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| life holds many questions. some important. some not. today it's the "not" question that made me go the most legitimate source of information: the net. so what is this great question, you ask?
what causes pee shivers? i know you've asked yourself this about a million times.
you're about to have one less question in life... if you can understand the words.
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First, you may have noticed, as others and I have, that the shivering is
generally related to how distended the bladder is at the time of micturition
(defined as voiding the urine, emptying the bladder and many other more vulgar,
and popular, expressions). Since the micturition reflex is relayed through the
autonomic nervous system (ANS) and is directly related in strength to the amount
of stretch of the bladder, the shivering is probably associated to other ANS
reflexes. The sympathetic side of the ANS tends to keep the bladder relaxed and
the urethral sphincter contracted. That means that you don’t “pee in your
pants” when fighting, fleeing, or taking tests, for example. The
parasympathetic side of the ANS tends to cause relaxation of the urethral
sphincter and contraction of the bladder so that you void.
It is my thought that the more desperate one becomes in response to a bulging
bladder, the more of a general sympathetic outflow of action potential will be
generated to keep you dry. This would include the release of the adrenal
medulla catacholamines epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine. When the
opportunity arises to allow the parasympathetic side of the ANS to take over,
the change in catacholamine production might be the cause of the shivering. If
you carefully pay attention to your body signals when “taking a leak”, you will
notice a blood pressure “rush” and a momentary flushing or euphoria shortly
after relaxing the urethral sphincter. This feeling is not altogether bad, but
not altogether pleasant either. It might be compared to the feeling one gets
when receiving highly emotional news (good or bad). This response is also ANS
controlled and in its most extreme forms leads to fainting.
Well, that is my thought on the matter and I hope it is worth more than what
you are paying for it but without some solid research there is no way of knowing
for sure.
Maybe you will take up the challenge and see what is happening here even though
you indicate you are a non-science major. As always there could be benefits
from this research. One thing that comes to mind is that this would be a way of
naturally increasing ANS release of the catacholamines in clinical situations
where catacholamines are needed. A nurse could simply insert a catheter (which
is often done anyway in clinical settings) into the bladder and control the
amount of bladder receptor stretch by adding sterile water or removing urine
from the urinary bladder at will. Just a thought!
If you have no idea what the ANS is and want to know more you should get a good
basic anatomy and physiology text from your library and read up on it. It is
rather complicated but well worth the study. Some author names of general basic
texts that would have this information are: Tortora and Evans; Berne and Levy;
Moffitt, Moffitt, and Schauf; Silverthorn; Craft; and on and on. Just go to the
library and take a look.
Enjoy your studies, Dr. Swanson
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| greetings.
well, it has certainly been a day. a lot of life can happen in a period of 24 hours, wouldn't you say? there are events that happen in a moment that can have a pivotal effect on your understanding of things. things that are big. life things. and then sometimes there is a string of events that does the very same thing. one event can be a catalyst of change in perception. scientist type folks would call this the ripple effect.
after church today i went out to applebees up at northtown with some people. ate food. had some fun. then i left. and when i got into my car i noticed a note on my windshield. i typically don't read things left there, as they are most often advertisements. not a fan. anyway, it looked handwritten. so having curiosity issues like i do, i had no other choice but to read it. it stated that someone in a truck had run into my car and left. a witness had taken down the plate number and kindly left me a note. the ironic thing was the note was written on a church bulletin. made me laugh. the damage was probably a few hundred bucks. but damage aside, it bothered me that someone would run into my new car and not even have the courage or decency to apologize. it bothered me a lot.
i ran some errands and went home. to my surprise, i had an email from someone whom i have not spoken with in quite some time. we had a falling out a while back, and the issue of forgiveness came up in the email. i thought for a long time about how easily we can all offend other people, and how we can do them great harm by our actions. the bible talks about the magnitude of the fires we can set in other people's lives by our words and actions. we all do it. offenses happen. damage occurs. and on some level, retribution is demanded to restore what the offense damaged. isn't that what we know as truth? but retribution doesn't fix things. it just leaves two parties damaged.
then this evening i took a group of senior high students to vespers at the college i went to. it was a great night of music and worship. i love seeing my students worship. and i love watching them love the God i know. but all of the scripture tonight had to do with sin... and forgiveness. the focus was on the overwhelming, passionate, and unrestrained forgiveness of God through Christ, for those who simply ask.
