In sickness and in health

This week, I have been laid low by a bout of the cold. This is annoying, but it's just a case of mucking down and getting on with it (I'm not much of a man 'flu sufferer, but mum will probably tell you otherwise).

However, I did have to sacrifice a day of work, so I spent most of it doing what I do best: thinking. I thought about many things, but I am only going to write about a couple.

The first struck me when I opened my curtains at about noon that day. I looked out and I was taken aback because I sensed something strange. I don't know what made this happen, but it was like everything was screaming, like it was in some serious pain. It went away again when I closed the curtain and re-opened it, but the feeling still stuck with me. It was strange, and I wonder if my being ill was something to do with it, but it just served to remind me of Romans 8.

Verse 22 says that "the whole of creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth", which was good, not only in that I am not crazy, but that this has been felt for about 2000 years. Ok maybe that's not so good, but the point is that it was the latest in a series of reminders that things are not ok in the world and something needs to be done. Up until 4th year (many moons ago) I hadn't been paying much attention to much else than.. well actually I don't remember, but I was cosy, shall we say. But the last year and a bit have opened my eyes to how much is wrong with creation. I don't want to list everything here, but the only conclusion I can draw as someone who claims to be a Christian is that we don't know exactly how reliant we are on Jesus. We'll all still be screaming, but through Him we know that it will end.

That's the gist of it anyway.

The second thing was that I remembered a time last year when I was unwell. I wouldn't wish what I had on anyone, but that's maybe another story for another time.

I thought about how much illness skews your view of the world. Maybe this relates to my first thought, but I remembered how I felt with this problem and compared it to how I currently felt with my cold. When you are unwell, it's sometimes very hard to appreciate the people who are caring for you, because you're so busy being sick and sorry for yourself. Looking back onto the problem I had, I didn't realise how many people I was rude or short-tempered or ungrateful to because the only thing that I was concerned with was this problem. It makes me think how hard it must be for Doctors and Nurses who work stupid hours to help people who often don't appreciate it.

Anyway, that was just a bit of a spiel about being ill, it wasn't supposed to be anythign mega, but I thought I'd share it nonetheless.

I'll leave you with a line from Doctor Who, which I think is very appropriate:

"This country has been sick, this country needs healing, this country needs medicine – in fact I'd go so far as to say that, what this country really needs, right now, is a Doctor."

Amen to that.