June 2007
Dear Friends,
If
my daughter text messaged (is that really a verb?) me and signed off with a
cheery “see ‘ya,” she would likely write “CYA” to forestall future bouts of
carpal tunnel syndrome. But before cell
phones, and back when blackberries were fatteningly delicious with cream (today
pouring cream over a Blackberry would result in electrical short circuits), CYA
was an acronym for, if I may avoid the French, “Cover Your Backside.” According to Wikipedia, it’s a “relatively
widespread urban slang, commonly used by a number of professional bodies, in
relation to procedures which are perceived to be purely defensive against legal
penalties... [for example:] physicians, who use CYA as a short‑hand for
referring to the practice of defensive medicine ‑ i.e., ordering every
conceivable test to try to insulate them from future medical malpractice suits
if the patient fails to recover.”
In
that spirit, I want to apologize for last Sunday failing to steal the main idea
from my sermon from Joel Osteen, the amazingly cheerful televangelist from
Lakewood Baptist in Houston (hey, I could be a famous TV preacher too, if my
hair were two inches taller and my teeth 50% bigger). It was my intent to preach exclusively on his
thoughts, hence my title, “Bringing Up the Rear,” but I got sidetracked by my
own original thoughts and only mentioned him in passing. Again, sorry.
So let me try again to touch on his theme, for which in the interest of
CYA, or more specifically CMA, I credit Pastor Joel. To wit: The whole armor of God, which
Ephesians 6 enjoins us to put on, includes the belt of truth, the
breastplate of righteousness, shoes which will make you ready to proclaim the
gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God. Costume
and military buffs will see immediately that if you do put on the whole armor
of God, you have absolutely nothing to CYA. The whole armor of God would be
useless against a medical malpractice suit.
Or would it? Pastor Joel says
that we don’t need any chain link underwear because a faithful Christian is
never to be in retreat. Personally, if I
were a doctor, I’d rather go into an inquiry outfitted with truth,
righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, the Spirit and the word of God, than
twenty pounds of legal paperwork indicating I’d charged the patient and
insurance company for every medical procedure ever invented.
But
remember, the life of Jesus teaches us NOT that as Christians we will never be
hurt by life – quite the opposite, if we are following him to the cross! What it teaches us is that the armor of God
will protect our spiritual lives, which are vastly more important than our
worldly lives. In other words, a prudent
surgeon will order the necessary tests to CHA, but trust that a lifetime of
truth, righteousness and faith will keep him or her in the care of Christ’s
grace, and that will see one through even the worldly tragedy of losing a
malpractice case. The armor of God is
not magic; it does not protect us from the slings and arrows of the physical
world. But it does protect our hearts,
souls and minds, and those with bright inner lights will find their outer lives
affected positively, too. The “bottom
line” (ha!) is that if we outfit ourselves with the armor of God, the Lord will
be our “rear guard” (Isaiah 58:8). So
put on that armor and take some risks!
And don’t fear; I can’t promise you won’t stumble, but I can promise
that God will be with you if you fall.
Try for what you believe may be beyond your reach! Love beyond the sensible! Throw caution to the winds with your heart,
soul and mind, and if you fall on your – hindmost section – know that the Lord will be there to pick you
up, dust you off, and urge you back into a life of joy proclaiming the gospel
of peace.
Love
and joy,
Martin
To read
Martin's letters from past months, please click here.