Fragile

Fragile

I have been blessed with good health. That means sickness always surprises me. Health just feels so normal that I take it for granted. I think there are some good things that happen through sickness even if it is just for a couple of days.

Being sick reminds me how fragile I really am. For weeks on end I wake up and feel good all day long. Then one day for no apparent reason a nagging cough begins and within a few hours my experience of life is changed. My body is like the receiver of life and when the receiver is damaged then everything that comes through the receiver is affected. Food doesn’t taste the same. Jokes are not as funny. Things are irritating that weren’t irritating yesterday.

I was sitting with my wife and we were talking about me being sick and she said, “Well, there is not much we can do.” That is a profound statement. I think I’m like most men. There is something to be done about almost everything. Give me a situation and I will figure out something that can be done. But some sickness is different. The body responds in it’s own time. The universe twitches one of its tiny little muscles and I am rendered helpless. This is something to remember. Health makes me feel bigger than I am. Sickness reminds me how small I really am.

Being sick slows life down. There are times when that is the only thing that will slow life. Slow is good sometimes. Even with the receiver damaged, when life slows down there are gifts that the velocity of life usually causes me to miss.

Being sick reminds me at least for a little while how great it is to be healthy. I miss it.

Finally being sick reminds me that I am a dependent being. There is One who is greater. One who holds my life in his hands. I have nothing to bargain with. Everything I am and everything I have is already his. This One, even though I am just a vapor and a fragile vapor at that, loves me. And that is a very good thing.

So, whether you are sick or healthy, God stays the same. Like a mountain that doesn’t move, that never changes. Because of Jesus his stance toward me is the same and that means I can rest until that day when I will be truly healthy and my receiver will finally be truly whole.

http://www.thecommonlanguage.com/ Susan Moore

Let’s see if I’ve got this right: It seems the worst thing about being sick is that it may make us doubt God. Or is doubting God a pathogen which makes us sick? For is not doubting God a sin? And is not sin separation from God? And would not our fallen human nature still belong to Satan, had it not been for our salvation when we became indwelled with the Holy Spirit of Jesus? Did Jesus get sick? Is there sickness in heaven?
   I believe a doubting human is powerless over sickness, and his health is completely at the mercy and whim of God.
   However, we are not called to doubt, but to believe: “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask, because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him.” (1John 3:21-22)
   The Daniel study the women’s ministry completed taught us that in any given trial, Jesus
responds in one or more of only three ways: 1) He walks with us through the trial to build/test faith (such as His walking me thru 36years of mental illness), 2) He may remove the trial from us (such as His direct healing of me), 3) He may remove us from the trial by taking us home to heaven. The bottom line is that no matter which way He chooses, we win.
   Therefore, in my mind, it must be blatant ignorance, forgetfulness, arrogance, rebellion, or submission to the non-Christian world view that leads a person to choose to not believe in, or ask for, the healing power of Christ.
   For 36 years I wanted to heal myself, so, like others who fail to ask, “You do not have, because you do not ask God, when you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:2b-4)
   The living word teaches us that; it takes faith to be healed (Acts 14:9), we must give God our attention and expect something from Him (Acts 3:5), we can ask for more faith (Luke 17:5), and we can ask for wisdom (James 1:2-8). James 5:13-16 sums up the connection between physical/mental and spiritual sickness. And John 6:29 explains that, “the work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.”
   It seems the worst thing about being physically/mentally sick is that it may lead to doubting God. Doubting God causes spiritual sickness. Spiritual sickness leads to psychological numbness, physical/mental illness, and death…if it were not for the loving grace of the risen Christ who hold all things together (Col 1:15-17).
   We must humble ourselves before the Lord, and He will lift us up. (James 4:10)
Mary

Are you sick? ok?
Bena

Amen!
Melisa Vojtko

Im sitting here waiting in a surgery waiting room for my husband who is having a minor procedure done this am. I was just thinking how sometimes the only way I “slow down” is when I’m forced to. Right now there is no where else I can be right now and there is nothing else for me to do but sit! While I’m not the sick one this time I’m so greatful for these few moments in life I have no choice but to slow down!
- Joe Coffey
  
  I think it is interesting that God can use our own sickness to slow us down or someone we love. I will pray for you today. Blessings, Joe