after i came home i figured it would be best to call the police and get a report filed on the hit and run just in case. the officer ran the plate, went out to the guy's house, and called him to account. he asked me if i wanted to pursue criminal charges against this man. i replied, "i would like to talk to him, and if possible let him know that i forgive him". i have no idea why i said those words. i wanted to say, "tell him he needs to pay for what he did". that's what i had intended to say.
a ripple effect. God will do crazy things to us to teach us about himself. He will make us walk through crazy things if it forces us to learn. i am convinced that one of God's greatest passions is restoration. when one reads the bible within the context of that word, a light is shed on who God really is on the inside. it's almost as if we catch a glimpse of how He thinks and what motivates Him. restoration is who God is. the bible says that Christ was the sacrifice offered before the creation of the world in anticipation of the payment for sin. even before any offense was made. that's how serious God takes restoration.
to restore means to return something to its original or undamaged state. we hear all the time about this word, "forgiveness". but what is forgiveness, really? is it simply releasing from guilt and punishment, or is it more? today God taught me a deeper meaning of that word. the guy who ran into my car. the person who came to me seeking... something. me struggling to know how to respond to each... how to respond, somehow, as Jesus would. to show in my response that i get it. to prove to Him that i understand, and in turn, change on the inside.
i always thought that forgiveness was giving up your right to be right. i was wrong. i have been wrong all along. forgiveness isn't about releasing someone from the penalty due to them because of their sin. i always thought that's how forgiveness operated. but somehow that always seemed hollow to me, like something was missing. it lacked a repair, somehow. it never left me feeling better. i don't think that there's any redemption in saying, "go free. i do not hold you guilty of your offense anymore". that's only the first part of it. true forgiveness goes a step beyond that and says, "our relationship is restored". God never intended for forgiveness to just be a release from guilt. He intended it to be the means by which restoration was enabled. in other words, forgiveness opens the door so that we can return relationships back to their original state. restoration and forgiveness are synonymous. does this make forgiveness sound too powerful? i hope so. because it is.
it was a loaded concept, that thing Jesus did through the cross. He not only accepted guilt and told us "go free. your debt is paid", he also said, "we are restored". those are powerful words to me. life changing in fact. because those words give hope to my life and what i thought was perhaps impossible. restoration goes both ways. it heals both parties and returns the relationship to "undamaged". what a concept.
today i pray that those reading this would know true forgiveness, and the restoration it brings.
see you soon.
f.
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| happy april.
someone once said, "where ever you go, there you are".
a few months back a wise friend imparted that tidbit of knowledge to me while eating breakfast at ihop in the wee hours of the morning. he was speaking of life. and our attempts to escape from the one we know. to find the one we're looking for. somewhere other than here. but the truth is no matter where you go, everything you left will still be waiting for you when you arrive.
i have noticed a trend with people our age. you know, the people who are not twenty and not thirty but somewhere in the middle. the quarter-lifer's. those of us who are neither here nor there. we seem to have this collective mentality that the grass is greener somewhere else, even if we don't know where that "somewhere" is. we chase an elusive reality, something that we haven't seen or touched, always hoping to find what we're looking for to make us happy. what we're missing. what we dream of. what we "need". and somehow we're convinced that the solution to our life and our longings is somewhere else...something else. something different than "this". and so we focus our lives not on the present, but on the future. almost treating today like something that must be endured and not enjoyed. some call this chase "hope". i'm not entirely sure of that. perhaps it's dissatisfaction. the problem with dissatisfaction is it causes us to miss things.
i have come to the conclusion that the grass is truly greenest where ever you are, even if it doesn't feel like it. i believe that the fundamental problem with seeking greener pastures is that we're living for something that does not yet exist, and may never exist. although God dwells above the timeline, the only time we can interact with him is the present. the moment. this very second. lately i have been learning to enjoy the moment. because that's the only place that God and i are in the same place at the same time. and that's the only place i need to be to be happy. no amount of running forward can give you that. you know what i mean?
a few days ago we were all looking forward to spring, especially after being taunted by a few relatively warm and sunny days. then the temperature dropped. do you remember your reaction? and the clouds came. and the sky opened up. and while i longed for spring. and sun. and warmth. for some reason i found an immeasurable amount of joy in the last snowfall of the year. and listening to deck the halls by relient k on the ipod. with the windows down. in march. i wouldn't have traded that moment for even the most perfect sunny day. because God was there. at that moment. with me.
i think my point is that we need to stop longing for what isn't here and start living what is. i'm convinced that if we walk through life with tunnel vision we're going to miss God. and i wonder how many moments we have missed because we were too busy looking elsewhere. i'm reminded of that even now, as i sit by the glow of a lantern with nowhere else to be. this is indeed a great moment.
so whatever today brings, find a way to enjoy it. this is your moment. and he is here to be found.
