Rejoice, We Will Be Changed!

          When our body begins to wear out, it is comforting to know that sometime it will be replaced with a new one.  That was the reminder I received in an Easter day devotional in "Walking With Jesus" a devotional publication by David Jeremiah.  Since there are many of my readers who, like me, can probably also use this reminder, I have decided to share this with you on this Easter morn.

          

          "Something remarkable happened to the crucified body of Jesus Christ early on Easter Sunday.  In a flash of glory, His body was totally transformed.  It wasn't simply resuscitated.  Some kind of electrical glory supercharged it, and when Jesus opened His eyes, He had an incorruptible body.  It was the same body but now it was glorified and eternalized.  No more pain.  No more aging.  No more decay or corruption.  It was equipped for life on both earth and in heaven.

          According to Philippians 3, God will transform our earthly bodies to be like the glorified body of Jesus.  The resurrection is more than resuscitation.  It's supernatural transformation of our bodies.  We will be raised incorruptible.  We'll be equipped to live on earth or in heaven.  Our bodies will be mature but not old, responsive but not sick, natural and yet supernatural.

          The resurrection of Jesus Christ provides the proof, the provision and the pattern of our own resurrection.  We will share the glory of Easter with Him!

          Rejoice! Our best days are ahead of us!

Customers Various Services (CVS)

          When we first moved into Millersville our first next door neighbor owned the town's pharmacy.  Over the years Skip gave us great service, especially in promptly filling our scripts and providing advice.  We quickly became spoiled.

          Several years later he sold his practice to Todd, a former student of mine.  This outstanding service continued.  Todd had grown up in Millersville and knew most of his customers.  Again, we were spoiled.

          Then, a few years later, Wileys, a small area chain, bought Todd's business and opened a pharmacy.  We got to know Dave, the manager, and once again he spoiled us with outstanding service.  His employees went out of the way to care for their customers.

          But all good things come to an end and we were shocked to get the word that Wileys was closing, with little advance notice. No replacement pharmacy was coming.  For the first time in all the years that we lived in Millersville there would no longer be a local pharmacy.  Little did we realize how much of a problem this would be.

          Unfortunately, our only choice was one of the CVS pharmacies.  This meant more travel and often dealing with clerks who spoke limited English.  Personal attention was a thing of the past.

          A major problem was the lack of inventory and failure to inform us when they couldn't fill our order.  And there was no help for us when this happened.  Several times we had to search for other locations to get our orders filled when our CVS on Columbia Ave. at Good Drive couldn't meet our request. We never had to do that before.

          The latest situation happened a week ago.  My eye doctor ordered an eye drop following my eye surgeries and I needed a regular refill of my insulin. While I waited for over a week, I received five different messages that my insulin was being ordered – with no result.

          Finally, I received a message that my eye drops were now at their store in Shillingon, 40 miles away, at $80.  My insulin script was also supposedly filled there.  I was also told that they could not be sent to the Lancaster store.  Why and why Shillington?  On top of that, I didn't want the eye drops since I had already received the script the doctor ordered, in Lancaster, at just $14.

          As I write this, I am still trying to get my insulin, locally, without any help from the store on Columbia Ave. at Good Drive.

         Oh yes, I've just received another automated reply that my insulin has just been ordered – for the sixth time – and will be available in a week – the third date that has been promised.  What are the odds?

          I think the stress that CVS is causing me is actually making my sugar levels increase!

Evaluations

"Looking Back" is a feature in which I choose a previous blog which I have written, rewrite it and share it once again.  This one was first posted in 2013.          

If you have ever attended college, you know that some of the professors there can be "very different", to say it mildly.   When my high school students would complain about one of their teachers I would often say, just wait to you get to college.  You haven't seen anything yet.  Many are boring.  Many don't really teach.  Many don't enjoy teaching. Many find all sorts of excuses to cancel classes.  Many don't cover in class what they will test you on.  Many never use the expensive textbooks and manuals that are required.  And I could go on and on.  Fortunately, there are many excellent profs who do teach and earn their pay.

         But part of the college process is usually a teacher/course evaluation.  Now I don't know if they are ever really used by the higher ups.  Probably not, because getting a promotion doesn't seem to depend on your teaching but on the number of publications or research experiments you have made.  
          When I taught at Millersville, evaluations were required for non-tenured staff.  All that I ever received back from the administration was a numerical average of my students' responses for each category and a list of written comments that were made, without any identification of the evaluator.  I never feared my student evaluations and I was often thanked by my students for actually teaching.

         Now with that background, recently I came upon some excerpts from college evaluations that I really enjoyed.  I don't know if they are actual comments or if somebody just made them up.  But I can think of profs that I had who fit the situation.   
          So, here they are. As the waitresses say, "enjoy!"

     1.   "The textbook is almost useless. I use it to kill roaches in my room."

     2.   "He teaches like Speedy Gonzalez on a caffeine high."

     3.   "Help! I've fallen asleep and I can't wake up!"

