in case
Just in case you forgot teenagers were teenagers, here’s a story from All Things Considered.
If you work in youth ministry it’s a definite listen.
Click here for audio. (length 3:45)
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genome
I was listening to KCRW the other day and was listening to All Things Considered and heard this story (length:3:33). (You don’t have to listen to it to get the point of the following)
The story really just got me thinking.
For those of you who didn’t listen to it, it was about the research being done on fruit flies and how that research is leading to advances in identifying genetic disorders.
The main point I want to discuss here is the movement of technology and especially that of our eventual ability to prevent genetic diseases before people are born.
I truly expect this to happen if not in my lifetime than for sure in my children’s lifetime.
This raises some major questions for me.
I wonder if we will ever get to the point where we as a country develop laws that prevent people from having “natural” births. That it would be deemed cruel and inhumane for parents to not treat a defect in utero. I could see this as a possibility.
While I see the benefit of being able to prevent such life threatening things as cancer, AIDS, and possibly a whole list of other things. I have to question things like Down Syndrome, and other mental handicaps that are more than common in these days.
I am constantly reminded of how God uses these unique people to help us love more. That when we love these people truly we are loving God himself. If we remove these people completely we are removing an avenue for experiencing God’s love.
Henri Nouwen’s time at Daybreak constantly reminds me of our call to love those who are not loved by all. To love those who in most cases have a limited understanding of what it even means to live at all.
While I affirm a good quality of life and for people not to suffer, it is also our connection to suffering that allows us to realize our own depravity and need for God’s presence.
At this point in my life, I would not change the natural course of God’s work in my child’s life, for the reason that God teaches those who need to be taught through the service to those who need more attention.
Obviously I don’t have a good of a grasp about service to the downtrodden as I have not surrounded myself with them as much as I should, but I think you begin to see my point about our need and call to serve those who are truly unique and give us insight into the side of God that is so easily dismissed because it is not ascetically pleasing to the general public.
Would appreciate your thoughts either in the comments or leave a link to your post.
irritated
I’ve never seen Bob Barker from the Price as Right in all the years I’ve watched, annoyed at people playing.
That all changed today.
I was watching, and there was this woman who TOOK FOREVER to do anything and you could actually tell that it was really pissing Bob off. He was still his jovial self, but if you’ve ever been to an actual taping of the show like I have, then you would know that the actual taping of the show only really takes 40 min max. He does his thing and then is off, it moves sooo fast. The production of the show is a well oiled machine. So in a way I can see why he would be really pissed off if things were taking a while. I can only wonder how many more years he has in his career on the show, I’m sure it just won’t be the same after he’s gone.