caffeine

Years ago I led a parents night out at our church.  One of these nights I served 70 children a discount soda I had purchased thinking it was the equivalent of  7UP.  It was called Citrus Dew and it was loaded with caffeine.  Those were the longest 4 hours of my entire life.


Since that day I have been fanatically careful about keeping children and caffeine throughly separated.


Imagine my shock to hear each week in the NICU team meeting about which babies are given caffeine. And then to hear that some infants receive the equivalent to 4 cups of coffee.  I wondered if the point was to decrease nursing downtime?  Or maybe a sponsorship from Starbucks?  Finally I had to ask.


The patient doctor explained in detail the medical benefits of caffeine for babies.  To simplify what I think I heard - Caffeine stimulates the respiratory drive in tiny babies and encourages them to breathe rhythmically.  (It also decreases the number of apneic spells, and reduces partial tension of carbon dioxide - but I don't know what that means...)

This is my new rationale, when I'm groggily reaching for a diet Dr. Pepper.  I need to stimulate my respiratory drive and breath rhythmically.   I still would not share it with a child.

Eugene Peterson talks about what stimulates and wakes us up spiritually.

"Hope affects the Christian life by making us expectant and alive.  People with minimal hope live in drudgery and boredom because they think they know what's going to happen next.  They've made their assessment of God, the people around them, and themselves, and they know what's coming.

People who hope never know what's coming next.  They expect it is going to be good, because God is good. Even when disasters occur, people of hope look for how God will use evil for good.

A person with hope is alive to God.  Hope is powerful.  It is stimulating.  It keeps us on tiptoe, looking for the unexpected."

I'd like an IV of that!

...alert for whatever God will do next.  In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged.  Quite the contrary - we can't round up enough containers to hold everthing God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit.    Romans 5:4b-5  The Message (and Living The Message, Peterson)