BLOGGING TOWARD SUNDAY…

I knew as soon as I woke up this morning that something was badly wrong.  By 11:00 a.m., I knew I had to have some kind of relief, so I did something I almost never do…called the doctor to make an appointment (that’s how Judy knows if I’m really sick!).  The ladies in Dr. Bellingham’s office were nice enough to try to work me in at 2:30, even though the schedule was jammed.  By 3:30 I was sitting on the table, explaining my symptoms while the nurse took my blood pressure and temperature.  The doctor then came in, swabbed my nostrils with a long Q-tip, and said he’d be back in 5 minutes with the results.  When he came back in, he said, “You are right.  It’s the flu!”

I was surprised that he could be so positive.  I said, “I thought that diagnosing the flu was kind of a guessing game where you guys just rule out other possibilities and decide that it must be the flu.”  “Not anymore,” he said.  “The nasal swab tells us almost immediately what the problem is, and if you get here early enough, we can help alleviate the symptoms and shorten their duration.”

I think I got there early enough, so I’m hoping that short is what it will be. 

All this got me thinking:  What if there were an almost instant test to measure our health as followers of Jesus?    I believe that there is such a test.  It is quick, and it can be self-administered.  It involves answering this simple question:  “Am I a more compassionate person today than yesterday?”  That, to me, is the acid test of real spirituality.  If we are not daily becoming more loving people, more compassionate people, more caring people, then we are doing something wrong.  Daily intimacy with the God revealed in Jesus Christ changes us, albeit incrementally and slower than we might like, into people who are more like Jesus, who showed us in his words and actions that God IS love.  Our job, then, is the same as that of Jesus:  to show God’s love to others, to re-present him to the world, to be his heart, hands, feet, and voice.  And we are spiritually healthy to the degree that we accomplish those tasks.  How are you feeling today?

Filed under: Blogging Toward Sunday