It was the night before I was to give a message at two church services, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring…not even me. I was knocked out from my cold medicine. After a night of trying to convince myself that what I was going through was only allergies, I had to admit defeat in the morning. I woke up and didn’t feel nearly as well as I had hoped and prayed for. As hard as it is for someone as stubborn as myself, I admitted, I had a dreaded cold.
The first line of attack….Daytime cough, cold, and flu medicine. After downing that, I was out the door and on my way. As I drove to the church, I glanced down at the, oh so neatly folded, tissues in my purse. Would that be enough? Probably not…and of course, it wasn’t. How was I going to talk for 30 minutes, for two different services, while coughing, sneezing, and sniffling my way through? I wasn’t about to let the enemy win though. I started in with my usual, simple yet powerful, prayer before I speak, “Less of me and more of You, Lord. Less of me and more of You.”
We started with the praise songs and other Sunday morning traditions. I, sitting in the front pew, sheepishly wiped my running nose and cherished every candy coated layer of my cough drop. I shook my head as I silently thought about the odds of not disgusting the audience with my oh so unattractive and distracting flu like symptoms. Those odds, weren’t exactly looking in my favor.
Next, I was up. Amazingly enough, not one coughing episode or sneezing fit attacked while I spoke. Both services, went by without any problems. Another prayer, answered. The realist part of me says my adrenaline was pumping enough to get me through. My heart knows better to attribute this to the Lord pulling out all the stops that could have hindered His message from leaving my mouth. I’m so thankful He is my speech writer, my image consultant, and my damage control specialist.
Afterwards, I went home and crashed on the couch. I just wanted to crawl underneath a blanket and get warm. My throat hurt, my head hurt, my nose burned and caused a kinds of symptoms you can only imagine and relate to. I realized that I wouldn’t be getting anything done on my to-do list that day, and I would probably be forced to rest a bit. Oh well, there is always work I could do on the computer. There is a wedding to plan, research to do, and emails to respond to. At least I could do that from the couch.
Much to my dismay, frustration, and work to fix the issue, my internet connection wouldn’t show anything but failure. What?! No internet? No email? What would I do? I suddently realized I was forced to rest. In the midst of my pity party, I chuckled. God really does have things under control. I know He has been telling me to rest lately, but I haven’t been listening. He wins again and rest I did. He always knows best, and has a way of handling every part of our lives even when we know the odds are against us, and we are too stubborn to listen.
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