Thinking rightly about sickness
A few weeks ago, our family went through the usual seasonal cold and flu time. All of us were sniffing, tired, and had sore throats. Nothing too extreme, nothing that even needed a doctor’s visit, just the common cold. Yet this relatively minor ailment led to some missed work and school days and our usual lives being put on hold for a while until we recovered.
I am sure that everyone has had this experience; many people I know struggle with ongoing much more serious conditions and illnesses than this. Part of being a human being in this fallen world is getting sick and having your health limit what you can do.
Sickness is incredibly frustrating. You know all of the things that you should be doing, yet you cannot do them. Even things you might have planned well in advance simply cannot be done; they either get done by someone else or they do not happen at all. It is at times like this that we understand what it means to be limited.
While the experience of sickness and limitation is frustrating, it is good for us. That seems an odd thing to say! Yet understanding that we cannot do everything makes us reflect on a few really important things:
- God keeps running the world even when we cannot contribute anything. God is in control of His world, not us. Even if we have important and responsible jobs or roles to play, we are never in control of everything that happens.
- This world, with sin and sickness and pain and limitation, will not be this way forever. One day we will be in a perfect world if we trust in Jesus, a world where we can serve God with joy all the time without the hindrance of pain and sickness.
- God’s kindness to us is not dependent on us being able to do great things for Him. God saves us because of Jesus, not our work. We are just as loved and saved when we are sick and unable to do much as when we are well and at our best.
Don’t just be frustrated with your sickness when it happens. Remember that God is still in control of His world even when you cannot do much.