Reason #761
It's that time again. I woke up yesterday with a congested head, and by the time I went to bed, my throat was sore. In fact, I was sick with the same stuff last February. I joked about having a two month reprieve between my sick spells, and I believe it has become an established pattern. Well, because I have, for some reason, been losing my immunity of the past year and a half, I decided last night that I was going to the doctor first thing this morning. I know that there are some pretty good OTC medicines out there, but each time I try those, I still end up going to the doctor anyway. I have learned my lesson, and I decided I would try to nip this in the bud.
The doctor swabbed my throat for strep, and thankfully, I don't have it. He looked in my nose, my ears, my mouth, and poked around on my neck for a bit before he decided that he'd give me a shot and an antibiotic to kick whatever infection I have. By the end of the day, I was feeling a little better. I went by the pharmacy to pick up my prescription after work. I read the directions and side affects just to make sure I was taking it correctly, and go figure that the number one side affect, nausea, just so happened to kick in right after I ate dinner. Can't win them all.
Being under the weather is the pits. Seriously, I'd just like to feel normal all the time. Of course, illness is being passed around like candy right now. Summer needs to hurry up and get here so we can get well. And today, as I sat in the exam room staring a drawings of spines, knee muscles, foot repairs and a drug chart, I thought about how we treat our illnesses the same way we treat sin.
I've learned to stop waiting so long to go to the doctor. Why suffer for a week when you can feel better in a fraction of the time? Why fill your body with remedies that will take forever to get you well when you can receive one that works in a day? Why wait until you are as sick as you can be before seeking help? And why prolong healing when you can be well in no time at all?
We all fall victim of this with the Lord. We mess up, make mistakes, do the wrong thing, feed our flesh, and we're in pain. We desperately need healing, and although we know where we need to go to get it, we prolong it. We endure the burden as long as we possibly can because we think that somehow, we can fix it. Somehow, we can get better on our own. We'll just try different things. We'll make up for it by doing a whole lot of really good things. That should take care of it, right? And we fill our lives with things that promise to make us feel better. We volunteer our time to a good cause, we feed the hungry, we give money to the needy, we make a point to show up to church more than once a month, we buy things that make us feel happy, and we do our best to not mess up again thinking that if we feel like we're making attempts at being better, we'll actually get better. But the truth is, it doesn't work. Because no amount of "fixing" we do, no amount of good deeds or acts of kindness will heal us. No amount of volunteering or giving will cleanse us from our sins. There's only one way to get better, and for some reason, it's usually not until we are on our knees in desperation that we seek His help.
But what if you didn't have to wait to feel better? What if you could find healing, peace, and comfort the moment you needed it? What if you could experience the joy of forgiveness and restoration immediately upon failing? What if you didn't have to wait to be cleansed from your unrighteousness? And what if you realized that you didn't have to do this on your own? What if you just went to the feet of Jesus the moment you fell, the moment you began to feel sick, the moment you tripped up and made a mistake and found that He would pick you up, dust you off, and get you back on the right track right away?
We shouldn't wait. We shouldn't think we can take care of ourselves, of our mistakes, of our failures. We shouldn't try to right our wrongs or actually believe that if we "feel" better we are better. We should just make it a priority to be healed right away. We should call on His name the second we realize we're headed in the wrong direction, and we should seek His help to get turned around. Because it's much easier to start out there than to end up in that place. But, the good news is, that no matter how soon we find Him, He is there ready to make our lives better.
#761 - Because He is always there to make us better.
"Lord, my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me." - Psalm 30:2
The doctor swabbed my throat for strep, and thankfully, I don't have it. He looked in my nose, my ears, my mouth, and poked around on my neck for a bit before he decided that he'd give me a shot and an antibiotic to kick whatever infection I have. By the end of the day, I was feeling a little better. I went by the pharmacy to pick up my prescription after work. I read the directions and side affects just to make sure I was taking it correctly, and go figure that the number one side affect, nausea, just so happened to kick in right after I ate dinner. Can't win them all.
Being under the weather is the pits. Seriously, I'd just like to feel normal all the time. Of course, illness is being passed around like candy right now. Summer needs to hurry up and get here so we can get well. And today, as I sat in the exam room staring a drawings of spines, knee muscles, foot repairs and a drug chart, I thought about how we treat our illnesses the same way we treat sin.
I've learned to stop waiting so long to go to the doctor. Why suffer for a week when you can feel better in a fraction of the time? Why fill your body with remedies that will take forever to get you well when you can receive one that works in a day? Why wait until you are as sick as you can be before seeking help? And why prolong healing when you can be well in no time at all?
We all fall victim of this with the Lord. We mess up, make mistakes, do the wrong thing, feed our flesh, and we're in pain. We desperately need healing, and although we know where we need to go to get it, we prolong it. We endure the burden as long as we possibly can because we think that somehow, we can fix it. Somehow, we can get better on our own. We'll just try different things. We'll make up for it by doing a whole lot of really good things. That should take care of it, right? And we fill our lives with things that promise to make us feel better. We volunteer our time to a good cause, we feed the hungry, we give money to the needy, we make a point to show up to church more than once a month, we buy things that make us feel happy, and we do our best to not mess up again thinking that if we feel like we're making attempts at being better, we'll actually get better. But the truth is, it doesn't work. Because no amount of "fixing" we do, no amount of good deeds or acts of kindness will heal us. No amount of volunteering or giving will cleanse us from our sins. There's only one way to get better, and for some reason, it's usually not until we are on our knees in desperation that we seek His help.
But what if you didn't have to wait to feel better? What if you could find healing, peace, and comfort the moment you needed it? What if you could experience the joy of forgiveness and restoration immediately upon failing? What if you didn't have to wait to be cleansed from your unrighteousness? And what if you realized that you didn't have to do this on your own? What if you just went to the feet of Jesus the moment you fell, the moment you began to feel sick, the moment you tripped up and made a mistake and found that He would pick you up, dust you off, and get you back on the right track right away?
We shouldn't wait. We shouldn't think we can take care of ourselves, of our mistakes, of our failures. We shouldn't try to right our wrongs or actually believe that if we "feel" better we are better. We should just make it a priority to be healed right away. We should call on His name the second we realize we're headed in the wrong direction, and we should seek His help to get turned around. Because it's much easier to start out there than to end up in that place. But, the good news is, that no matter how soon we find Him, He is there ready to make our lives better.
#761 - Because He is always there to make us better.
"Lord, my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me." - Psalm 30:2