Fridays are for Newspaper Articles

Happy day after Thanksgiving!  The following, as always, is my weekly article in the Canyon Lake (TX) Times-Guardian.  Enjoy!

                              “Weakness” 

Last Tuesday morning, I went to take my first complete physical in many years.  I was apprehensive given that, by age 58 (where I am), some very strong people have broken down physically, if they are not already dead from cancer or heart disease.

Well, the physical went very well.  All body parts are functioning fine and, other than the need to keep losing weight and get the blood pressure down more, the doctor gave me a clean bill of health.

As a result, I was feeling pretty good about myself.  I even started thinking that I was probably in better shape than the majority of men my age, which was pretty good since, a year earlier, I had been in pretty rough condition (e.g., 289 pounds, sky-rocketing blood pressure and headaches).     

It was in that semi-smug frame of mind that I arrived back at my office in the late afternoon.  But, that quickly changed.  By about 5:30, I had begun to feel flushed, if not fully feverish.  Still, I was determined to hang tough through our Tuesday night men’s group meeting.  After all, I had gritted my teeth through discomfort or even pain quite a few times over the course of my course.  I could definitely do it again.

Where did this knuckle-headed macho approach to illness come from in my life?  All the way back in my childhood.  Through all 12 grades, I almost never missed school due to sickness.  And, I had a paper route from the seventh grade all the way through high school, with the only time I can recall ever boy throwing papers (except when I had to be out of town) was when I broke my hand in a football game on Friday night.

Apparently, even having bronchitis at least half a dozen times, pneumonia twice and almost dying of viral pneumonia back in 1991 still did not get through my thick skull that you should take care of yourself when you get sick, so as not to make the illness worse.  I still preferred the “tough it out” approach.  I still had to show how strong I am.        

What an idiot!  If I were to be asked what my advice would be to someone who had the symptoms I had last Tuesday afternoon, I would immediately answer that he or she should immediately go home and go to bed, calling the doctor’s office as soon as was practical.

But, did I take my own advice?  No—that would have been too smart—and non-stubborn.  So, I went on to the men’s meeting, which proved to be a big mistake.  The main course in the meal served at the meeting was chili.        

So, as you have probably already guessed, one bowl of chili and one unpleasant trip to the bathroom later, I was hurriedly making my way home, complete with chills and a stomach that was in terrible shape.  It turned out to be a nasty stomach virus, which really knocked me for a loop.  In fact, I was not really that close to 100% again until Sunday morning.

In between, I was pretty weak.  And, I do not like the feeling of being weak.  After that bout with viral pneumonia, when I had fever well over 104 for four days and had to be packed in ice daily to reduce the fever and potential for organ damage, it took me a whole month to get up to speed enough to go back to work.  It was probably 10 days before I could take a decent deep breath.  I hated it—it was embarrassing.  I felt like a free-loader.

But, I have finally figured out my biggest attitudinal problem in all those instances.  I was trusting in human strength, when I should have been trusting in divine strength in the midst of my human weakness.  You see, the Apostle Paul makes it clear that our weakness is the channel through which His power can flow, if we allow that by humble faith in Jesus: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness…  For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9, 10). 

Bottom line: All those times I was trying so hard to tough it out in my own strength, I was actually resisting God’s desire to use His power to strengthen me through my weakness, including times of illness.  What a slow learner I am spiritually sometimes!  But, “better late than never.”

How about you?  Do you look to the Lord in faith in your time of weakness or are you just trying to tough it out in your own strength like I mistakenly did for so long?

Coming Monday: Break in series (Continued): “Further Thoughts toward an SBC Reform Agenda”