For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)
There was
a time – a long time and a long time ago – when in order to get out of bed, I
had to pull myself onto my side, push myself into a sitting position, and lean
against the wall. I’d suffered back pain for what seemed to me to have been
years. I went to a chiropractor regularly for another long time. One day as I
stood in the shower, I realized I wasn’t in pain, and I couldn’t remember exactly
when the pain stopped. It just wasn’t there any more.
Yesterday
was a little more dramatic than that. I can’t say exactly when the shift took place
or exactly what shifted, but the result was that (for lack of a better
description) my attitude wasn’t in pain any more. When I turned out the lights
for the night, I thanked God for the day. It wasn’t a particularly good day. I failed
to accomplish a lot more than I accomplished. I spent the time I should have
been writing trying to untangle some yarn. But thanking God is a habit I’ve
developed. It shouldn’t have been note-worthy to my mind, but I hadn’t thanked
God for my day for some time. I’m betting I stopped around December 14, because
that’s when I officially caught my cold. But I’m not sure. I just know that last
night, I said “Thank You for today” last night and I had not said it for some
time.
Looking
back, the thinks that come to mind are that I probably caught my cold before
December 11. On that day, I had a coughing Jag I thought was brought on by swallowing
wrong or by trying to inhale while swallowing. It happens. Later in the day, I thought,
“Am I coming down with a cold?” and answered, “Nah.” By the 14th, I
knew I had a cold.
The same
thing can happen with mental, emotional, or sin dis-ease. You may not think the
symptoms are symptoms. You may not think
you’re sick. In fact, as with any virus, you may not appear to be sick. You may
only realize you’re sick when the symptoms can’t be ignored or when you
suddenly realize that something has shifted or that you’re not in pain.
The thing
that came to mind as I was thinking about some of this was the meme I see
shared sometimes that says, “Be kind because you don’t know what sort of
battles the other person may be having.” The people who are pointing their
fingers and admonishing the rest of us to be kind are not doing as they’re teaching.
They, too, have no idea what battles the person to whom they’re saying, “Be
kind.” That person might be being as kind as he/she can be under the
circumstances.
I don’t
know that there’s any spiritual message in any of this. Mostly, it’s a sort of
personal update.
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