My college freshman is 1200 miles away from me. So, of course she got sick the first week we were apart. And of course I struggled with the guilt and pain of not being able to run to her with medicine, a therMOMeter, advice, and a watchful eye. Finally, Thursday I began to struggle with something else: panic that something was seriously wrong. She wasn’t getting better, hadn’t been out of the room for days, wasn’t eating, and wasn’t drinking enough with all the temps she’d been spiking. I called the campus clinic and they couldn’t see her because their one (ONE! for thousands of kids!) doctor was double booked. I did the thing college freshman fear most — asked her for her roommates’ cell phone number and got involved.
A half-day and ER visit later, she thanked me. Her body had a dis-unity going: high fevers and nausea that led to severe dehydration. The human body is an efficient water circulating system, made up of 75% water in fact, and when it gets out of balance like that, it can be downright dangerous. In the ER, they gave her fluids by IV and I’m happy to report she began to feel better almost immediately. But it was unnerving….
I have a cousin whose grandson is very sick (please pray for Mason and his family — he was diagnosed this week with leukemia at 3 years of age), and I know of others struggling with illness and joblessness and relational nightmares too. It’s caused me to think deeply about the Body of Christ and how dis-unity is, in itself, enough to keep the church really sick. Caught up in worship wars and denominational battles, and corrupted by hunger for power or image, we go to our corners and come out fighting again. Spiritual lethargy and dehydration result. But the unity I have seen as this family expressed their faith in God, reached out for prayer, and asked for a miracle is amazing. The church (catholic) has come around them like a good ER staff, put in the IV, and begun a healing process that restores, refreshes, and rebuilds people when they encounter the worst this life can hand them. I’ve felt the power of the unified Body of Christ in my own life, and it has brought healing as nothing else could.
Once, Jesus’ disciples offered him food that he refused. He had just done the thing college freshman (and the rest of us), seem to fear most. He got involved. He stuck his nose in someone’s business, and not just a little. He saw a suffering human being and got involved with her. He offered her his ear, spoke truth that went to her core, offered her an IV of living water and when the disciples returned with food, he was already full. “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. (John 4:34)” Jesus felt satisfied because he has just done what God his Father told him to. And, his involvement didn’t just change one life, it changed an entire community.
May it be so with us. Against dis-unity in the Body, we have IVs to administer and work to finish.
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
Psalm 143:10 (NIV)
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While I hate that you went through that with your daughter, I do love the imagery and lesson you were able to pull from the experience. Indeed the body is so interdependent on water and the flow thereof. My mother-in-law, being a diabetic and in the spectrum of dementia, has a hard time remembering to drink water. This complicates her other health issues. A few months back an ambulance was called twice in as many weeks simply because she did not drink water.
Seeing the word of God as water, living water, something that we need daily. Not just a sprinkle, but to drink deep of those waters so that we’re filled, satisfied, and healthy. I like it.
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Thanks, Samuel! Sorry about the struggles your Mom is having too — that is so, so hard. Drink deeply! We need it.
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