King Solomon, in all his wisdom, pointed out truth. He told it like it is rather than just the way people want it to be. I admire him for that because we live in an age when so many people don’t. When he penned the now, canonized book of Ecclesiastes he did the same.

Eccl 1:11 There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.

But we are encouraged to take time to remember those who have gone before us. And especially those who have done things for our benefit.

So this Memorial Day I pledge to remember the countless men and women of our military who gave their lives for the preservation of the very freedoms I enjoy and that even their (our) own government continues to try to take away.

I remember the sacrifice of my father who worked difficult hours to provide food for our table, clothes for our backs, and shoes for our feet.

I remember my mother who taught me to work hard, not feel sorry for myself, and strive to rise above poverty to achieve great things. She taught me to remember that God is Sovereign and He does whatsoever He pleases. She reminded me that He even raised a young  shepherd boy up to be King over Israel.

And I especially remember my Savior, Jesus Christ, who paid for my salvation by atoning for my sin. He even asked that we remember Him.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

So this Memorial Day, let’s take time to lift up prayers of thanksgiving to God for those who have sacrificed for our benefit. Happy Memorial Day.

Congratulations to the Pullman Greyhounds. This weekend they won the Washington State 2A Men’s Basketball Championship. And congratulations to our friend Corey Langerveld who received the Tournament MVP award as he led his team to that victory.

Unlike the days of my youth, I no longer believe that winning is the only thing. I have learned a lot in losing a battle or two along the way. But in this day of profound mediocrity, I do believe we are to go down desparately fighting. It’s not that winning is the only thing, the true issue is that mediocrity is unacceptable. I believe that God teaches the same.

1 Cor 9:24-27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

And what I liked most in watching the basketball finals was that someone had to lose. Our society teaches us today that everybody is a winner. They’re not! It teaches us that those who want to win are over-zealous. They’re not! It teaches us that those who “run in such a way as to get the prize” are erroneously driven. They’re not!

What our society needs now more than ever are winners! We need men and women to throw off the shackles of dependence upon government handouts and entitlements and renew the fight to win the race against poverty and ignorance, not by accepting a handout but by hard work and sacrifice.

Vince Lombardi believed the same.

I’m sure everyone had the opportunity to see the government stick its nose into more business where it doesn’t belong. I’m speaking specifically about the presentation of the Oscar for Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards.

Everything was going just fine until the very last when all of a sudden we were transported to the White House where the First Lady then gave a poisoned speech about how important the entertainment industry is to each and every American regardless of our race, social standing, yada yada yada…IT ISN’T!

Our constitution clearly depicts a limited government, especially the Federal government. Seeing this government figurehead slip her way into our personal lives by pretending she is just one of us turned my stomach. This may sound trivial but I didn’t think it was appropriate.

I don’t want my President to just be one of the boys. I don’t want the government to continue to weasel its way into my private life or into the sanctity of my home. The government is not an omniscient being. It is a group of mostly arrogant, undisciplined, egomaniacs that can’t even run their own lives, let alone your’s or mine.

I saw this move between the entertainment industry and the White House as an affront to the very people it is established to protect and to serve. Maybe you saw it another way. I didn’t.

Protect us from foreign enemies and stay out of our industries, our churches, and our personal lives.

I grew up in a family of six children. I had three brothers and two sisters. We loved each other deeply, and like most siblings, we sometimes fought like rabid dogs. Mom and Dad did their best to establish the rules that would govern a busy household and rules that were meant to establish some level of civility for the family as well as our eventual departure for the real world.

But there was one rule that stood above all of the others. The boys were not allowed to hit the girls! Hitting one of my sisters was tantamount to asking for the death penalty. Mom and Dad said it and we knew Mom and Dad meant it.

Now why was that? Were my sisters less human than the boys? Well, yes but that had nothing to do with the rule. (A little levity here.) Were my sisters not as smart, did they have less wisdom, were they lower on the totem pole of life? Not in our house. Instead, they were put on a pedestal when it came to physical protection. Mom and Dad knew what was obvious to any of us who didn’t have our head up our donkey: My Dad could beat up anybody’s mom.  

This truth doesn’t need to come from the Bible but it’s found there too. 1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life;

Num 26:1-4 “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by families–all those twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army of Israel.” So on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them and said, “Take a census of the men twenty years old or more, as the LORD commanded Moses.”

Maybe God, in His Omniscience, knew something that some of our leaders apparently don’t. It is still obvious to those of us that don’t have a liberal agenda blinding our thought pattern. Women are physically weaker than men. It’s genetic, it’s by God’s design, and not sacrificing our beautiful young women on the field of battle should be upheld in our nation as we have in the past 237 years of our country’s existence.

Or maybe I should send my mom over.

Isn’t it great that the Affordable (actually Unaffordable) Care Act is expected to place millions more on the Medicaid dole for receiving their health care? Apparently at the cost to no one, even 30,000 more patients will be covered in Yakima County alone where I work and care for the sick.

