Shine

A few years ago (ahem) when I was in high school, the Newsboys were popular in Christian music circles, and by default, with my friends. I am out of the Christian music loop now, preferring to listen to worship music or secular, so maybe they still are. The other day, my husband made me listen to the local fundamentalist evangelical, erm, I mean the local Christian radio station and they played the Newsboys "Shine". It brought back some memories, let me tell ya.

After the initial nostalgia wore off, I reflected on the lyrics, and while some (most) of it is a bit silly, the following stood out to me.

"Shine. Let it shine before all men. Let them see good works and then, let them glorify the Lord."

Wow. How profound!

So often the message preached from pulpits around the world, we are told, over again that we are sanctified by grace and not by works. And praise God for it! However, what is often missed is that the world does not judge us by the grace given, but by the tangible, the observable, the flesh, our works.

There is a struggle to remain relevant to the world, while embracing holiness. On one hand, the world cannot relate to the straight skirt to the ankle, hair to the butt Christian conservative. However, the world judges the Christian who gives lip service to Christ and goes to church on Sunday, but their beliefs are not evident in their day to day living.

As I've reflected on this the last couple weeks, I initially was down on the up and coming generation. The lack of physical purity, the drunkenness, the lack of modesty, etc. Then I looked around and saw the way my Catholic boss cheats his workers out of their pay by fudging the hours. The way the Baptist housewife gossips about her neighbor. I realized that the lack of holiness is not unique to the younger generation, but is a human problem.

We will never obtain perfection in this life. We cannot hope to, but we must strive for it if we will be a credible witness for Christ. I say this as a sinner. I say this as a woman who struggles with swearing and gluttony. I say this as a woman who is sarcastic by nature and has a temper. While I encourage you, I am accusing myself. The world is watching. The bystander waiting to cross the driveway at the grocery store notices the fish sticker on your bumper as you flip the bird to the person who cut you off. Much to my chagrin, children do listen and imitate our speech.

What does the world see when you dress, walk, talk? Do you shine?

Dare I Hope?

I think I dare!

We discovered Caden's allergy to dairy around the time he was 9 months. He suffered from eczema since he was about 8 weeks of age. At the advice of his pediatrician, who insisted it was impossible for a breastfed baby to have food allergies, we gave Caden one piece of shredded cheese. He immediately went hoarse and started coughing. That incident prompted a transfer of care to another pediatrician who would allow us to visit an allergist and the official start of our food allergy journey.

After the initial visit to the allergist, which confirmed our suspicion that Caden was allergic to dairy, we also added a few other items to the list. After a spring check up, we added a few more, and so on until he turned 3, when we were able to reintroduce tomatoes.

We had one accidental exposure to dairy when Caden was 15 months (anaphylaxis and an ER trip on that one), and a fair few incidences of contact hives from dairy. We transferred care to a state university allergy clinic where the allergists and interns are much more hands on, must more up to date in allergy care, and much more supportive of food trials.

Based on the advice of the allergist, we have safely added eggs into baked goods within certain specific parameters. We were going to trial those in office, but a tart baked just outside of the specified parameters proved that wasn't the best use of our time. Our trial for peanuts was delayed due bad seasonal allergies this past fall. We intend to reschedule that soon.

At any rate, onto the part about hope. We ordered Subway last week. While I definitely wouldn't recommend to an allergic, we ate there. My husband ordered a plain sandwich for Caden and one with cheese for Jon. And Subway mislabeled them. D'oh! I was so angry at myself for not double checking before giving Caden the sandwich. He had already ingested a mouth sized bite of cheese when we realized the sandwiches were not labeled correctly. We kept a close eye on him. No hives, no funny voice, no eczema!

I intend to discuss this with his allergist when we visit again, and I don't have enough hope to believe he's actually outgrown it, especially after his numbers in 2009. However, he has improved in how sensitive he is at the very least! I cannot believe that there might actually be a day where he can eat dairy. Fingers crossed for good news from the allergist.