Tuesday, April 19, 2011

O Worship the Sun!

One of my first "Notes" on the Melanoma Prayer Center Facebook page I administrate was this. To reach a broader audience I re-post it here. Another Public Service Announcement if you will.

I will be grateful if you read it.  I will be even more grateful if you take it seriously, make any necessary lifestyle changes, and use it to educate others on being sun-smart and tanning bed smart.

O Worship the Sun!
by Melanoma Prayer Center on Saturday, April 2, 2011 at 10:25am
Go ahead.  Lay down on the altar of sand.  If you're feeling really self-sacrificing (because you ARE sacrificing yourself!) lay down on the altar of a tanning bed in the Church of Tanning Salon.

Many today talk about how we worship our stuff and how consumerism and me-ism are quickly replacing God in our hearts and lives.  That kind of worship, while indeed spiritually deadly, won't physically kill you.  I'm concerned that we overlook the other god so many serve, because we "joke" about sun worship.

Many want to look youthful and healthy and think a sunny, bronze glow accomplishes that and if we can get a good burn then that gives us a good story to tell of our dedication to looking healthy and young.  Never mind that all that sun leaves skin feeling leathery and will look 70 when it's actually 30, leather is expensive by golly!  There's a price to pay for expensive commodities.  You just won't realize the full price you're paying till it's too late.  You're borrowing on bad credit and the creditor will come looking for you.

If you're one of these people who love the look of the sun, whether fake from a tanning bed, or real from old Sol, while you're making that tanning bed appointment, make one with a dermatologist.  While you're buying that new bikini or other sunning attire, go ahead and buy a cemetery plot.  Got the number of the tanning salon?  Get the number of a good mortician, your family will need it.

Instead of worshiping the created, try worshiping the Creator.  He warns us over and over in His Word how deadly worshiping false gods is and he warns of dire consequences when we succumb to temptation, buy the good sounding lies, and sacrifice to idols.

God hates human sacrifice, the sun doesn't.  God tells us the truth, tanning beds are idols that can't speak but still kill.  Melanoma is no joke, no laughing matter.

Some of you reading this have melanoma or know someone who does and you know what I'm talking about.  We have the scars to prove it.  Some reading this will go right outside, in the heat of the day, without any sunblock, get browned by the sun and think they look gorgeous and the sun is their friend.  Melanoma happens to other people; older people, Caucasian people, people who've gotten blistered many times with lots of moles.

Newsflash: melanoma happens to people who have skin and it doesn't care what nationality or ethnicity that skin is or how old it is.  As a matter of fact, it's showing a growing preference for young skin!  Skin that's in its teens years, its twenties and thirties.

This is one cancer that is highly treatable when caught early and highly deadly when it isn't.  It has no standard mode of operation because it acts differently in everybody. But it will, usually, show itself first in skin or a mole.  Keep a vigilant check on yours and let a dermatologist who specializes in melanoma help you.

If you choose to take your chances on the sun and/or tanning bed, go ahead, get that glow.  While you're at it, accessorize that tan with a beautiful casket.  Go ahead and pick out a nice one.  You'll want to be the best looking, youngest looking, healthiest looking corpse around.

O God!  Wake people up!  Smarten us up!  Today God, today, people who worshiped the sun will die because they smartened up too late.  People will be diagnosed and be plunged into a world they never knew existed.  People will prepare for procedures, tests, surgeries and so many could have been prevented if they had just known.  Had just listened.  Had just believed melanoma really could happen to them.  Today, God, use this note, use me, to help spare someone melanoma.  Lord, in your mercy!  Amen.

(If you're still reading, yes this is harsh, but those of us with melanoma are frustrated that people look at us and just don't get it!  We want to help you learn our lesson before you walk in our shoes.  Trust us, you really, really don't want to try and fill our shoes!)

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