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| greetings.
i have decided to rekindle my love of xanga. it just has a simple purity. an elegance. i can't resist it. does it bother me that it is now the equivalent of a dusty old book resting on the shelf that is the worldwide web? not at all. i have a growing love of old books and the places where they are found.
tonight was yet another fun-filled night at csm. 10 packs of peeps. milk. speed-eating. good times. <back story> lately we have been doing a series on dating. i have very much enjoyed it. it has challenged me to really look deeply into the scriptures to see what they say about God's order in forming relationships. what i have learned has changed my life. but enough about that. tonight we aimed to debunk what the world thinks about sex. so picture this with me if you will... at the height of the message, i used two cans of pop to demonstrate the mixing of bodies and hearts in a sexual relationship to illustrate its complexity in "undoing it". i had one of those miniature cans of dew (we named him bob) and a regular can of diet...something (we named her bobolina).
now, i made a very serious point about the act of sex being a body, soul, and spirit kind experience. a blending of souls, a deeply spiritual experience. i then proceeded to continue on in the message. my throat was dry. i was thirsty. so i took the glass and began drinking it while speaking. and then a question from somewhere came forth, "are you drinking their sex?". my response, "yes, i am drinking their sex. and it is good." immediately my thought was this: erica, we're recording right now, aren't we? consequently, that's not all i said tonight...
will i get emails tomorrow? probably.
but my thoughts right now gravitate toward something more. more than sex, you say? yes.
ministry. lately i have been thinking about the approach we use in ministry. we do a lot to build solid programs. glitz. noise. excitement. hype. activity. we're always busy. we do a lot to cater to the crowds. we may have all the substance, but what does our spiritual barometer tell us? it's so easy to disregard it. bury it under the piles of other stuff. we erroneously learn that competing with culture means creating a "big" environment. we try to out-do pop culture to secure the hearts of our students. while i think it's important to market a good program, have fun, preach well, what is our bottom line? at the end of the day, where do we draw the line for a successful ministry and the work we do? what standard do we use to determine its overall vitality? my first response would be numbers, student excitement, was the preaching good, did they have fun... were i to measure by those standards, i would say we're not doing half bad. and yet i feel convicted.
Jesus spoke to me tonight. his words made sense. "would you rather have a huge youth ministry and the hearts of the students? because you can have that. i'll give it to you. or would you trade those things for my shadow to rest on them?" i have nothing against numbers. i have no problem with excitement. i know we need the balance of administration and ministry. it's all necessary. however, is this how we measure our group and decide what to do. is that what we seek. or do we cast those things aside when we realize that God wants to touch them. i say wholeheartedly that i wish to cast aside my goals if it means Jesus will meet with us in his power. so my thought is this: at the end of the night, was God the center of our world? after all of our planning and strategizing and labor, did God wrap his hand around their hearts? did change happen? did he minister to us? did we attend to him? did he become God to us? ...did ministry happen.
i desire to answer yes. all the time. unequivocally. i want to measure my success in ministry with this standard. i want my students to smell the sweetness of his aroma and know the closeness of his spirit. i want us to stop. to put down the guitar. to turn off the sound system. to put everything else aside, to wait on him, and hopefully see his arrival, even if it takes all night. i can wait. because i believe that when he shows up we'll never be the same. this is what i want. and although it might not make me the coolest youth pastor around, i want to see God truly minister to my kids.
see you soon.
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| dang.
where has the time gone? seriously.
so that 50 or so year old travel guide i mailed in from that stack of national geo's i found. got a response from them a while back (if this is making no sense, scroll down a couple posts). apparently they were unable to send me the catalog from that year, as it no longer exists. a few decades too late i guess. still, i would have given my net worth to see their faces when they opened that thing up. where has the time gone...
it's time to shut this thing down.
f.
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