When Diana and I take someone's pulse in our clinic, we look for 24 to 28 different pulse qualities at various levels. You see, the Chinese developed a way of comparing these qualities over 2000 years ago to diagnose disease that’s incredibly profound. And yes, we get our share of confused and questioning looks. Most people here in the U.S. are used to the old blood pressure cuff in the doctor’s office or a nurse putting her finger on your wrist and looking at the second hand on a watch. That’s about where Western medicine places emphasis on the pulses today. But this wasn’t so in ancient cultures. It was much deeper.
Early Egyptians were aware of the significance of the pulse as early as 2600 B.C. The Ebers Papyrus which dates from 1550 B.C. clearly speaks of the variety of examinations regarding pulses. Remember, these were the guys who built the pyramids, and we still haven’t figured out how they did it. In Ancient India, two Ayurvedic Medical texts from the 7th century B.C. describe nearly as many pulse qualities as the Chinese do. One thousand years before the birth of Christ, Indian physicians were already performing surgery in North India.
Bear with me, Folks, I’ve got a point to make. Greek physician Democritos and his contemporary Hippocrates who lived around 450 B.C. wrote and taught about pulses. Galen, of Pergamum (the Pergamum mentioned in Revelations) wrote over eighteen treatises on pulses and established over 100 pulse types (more than the Chinese) ~ and Galen’s text was used by European physicians up until the 18th century. The great Persian physician Avicenna and Rashid al Din Hamdan wrote extensively on pulse taking and by the ninth century, documents were available across the Middle East on the subject in Greek, Latin, Persian, Sanskrit, Pali, and Hebrew! (Enough of that)
The point is this: because of a cultural lack of knowledge, what we today, consider strange, or potentially useless, is incredibly revealing from the perspective of the trained ancients. Wise men and seekers from every major culture in the past have developed skills, abilities, and disciplines in many fields that we have difficulty understanding. In other words ~ the apex of knowledge isn’t just 21st century stuff.
What do you think those of the past would say if they took a cultural pulse today? What if they were able to sit with us for a moment and look just under the surface of our life rhythm and then give us some philosophical or theological suggestions. The ones easily seen, but seemingly not understood. Upon closer inspection, I believe they would tell us of at least five hazards in our daily environment. These, I call “the five lies.” They are as follows:
1. Money brings happiness - this is the least observed pulse in our society and one that eclipses most others. I like money. I like having things, and I like giving it away. But in no way does it or can it actually bring happiness. I’ve seen those in poverty overwhelmed with happiness, and I’ve seen those with great assets looking for better days because of things confronted in life. You can see the converse too! The poor with depression and the wealthy with vision. As the King said, “Life does not consist in the abundance thereof.” The determiner is not cash! But what do your eyes tell you ~ look around!
2. Bombs make us more secure. They certainly make us more dangerous, more paranoid, and bring more leverage. But they are useless in the war to win men's hearts and those who strap them on their chests and blow up innocent civilians, and those who drop them from planes and blow up innocent civilians basically eat from the same plate of delusion and fear. Neither are truly powerful nor brings real security.
3. Technology makes us healthier. This one is tricky because technology has its good days. Inventions and scientific achievement have propelled the world from days lived in the dark to bright lights and cell phones everywhere. Many, many things have been discovered with the aid of technology. Work has become easier (maybe), continents networked, DNA dissected, and iPods conquering all. But take a moment and ask just one little question ~ what is health? Are you, YOU, healthier because of medical knowledge? Or are you potentially over medicated, living in fear of no insurance (fear is not good for the health). Are people around the world more healthier because of these wonderful discoveries and inventions? Take a good look, Folks! The Prozac nation is obese and obsessed. The number of Americans using antidepressants DOUBLED in the last ten years. It’s not a pretty sight in a lot of countries worldwide either. Life hasn’t changed for a whole lot of the population of planet earth health-wise.
4. Bigger Churches are better. This one will probably get me a few emails, but I believe if the seers and prophets could take pulses on this one they’d agree. I believe they would point out the potential dangers inherent and historic when large groups of people came together under a single name ~ like Church of Rome, Church of Persia, Church of England, Willowcreek, or Lakewood Church and Bro. Joel Olsteen, or any other mega-church leader. Am I saying they’re bad—No! I’m just saying they’re an expression of the culture. Big churches guarantee us nothing but one thing—they guarantee big. They can do incredible good. But they cannot guarantee or by default create a more profound relationship with the Master...or another person either. In an age when men try to gauge their righteousness by the latest Christian book read, a doctrinal statement, or a particular worship meeting, I wonder if the potential for creating “form without power” is more real than ever. Just for the record ~ size is not the issue. I think you’d also agree that a small group of four to twenty can be a cultic mess too. But big is not better.
5. Things are going to get worse and worse. This is a massive lie bordering on the surreal and one which is sold daily with great gain. When I say at the end of the Barnabas newsletters “We win in the end,” that doesn’t mean we gotta wait for the win. Folks, we win every day in every way. 2 Corinthians 2:14 says, “But thanks be unto God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and makes manifest through us the savor of his knowledge in every place.” If you judge worse or better by what this world or society offers you, you’ve committed spiritual suicide. Brethren, “what shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress? Shall persecution or famine? Shall nakedness or peril or sword? But in all these things we overwhelmingly CONQUER through Him who loved us.”
This isn’t just a nice doctrinal sentiment is it? It’s life, IF your living as a citizen of heaven and not a cultural earth-licker. It boggles my mind to hear Christians talk like political figures such as Obama, Palin, etc….are either the salvation of all or evil embodied. Christians act like these personalities somehow should be the major factors in their happiness. It amazes me to hear Christ –loving people talk about losing their security because the stock market went down or China isn’t going to buy our debt any longer. Consider your calling ~ do you know we will judge angels?
So, I guess I should probably say that the ancients might take my pulse and declare Yours Truly off his rocker, in need of therapy, or a long vacation in Cancun (I choose Cancun) . That could be. I like sandy beaches, and it wouldn’t be the first time someone told me my views were skewed. But maybe, just maybe, they’d say, “check this guy out, he gets it.”
Here’s a thought. What if there’s a way to live, a way to think, and a way to perceive the qualities of life beyond surface level that give hope and faith instead of fear and confusion. Is it possible that there is still a treasure in the field that is worth selling or risking all for? Is there ONE available in whom are ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge? Is there a place, a condition and state of mind where it’s not the money, the health, the bombs and missiles, the buildings, denominations, Bible verses, or newshound illusions that determine life? A place unlike anything this world has to offer.
There is. Seek it.
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