Blast! I knew something was wrong with me.I did my best to stay away from the scary medical clinic but I knew I had to get treated. My teammates and I were sitting at the local internet cafe and I could barely move. I felt like I was going to melt into the chair while my stomach simultaneously felt like a boxing ring. What the heck was I going to do?
I hobbled outside and plopped my sorry looking self on the ground. I had been overcome with a lovely case of ‘runny stomach’ for the last 24 hours and I was incredibly dehydrated. I knew I needed to throw up but I couldn’t even muster the energy to try and heave out whatever was living in my belly. My teammates eventually came outside and saw my miserable state of affairs and mutually decided that I desperately needed to be tested again.
We made our rounds to a blood screening center where I finally ralphed my guts out, only to find out that I had the worst kind of malaria known to man. I was sent back to the clinic where I was unfortuantely put on another drip. The medication they inject into your body is not only effective, but incredibly painful. I was so upset that I was going through this for a second and much worse time that all I could do was cry. My teammates could not help but feel sorry for me because I was too dehydrated to even draw out any tears.
Once my initial sadness was past me, I threw up a few more times and started to try and rest. People would stop by that I had met during evangelism or through our contact and would buy me cookies, fruit or anything that they felt could help me. Even though I was not the happiest clam in the sea, I could not help but celebrate the fact that I was being showered with love from so many different sources. My team, my contact and my entire squad were praying for me, as well as people in the hospital that I didn’t even know.
As my final day in Uganda and my final drip session rapidly approached, I began to really look at what I had been going through. I had spent a lot my time in the hospital bed imagining a life according to my own desires. I thought a lot about how I could strengthen my spirit by my own means and the ways of the world. I thought about how many times I had taken various caretakers for granted in the past when I had been sick before. My mistake, however, was allowing what the world and the deceiving powers of evil had taught me to take over my thoughts. Those foolish things had turned me away from all that He had saved me from and I was frustrated with myself. I did not want to slip into the world again and my graceful Father directed me to read the entire book of Ephesians.
In Ephesians 4 verses 20-24 it says: 20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Basically, I had the choice. Was I going to let the forces of evil take over my mind in that vulnerable state, or was I going to relinquish my former way of life and bring on the strength that comes with His righteousness? I may have been a jerk in illness before but I had been forgiven of those transgressions. I could pansy out and take the route of the Devil or take the leap to overcome such a small trial of illness and claim my identity in the truth of Christ Jesus.
I guess I will leave by asking what exactly would you do? When things become difficult, do you choose to let the pain and frustration overwhelm you, or do you celebrate the victory that comes with righteousness and faith in our Savior?
