A Reflection on Being Human
by LewisI was supposed to leave tomorrow for Miami to enjoy a short visit with my brother and our two cousins, but instead when I got up this morning I sent them all this note:
It started Thursday night, picked up steam on Friday night, kept building through Saturday and, even though I slept 12 hours Friday night and Saturday night and left church right after the sermon on Sunday, hit me like a freight train last night.
After 14 hours (mostly) in bed last night, my chest is still rattling like a toy in a playpen, and my breathing is as shallow as the thinking of a philosophy freshman. Food turns to ashes in my mouth, I can count every pore on my arms and legs as they stand at attention every time I touch something even mildly cool, and I have the energy of a triple-A battery that’s been running the Hoover Dam for a day.
The good news is that I’ve lost about 3 pounds in water weight, although my sheets last night looked like someone had mistakenly watered them instead of the four potted flowers on our patio.
Every time I have a bad cold, or the flu, or whatever combination of things I have, I think about these words: “The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” That is 1 Corinthians 1.25, and Paul goes on to write, “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.”
As humans, we think of ourselves as being quite strong, very wise, and able to accomplish all we can dream through our cleverness, perseverance and strength. And we certainly can do a lot, but we cannot cure a common cold.
I know that Paul’s words have a deeper meaning than that, but I think they apply to my condition — being human. And once again I am humbled by the wisdom and strength of God.
May God give you wisdom and strength this day that are not of this world and not of your own doing, but are straight from the source.
And, if you feel like I do at the moment, may he also give you some chicken-noodle soup.
October 6th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
What’s that Yiddish quote? “Man plans; God laughs.” Or, Psalm 33:10, “The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.”
I don’t think God laughs because he likes arbitrarily messing around with us, but because our perspective is so finite that our plans just aren’t going to work. We often can’t predict or comprehend (1) what God has in store or (2) even the natural consequences of events we do see and participate in.
The thing I value most from having read Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God is the simple prayer, “Lord, let me join you in your work.” This slant keeps us from the arrogance of telling God what to do because we know the greatest needs and the best approaches to take in meeting them. We can be humble, realizing we don’t have to know what is going to happen or what he is doing in our world right now (although it is wonderful when he makes it possible for us to glimpse that).
But we do need to make ourselves available to him as he requires, and he will give us the wisdom, strength, and chicken-noodle soup to do what is necessary. Until then, I’m going to relax in the knowledge that he holds the reins.