Soul-honey

Proverbs 24:13-14

My son, eat honey, for it is good, 

and the drippings of the honeycomb 

are sweet to your taste.

Know that wisdom is such to your soul; 

if you find it, there will be a future, 

and your hope will not be cut off.

This passage caught my attention today. Partly because I think "soul-honey" is an awesome word combination. I also did a little research. It turns out that honey isn't just a tasty treat. When applied to wounds as a balm, honey acts as a slow-release form of hydrogen peroxide, preventing infection--without the burn of pure hydrogen peroxide. It also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Of course, none of this was known when this verse was written. I love finding out how the Bible proves it can be trusted in even the smallest ways.

It isn't a great leap to carry the metaphor to wisdom and the soul. Wisdom is antibacterial in that keeps organisms that start out small like greed, lust and anger from taking root and growing into great infections. It is also antioxidant in that it prevents slow, unnoticed decay of plain, seemingly harmless laxness that can ultimately lead to cancerous growths. Finally, wisdom is anti-inflammatory in its effects. "Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense." Prov. 19:11

Having decided that wisdom is definitely worth finding: where to find it? We don't exactly have wisdom-combs (wisdom-hives?) hanging from every tree--or actually any that I know of, but Job 28 has a great poetic description of trying to find wisdom, and I would highly recommend reading the whole thing. These, however, are the highlights. Verses 12-15 state, "But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living. The deep says, 'It is not with me,' and the sea says, 'It is not with me.' It cannot be bought for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price." It seems someone who is genuinely seeking this miracle cure for the soul might at this point start getting worried. Fortunately, Job doesn't leave us hanging for long. Verse 23 says, "God understands the way to it, and he knows its place." And the chapter ends with, "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding."

Proverbs also has a lot to say about wisdom, often using a female personification to show what wisdom is and what it decidedly is not. Getting wisdom isn't always easy. Just as getting honey from a beehive isn't easy. It takes preparation, dedicated study and the right tools, but it is definitely worth the effects.

Beehive

Photo courtesy of Vards Uzvards

The Incredible Human Body - ABGs

I'm fairly sure not many of you have taken the time today to realize what your body is doing to keep you alive, but the fact is that your body is constantly working to keep itself in balance, like a tightrope walker over the Grand Canyon.

Today's example of awesomeness comes by way of the arterial blood gases or ABGs. For the sake of brevity and balance, here are the three most important ABGs: pH (acid-base level), paCO2 (level of carbon dioxide, an acid), HCO3 (level of bicarbonate, a base).

Normal blood pH is between 7.35-7.45, which is quite a small range if you think about it. Let's just say that bad things (like coma and death) start to happen when the body gets outside of these limits. In order to maintain pH balance there are two systems that come into play. Your lungs regulate the amount of CO2, while your kidneys produce or reduce HCO3 in the blood.

Here's where it gets fun. Say you take off at a dead run for one block. Now, if you aren't an experienced runner, your muscles are going to produce lactic acid (H3C6O3 - for those who are desperate to know). Lactic acid in the blood stream decreases the pH (making it more acidic). Your lungs compensate for this change by having you breath faster, blowing of CO2 (remember it's an acid), until the pH level returns to normal.

But what if your lungs weren't capable of removing CO2 fast enough? In the case of chronic lung diseases where a person is constantly struggling to remove CO2, the kidneys kick in and produce more HCO3, which brings the pH back into balance. This is a snapshot of the respiratory side of things. There is also the renal side, which deals directly with HCO3, but that is much more complicated. Just think diabetic ketoacidosis and you'll get the idea.

My point is, that this is only one tiny, brilliantly working, self-correcting system out of hundreds of thousands in the body. Once again, the human body is incredible!