A question haunts me however. Where are the physicians that are going to provide the care? I work in the private sector and we haven’t accepted any new Medicaid patients for years. When the Federal and State governments reimburse us $34.50 for an office visit of $175.00, we can’t afford to.

Those same government entities aren’t there to help my partners and me pay our staff, pay the electricity bill, or pay for the lease on our building.

What’s the answer? These new patients must go to the government funded clinics. These clinics are paid differently than those of us in the private sector. Our poor uncle is their rich uncle, as I heard a physician once put it. These clinics include the Farm Workers Clinics, Neighborhood Health, Indian Health, Community Health of Central Washington, and others. 

Those clinics are paid for every dollar they bill. How fair is that? No wonder “free enterprise” doesn’t work. And where does that lead the practice of medicine?

The future is grim for this once proud and honored profession. Soon, everyone (and that means YOU) will receive their health care at the Farm Workers Clinic just like the government wants. That way they control the medicines you’re allowed, they control what surgeries you will get, they control what physicians will provide your care, and they determine what people will get that care.

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.

For every problem, there is an obvious, simple, WRONG answer. That piece of wisdom was passed down to me from a wise old man who had learned that truth in his journey through life and I would eventually come to learn it too.

I am reminded of this as the president and so many egotistical congressmen grasp at any straw to put an end to the mass murders that continue to haunt our schools and public facilities. In their minds, any decision is better than no decision. They couldn’t be further from the truth.

The greatest danger lies in the fact that nothing beneficial will come from their hastily made, emotionally-bound, and panic-driven decisions. Then, those who may have a real solution will be not given an ear because “we’ve already acted upon that.”

President Obama is pushing ahead with background checks, bans on assault weapons, and high-capacity magazines. None of these would have solved the recent murders in Newtown. Adam killed his own mother and took her weapons. She would have passed any background check. She was a school teacher for God’s sake.

Adam didn’t use an assault weapon. He stood there and shot 20 people point blank in the head (that’s why there wasn’t any children left injured), one at a time with a semi-automatic pistol. And lastly, I can change the magazine in my handgun in less than two seconds.

Again, the right decision in my opinion is to ban “gun-free” zones. Giving a murderer the time to stand there and pick off his victims one at a time, over a twenty minute period because everyone is afraid of a gun is ridiculous to me. I don’t see individual property owners advertising that their homes are gun free, why would we do that at our schools and public institutions?

But, they’ve already acted upon that.

Many of us struggle with the presence of beggars (panhandlers, as they are called today). We all see them standing on the street corners in town holding their signs, appearing down and out on their luck, and attempting to get a sympathetic dollar or more from the working folks driving by.  

My own son and I were confronted by one as we came out of church one morning. As we headed to our car in the parking lot, we were approached by a man who was asking for any “spare change” so he could buy food and milk for his children. Poor man. But only a few questions proved to reveal that he didn’t actually have any children at all. In fact, he needed the money to fix his car that had broken down.Yeah right.

Rather than giving him money, we offered to give him a ride to the Union Gospel Mission. They do a wonderful job helping the homeless by not only providing the desired needs but also requiring some responsibility. He refused, of course, and went on his way.

My son was frustrated at the incident because he wanted to do what was right and generous but didn’t want to be a fool either. Admittedly, this is sometimes hard to differentiate.

I called my son at two in the morning a few days later after I had been called to the hospital to admit a heroin addict that had developed an abscess in his leg from injecting. You guessed it. It was the same man that “needed the money for his children’s milk.”

Just a few days ago, one of our city’s “notorious panhandlers” was found dead in his car with over $1800.00 in cash and over $80,000.00 in heroin. Go figure.

People, use some wisdom. Don’t feed the bears. Most of the panhandlers you see are not in need of your money. They are either just lazy scam artists or they need help that you and I are not usually trained to give. Instead, direct them to ministries such as the UGM.

I remember Peggy Lee (a singer for those of you younger people who might not remember her) singing You Give Me Fever. “…you give me fever, when you kiss me, fever when you hold me tight. Fever, in the morning and fever all through the night.” Listen to it on You Tube. I’m sure you can find it there.

I was remembering that song yesterday when I held one of my grandsons who had a fever yesterday. It wasn’t a fever from holding anybody tight(ly) but he sure wanted to be held. His fever was from what I diagnosed and treated as a probable ear infection.

But it also reminded me to remind all of you that fevers aren’t necessarily bad. Pathogens grow best at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s the average human body temperature until someone gets sick. And then the Creator has designed a process that includes a thermostat in your brain that helps the healing begin.

Turning up the temperature a little may actually be part of the healing process. Nothing like a little elevation in temperature to help the patient actually fight off that mean old virus or bacteria.  

So before you race to the medicine cabinet to grab the Tylenol or Advil, maybe just a cool sip of water or a good old fashioned nap may actually be the best medicine. And then there’s Grandpa and the Amoxicillin.