How quickly illness can take us down. I’ve been sleeping around the clock for two days because of a cold bug.
You know what it’s like. You’re clicking along in the day’s schedule and gradually start to realize that your throat is kind of sore. After a couple of hours it’s hard to think anything except, “My throat hurts”. You feel shivery and then hot; the aches begin. Your deepest longing is to lay your head on your pillow and let the world disappear. Juice, kleenex, blankets, tea, antihistamine!
I wish I had the self-discipline of renowned atheist, the late Christopher Hitchens. His widow has released a book written while he was dying. I heard her tell a CBC radio interviewer that Hitchens “never complained”, neither when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, nor during his illness and deterioration.
Please do not tell my husband about this.
If I can’t bear a common cold cheerfully and stoically, what hope do I have for courage when the real trials come? If Christian faith makes a difference, shouldn’t the believer’s behaviour trump the atheist’s?
HA! Think again.
Here’s the truth. I trust my life to Christ because I’m inconsistent, often weak, and downright selfish. Unlike Christopher Hitchens, I’m not tough and self-sufficient. As far as I can tell, Jesus came to offer us God’s loving acceptance and the chance to become better at being joyful, compassionate and principled, to find in God the very strength that we do not have.
I’ll never be as good as you probably are, but I’m pretty sure I’m better than I would be if I didn't keep trying to rely on God. I love reading the Bible biographies of characters who failed right, left and centre. These histories remind me that our Creator doesn't give up on wimps like me.
