Make Sure You Have Your Shots
Our body has an amazing capacity to defend itself when attacked by microorganisms and viruses. It produces specific antibodies in response to the presence of a particular intruder: antibodies which are effective only against that specific microbe.
Our bodies have the capacity to remember how to make the antibodies we produced on earlier occasions. You may not remember ever having had the measles, but your body does. If the same virus shows up again, the antibodies waiting quietly in your body will immediately move into action.
The original vaccine was against smallpox. The virus of the bovine version of the disease was injected into humans to encourage the formation of protective antibodies. The use of the vaccine has now virtually wiped out smallpox.
Vaccination remains a key weapon in our medical arsenal. Many once fatal diseases such as diphtheria, whooping cough and polio, have been thwarted by stimulating immunity through routine shots in childhood.
Despite rare reports of serious side effects, shots against measles, mumps and rubella give us the antibodies we need to kick start our own incomparable defence system.
So next time someone talks shots, be thankful for a technique, which enables your body to attack so many dangerous intruders.
Part of the process of maturing involves learning to wait for rewards. This is the thought expressed by the common saying “Short term pain for long term gain.”
Infants and children want everything now - or perhaps even before that! As they grow up, they learn to wait. My children have been known to ask “Is it tomorrow yet?” They come to understand that what they desire may indeed occur, but not immediately.
Somewhere in childhood, kids learn not only that waiting is a part of life, but also that working for the desired object or event may also factor into the process. They may have to put out some effort in order to earn what they want - plus they will have to wait as well. In this way, children begin to experience in limited ways the reality of life in this world.
There are occasions when waiting and effort are not the only features en route to getting what is wanted or needed. Sometimes pain is involved. As Dr. Humphreys mentioned, receiving a vaccination will prevent the occurrence of disease. Most vaccinations are given during an immature stage in life - a period in which the child cannot appreciate the long term advantages of the immediate pain. Yet it is because the parents can see that it is for the child’s benefit that he or she endure the short term discomfort because the payoff is greater yet.
Yet least we gloat, many of us as adults still procrastinate when it comes our turn to make that dental appointment or a routine medical check. The pain and inconvenience somehow outweigh in our mind the long term benefit that we will derive from such an undertaking.
Our society, too, encourages us in this pattern of immediate gratification of our wants. We don’t have to wait for today’s desires. Sometimes little effort is demanded between the time of our wanting and receiving. Businesses even make it fairly painless initially to buy on credit the items on today’s wishlist. Many of us live in an instant society which fosters close intervals between wanting and getting. The down side of this of course is that we are ill-prepared when difficult circumstances force upon us the need to wait things out.
Patience is indeed a virtue. It can be said to be a dying art form in today’s culture. Instant food, miracle drugs, electronic technology all contribute to our expectations that our desires as well as our problems will be remedied in short order.
So when difficulties come our way we are ill-prepared to exercise patience. We haven’t developed those “muscles” through regular workouts. The result is frustration and anger or despair and depression. We sometimes even begin to doubt our faith and the God of it. We may not be able to see any long term benefits to our present plight. Indeed there may not be any. The whys and wherefores may always be shrouded in mystery for us. Understanding and justice may not come during our lifetime. Our faith in God’s character must hold us while knowledge of His ways eludes us.
David Humphreys and Debbie Hughes
© August 2004
