05 February – Sick and Tired
Joe and I and Mara are all sick. Even Robbie is a little stuffy. We are not deathly ill or anything, just tired and congested and coughing and sniffley and generally achy and uncomfortable. But this too shall pass, my friends.
Despite the sickness, I did make it out of bed. I left my alarm in the kitchen again, but I guess it was a little too far away. I slept through it for 20 minutes. Out of bed by 5:20, though, and feeling quite awake. We went to bed around 10 last night so it seems 7 hours is a good amount.
Sickness. Healing.
I don’t know what to believe about divine healing. Having just lost my Mom to cancer, the idea that only lack of faith prevents God from healing sickness does not appeal to me. (Of course, appeal does not equal truth.) I don’t want to think (and I don’t) that if only somehow we had believed more, Mom would have been healed.
However, God does heal. He has in the past and He still does today. I am puzzled over His choice of when to intervene and when to leave alone. But He has proven Himself trustworthy, kind, and wise in so many other ways that I am willing to trust that somehow He is the same in this area. I don’t understand, but my lack of understanding is not a valid reason to vilify God. It just means – surprise – that I am thinking in human terms, with human finiteness. It’s a bad habit.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5 – 6
Trust (rush to for refuge, be confident or secure, be bold, careless, put confidence in, hope) in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean (support oneself, lean, lie, rely, rest on, stay) on your own understanding (knowledge, meaning, wisdom). In all your ways (course of life or mode of action, road, journey) acknowledge (to know, acknowledge, be aware, consider, discern, discover, endued with, regard, have respect, understand) Him, and He will make your paths (well trodden road, caravan, path, race) straight (even; right, pleasant, prosperous, direct, fit, seem good, seem meet, upright).
“God has always been pretty good about opening and closing doors for us when we’ve prayed that way. It surely makes decisions much easier – kind of like He’s straightening our paths, huh?” – Mom