With the number of people subject to cancer these days one aught to ask the question - Can I afford to live so that I increase my risk of cancer ?
One might argue - Its my life and I should be able to enjoy it as I please.
But the truth is that we owe our existence to a whole range of factors we may take for granted and whatever our family or other relational circumstances, we are living as part of a social structure which relies on our participation just as we rely on others for our happiness, our mental and physical health and our spiritual and emotional well-being.
Take smoking for example. The incidence of cancer in people who smoke is not just significantly high but high enough to make the choice to smoke a very serious decision. This is especially true if one has a history of cancer in the family.
It is extremely sad to see a man leave his family decades before he would due to the decision to smoke.
We tend to think it will not happen to us, and even when it takes someone close to us and we experience a period of heightened awareness, it soon fades and we continue believing that nothing bad will happen to us.
Even when the symptoms appear, we may ignore them and choose not to take the steps required to fight the disease until it is too late.
As one who has known many who have succumbed to cancer and very few who have survived it, I am acutely aware that people take this matter lightly and fail to embrace the responsibility to protect themselves and those who rely on them from this dreadful disease.
I have just witnessed a wonderful family lose their breadwinner, father, husband, brother and son due to this decision.
How would you feel, knowing you had deprived your family of all the things you would provide over the next few decades because of the desire to smoke. The devastation of such a loss on the individual members is really heartbreaking, and to be responsible for it is a burden I would not like to bear.
I remember sitting on a train station many years ago, observing an individual take out a cigarette and light it and breath the toxic fumes and finding it absurd. I imagined an alien intelligence witnessing this and reporting back that humans are clearly "not all there".
I gave up smoking in 1982 and I recommend this course of action to all who smoke and have anyone relying on them for happiness, health, livelihood or anything else.
Consider the extreme costs involved in treating cancer, the extreme suffering of both patient and family and the devastating effect on the finances and future and allow these factors to influence you to kick the habit.
Here is a link which provides information on the effects of smoking on the human body. Link
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That's an interesting way to think of it. Good read.
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This looks a lot like spam. Your comment is entirely generic. This kind of comment, which shows no evidence of your having read the post, and provides no constructive additional information, is frowned upon, regarded as spam, down-voted and does you no good whatsoever.
You have been warned.
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With all words been said, trust me there is nothing you can do to stop them from smoking.. No source of education can
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It would seem that you completely missed my message !
I stopped in 1982, after certain things were said, considered and appreciated. Many will testify of the same sort of experience.
So I am telling you that people do change, any anyone can change and reading your comment : " trust me there is nothing you can do to stop them from smoking.. No source of education can" is a dis-empowering exercise which, if one is fooled by it, is the very obstacle which prevents one's recovery from dependence on this destructive habit.
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Well I've taken note of your point and I wouldn't like to start an argument or so But it only takes the grace of God for someone to resist such habits.. Trust me
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Well the essence of God's instructions to man is always, repent, or in other words, change your ways. Observe the law of the harvest. Plant goodness and nurture it and it will bear good fruit. i.e. Consume healthy substances and honour the body provided you.
This principle is borne out by observation in the nature of our existence .
All things are by the grace of God as all power provided us is by His decree.
Pivotal in this arrangement is the freedom to choose our actions, referred to as "free agency", but not the consequences, hence, not free from the results our choices create.
Ye shall reap what ye sow is the law of the harvest, the commandment and will of God, and the only reality, whether we believe in God or not.
Grace only comes after all we can do. i.e. Man's extremity is God's opportunity and once we have considered our options, sought His guidance, and striven to act in accordance with His will, then His grace will provide the shortfall our efforts could not produce and save us from our own inadequacy.
If it were not so, then there would be no need to teach righteous principles as our efforts toward change, or repentance would be worthless, since grace would be provided anyway.
The Gospel is there to provide the sick with guidance toward changing into righteous, enlightened, productive individuals, acting in accordance with the will of God, for : "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven."
And that is where I will place my trust.
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So true man.... Carry on pastor!!!
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Congratulation graviton! Your post has appeared on the hot page after 32min with 18 votes.
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That’s really sad :(
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my grandfather died from lung cancer. He had stopped smoking over 20 years earlier and the cancer still got him. It was desperately sad to watch him struggle in his last weeks
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I remember having to give an hour long interactive presentation to a woman you wore an oxygen mask throughout, within arm's length from me. Every breath was almost a gasp and her emphysema would ensure her constant suffering for the rest of her life.
At that point, 2 years after I had stopped smoking, I really regretted the 10 years of smoking which I only discovered another 10 years after this presentation had destroyed 30 % of my alveoli.
I only developed symptoms of emphysema and asthma 10 years after that discovery. So the 10 years of smoking will likely still get me even though I gave up 35 years ago.
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What is also really sad is the effect secondary smoke has on people who live with smokers. It's practically just as harmful for them. What gets my blood boiling is when I see people smoking in their cars with young children in it!
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Now that's a worthy contribution, to get people thinking and changing. Thank you :)
Second hand smoke is indeed the second worst cause and it should be a criminal offence to subject adults to it, let alone children.
In the military, tearing or chewing or damaging your toenails was a criminal offence, worthy of detention barracks as were damaging government property.
In the early 80s the UK paid something like $200,000,000 a year on treatment and financing of people with bronchitis emphysema alone and this means that we impinge on the capacity of our society to function and serve us when we choose to indulge in health destroying things like this.
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Right up my alley - the subject of changing the way people think. So I gave up smoking and other addictions 28 years ago after indulging for 23 years. The miracle with the help of God was that I stopped ALL substance abuse in two weeks. Never been back there and never been tempted to. Challenged the old paradigm and developed a new one founded on new beliefs, values and perceptions. Thanks for article.
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That is where smoking also ought to be band...you cannot be driving your vehicle with an infant todller or child in the car...NO Man!
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Never having smoked in my life, and living with a smoker , I ended up with Bladder Cancer ,which is 80% caused by smoking!
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If the person in question knew you would develop C through their smoking, I wager they would not have smoked, which demonstrates that we tend to discount the risk in our thinking and aught to educate humanity on the severity of the risk and the real consequences we so readily accept, until they arrive.
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