grace and love and then being full of anger and condemnation. Both feel right at times!  I don’t know if you have ever been in situation like this.  You are watching your child (in my case a young adult) make a choice that has such enormous consequences with the potential to limit future options and alter her life.

I’m sure I’m not the first parent to cry out for wisdom.

Feinberg says, “Wisdom is more than just practical know-how. Wisdom illuminates a better way to live, and even allows us to consider the best possible way to live. Wisdom is so smart that it doesn’t travel alone. Wisdom’s companions include understanding, knowledge, counsel, discernment, discretion, justice and equity.”

She does on to remind us that “when we ask the organic God for wisdom we get so much more.  Wisdom is the gift that keeps on giving. Our amazingly wise God invites us to pray and pursue wisdom, promising that our rewards will not go unrewarded.  In the process we discover that wisdom is a treasure, and we find an even greater treasure,  God himself.”

I am asking God for wisdom in my situation. And I’m asking for wisdom for my daughter as well.  I’m also asking for wisdom for a friend who has a daughter who is grappling with some major physical challenges.  I’m asking for wisdom for many mothers I know who are facing all sorts of situations that are overwhelming.

It seems to me that wisdom is a good place to start. I’ve got so much to learn from the author of wisdom these days.