Who is the one who comforts, restores and revives you?
For me, more than any person, God does that.
Our Father calls me in the noise of life to be still before Him.
“Cease striving and know that I am God” (Psalm46:10a NASB).
Other versions use the word “still.” In Hebrew, the word used is from the verb raphah, which means to be weak, to let go, to release. When we are still we release every care to God. We allow God to be our strength in our weakness.
Let go? How do we do that? This happens only as we release all the weight of our circumstances to God.
I like this quote from the Roman poet, Ovid. “Tears at times have the weight of speech.” Our tears can say more than a thousand words. They speak their own language others need to hear.
I was battling a respiratory bug for several weeks that developed into pneumonia. My wife, Karen, called 911 because I became so short of breath, I collapsed. I was hospitalized for 11 days. It took me several months after being discharged from the hospital to fully recover.
My stamina was extremely low. I had to take home nebulization with Ventolin often four times daily for a few months. Medical professionals will tell you that’s a lot of Ventolin, which was increasing my heart rate and blood pressure so that needed monitoring as well.
I was on the steroid Prednisone for several weeks to help improve my breathing. It caused mood swings of having times of euphoria followed by crippling depression. The medication caused me to have difficulty sleeping. I was prescribed a sleeping pill to help me sleep, but the Prednisone often reduced its effectiveness.
My writing was without life, depth, unfocused. How could it have any of those things when I was so exhausted?
I thank God I had the blessing of Karen editing my writing finding the gems among the forest of trees of my words. I had to slow down my work schedule to a complete halt. I saw the beginning of winter and spring mostly staying in bed or on the sofa.
Initially, I was glad for the rest. I needed it. I had pushed myself way too much.
But watching all the movies and TV you never got an opportunity to, gets old really fast. There is only so much binge-watching one can do unless you’re trying to get into the Guinness World Book of Records for the longest amount of time watching TV. Keeping your eyes closed while you’re doing it doesn’t count. I ate too much junk food.
Karen, realizing the need for me to have healthy food, prepared meals which were delicious and nutritious. What a blessing from God she is!
Karen got sick too. The trauma of having me taken away by ambulance combined with all the countless hours of caring for me she did, wore her down to a frazzle. She got a terrible flu that stayed with her several weeks.
We both became too ill to attend church and help out with its various programs. Being away from worship and fellowship with believers was awfully rough.
The days can seem like an eternity when you’re sick in bed. You can’t go out because you don’t in all good conscience want to spread your germs to others.
I found I didn’t have much energy at all for several weeks to go out, even if it was for a coffee with Karen. I slept most of the day with the exception of pushing myself to spend some of the afternoon and evening with her. The loving wife that she is, as she would see my head droop more and eyelids closing, she would lovingly but firmly advise me to go to bed.
In times of my distress, she would sing simple songs to me such as Jesus Loves Me, that would break through my confusion, allowing me to feel Christ loving me through my suffering. I think the singing brought comfort to Karen in her weariness.
There were times while ill, I would get furious at God for allowing me to get sick. Think about that statement for a moment. What’s logical about blaming God for what I shouldn’t have done? Our Father hadn’t called me to become ill. I did that by doing much more than I should have.
It seemed like this pneumonia would last forever, but thanks be to God and fine medical care, it did go away.
I learned a valuable lesson through this experience. While God calls us to obedience in what He asks us to do, we can in our humanity think we are able to do much more than we should be.
Seek God’s peace in the noise of your life. Don’t try to do too much. Live a life of balance as much as you can. I’m trying to do that. I’m not always successful at it, but I’m trying. I hope you will too.
This story is published in Koinonia — stories to encourage, entertain, and empower you in your faith, food, fitness, family and fun.