     4.   "The recitation instructor would make a good parking lot attendant. Tries to tell you where to go, but you can never understand him."

     5.   "The class is worthwhile because I need it for the degree."

     6.   "Textbook is confusing; someone with a knowledge of English should proofread it."

     7.   "Problem sets are a decoy to lure you away from potential exam material."

     8.   "He is one of the best teachers I have had ... He is well-organized, presents good lectures, and creates interest in the subject. I hope my comments don't hurt his chances of getting tenure."

     9.   "I would sit in class and stare out the window at the squirrels. They've got a cool nest in the tree."

     10.   "Information was presented like a ruptured fire hose-spraying in all directions - no way to stop it."

     11.   "I never bought the text. My $60 was better spent on the Led Zeppelin CDs that I used while doing the problem sets."

     12.   "The course was very thorough.

          Reminder – these comments were not written by my students.  Fortunately!

Why?

           So often in life we ask the question "Why?"  We are often confused by even simple things that we don't fully understand.  Here are some interesting illustrations of such questions..

 

Why do supermarkets make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get to the Pharmacy for their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front?

I miss the time when I was working at the zoo. My boss fired me just because I left the lion's gate open. I mean who would steal a lion?

I was in a cab today, and the cab driver said, "I love my job, I'm my own boss. Nobody tells me what to do." Then I said, "turn left".

Why do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and yet insist on getting a diet coke?

Why do banks leave vault doors open and then chain the pens on the counter tops?

Why do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in our driveways and put our useless junk in the garage?

Why does the sun lighten our hair, but, darken our skin?

Why can't women put on mascara with their mouth closed?

Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word 
  
Why is it that doctors and attorneys call what they do 'practice'?

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavouring and dish washing liquid made with real lemons?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called the rush hour?

Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections? 
  
You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes?  Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff??

Why don't sheep shrink when it rains, whereas sweaters made of sheeps wool, do?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

 

Why did I write such a stupid blog?

Be Careful What You Wish For

This guy was walking along the beach when he came across this salt-encrusted piece of metal.

He worked for an hour or so to remove the salt. Lo and behold it was a very old oil lamp.

The guy started to buff it to remove the verdigris when "poof" a genie appeared.

This genie, like all genies, was so happy to be freed of the lamp that he granted the guy three wishes.

"I wish to be a dollar richer than Bill Gates, " says the guy.

"Guy," the genie said, "You will forever be a dollar richer than Bill Gates. What's your second wish."

"Genie, I want the most expensive Porsche made: Fire engine red, on board GPS and the finest audio system ever installed in an automobile."

"That's easy, Guy," says the genie. He waves his hand and best car anybody had ever seen pops out of the lamp.

The genie then asks the guy for his third wish.

The guy mulls the problem over and over. A girl... Nah. With billions and billions of dollars he certainly had become a chick magnet. World peace? Only wackos want that. The guy found a reason not to wish for anything that came to his mind.

"Genie," the guy said, "I can't think of anything now. May I save the third wish for later."

"Gee, this is most unusual. But you hold the hammer, I can't escape from this lamp until you make a third wish. Call me when you're ready," and whoosh the genie disappears into the lamp.

The guy carefully picks up the now-ever-so- valuable lamp and places it in the trunk of the fire engine red Porsche. He turns the radio on to balance the sounds and makes all the other adjustments needed to get his great audio system customized to his ears.

After that, he pulled off the beach and headed south along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Soon he was up to 60, then 70, then 80. The Porsche handled perfectly.

The guy was so happy that he began to sing along with the familiar commercial on the radio.

"Oh, I wish I was an Oscar-Mayer Wiener..."

An Angel?

          We were just coming home after doing our online grocery shopping.  Because we are now limited physically we've learned to do our shopping online, placing our order on the company website.  Then we go to the store and they load the order, for us, into our car.
          The big problem comes next – carrying the groceries from the car to our kitchen.  We've purchased a folding cart to help with this process. It usually takes us two trips.
          Recently we were struggling with this task.  I just got a heavy load to the front door.  Suddenly a stranger appeared and volunteered to complete our unloading for us.  We were surprised and gladly accepted his offer.  He brought the rest of our groceries in, closed the car door and closed the garage door for us.

          He then explained that he was a workman during construction on a house being renovated across the street.  He said he couldn't bear to watch us struggle with the groceries.  He knew he had to help, and he did.
          We haven't seen him since.  Could he have been an angel?
          Things that used to be so easy are now a burden.  We do have another neighbor "angel" who we know who daily brings our newspaper to our front door for us.  We could use some other angels to get our mail each day or to help clean up the many limbs that are now down in our yard, or to shovel our snow or even to just visit with us.  It is amazing how lonely you can get when you are handicapped and basically confined to your home. Visits, notes and phone calls are very limited but appreciated.

          Maybe the Lord can use you as one of his angels.  Many could use help.  I regret that I didn't do more to care for handicapped friends when I still could

          Beware – handicapped can happen to you sooner than you think. You may soon need help.