Friday, October 23, 2009

H1N1 - walking by faith in the fog of hysteria

I have a confession to make.  As we've approached piggy flu season, I have been weighing whether to immunize my son who is in a high risk for complications category...with the hysteria about the flu mixed with hysteria about the vaccines themselves, it is easy to get caught up in the fog of fear.  This week I met with our pediatrician and truly had a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" mindset as we talked through the options.  What a statement of unbelief!

Later that day I was reading in Ephesians, about how we're blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, chosen from before the foundation of the world, predestined to adoption as sons, made accepted in the Beloved, redeemed through His blood, and on goes the Apostle Paul with all kinds of reasons for us to bless the Lord and trust Him fully.

My kids will be reciting their memory verses this morning at our Honeycomb Kid's meeting (a home school group of sorts for those of you unfamiliar with it), and they've memorized a good portion of Romans 8, so in addition to reading Ephesians, God brought to my mind the text we've been memorizing together...nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ, not tribulation, not distress, not peril, not flus, not shots, NOTHING.

And I sat there ashamed of my unbelief as the conversations I have had recently about H1N1 replayed in my mind.  What was I saying, by implication, about my Father?  We are not "damned" if we do; "damned" if we don't!  We are in the arms of the Sovereign God who is our Father, who loves us and works all things together for our good, who can be fully trusted.

That doesn't mean hard things do not happen.  But as God's kids we shouldn't be walking around gripped with fear, expecting the worst.  Hard things are not a result of bad luck or chance, they are not a matter of statistics.  When we face difficulties, we do so by design and the design belongs to the One who loves us best.

So flu or no flu, shots or no shots, complications or no complications, I want to live each day by faith in God who is eternally worthy of our praise and trust and obedience.  He says if we lack wisdom, which I certainly do, to ask and He will give it liberally and without reproach (James 1:5)...that is my new course of action. Will you join me?

1 comment:

  1. Love that!!! We studied Romans 8 this past summer- part of our theme for the summer! We came up with a whole list of what can't separate us from God- IT WAS HUGE!!!!

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