Flu Strain.

Happy New Year Friend!

Did you have a lovely holiday?  I’ve been keeping an eye on the weather and it looks like you are due to thaw soon.  Did you enjoy the snow?  I stopped looking at the news when I saw that lizards were freezing and falling out of trees.  That was so sad!  That seemed an odd way to start the New Year, apocalyptic even, so I stopped watching the storms’ progress.  I did a bible search for signs of the end times and didn’t come up with anything on lizards falling from the sky, so I decided it was safe to come out of hiding.  (Yes, there is the whole dragon thing in Revelation, but a lizard is a darn site smaller so I calculated I might still have a bit of time.)

After a delightful Christmas, my family decided to herald 2018 by catching the flu.  All of them.  They staggered their demise, which was kind; I was able to pace myself as I ran from room to room, shuffling ice packs, bowls and painkillers to and fro.  It was fairly miserable as this year the flu strain packs a wallop.  Life during an illness takes on a rhythm of its own, as most caregivers can attest.  Your world shrinks down and the most basic needs become the dominant force behind all your actions.  This germ was no different and after 3 days, I noticed that the living room became a 3:00 am meeting place.  For days in a row, I would come downstairs in the dark only to find a feverish figure curled up on a blanket on the couch, having left their bed for a change of scenery.  After a short chat, a dose of medication and an ice pack exchange, I would send my charges off to their room to get some sleep before dawn.

It was actually kind of nice.   Our visits took place in the glow of the Christmas lights, voices hushed, coughing into pillows trying not to wake family members like a bunch of plague ridden elves that Santa left behind.  A bizarre secret society where no suggestion seemed too outlandish, as if asking for popcorn at 4 in the morning while sporting a fever of 102* was normal behavior.   

Nice as it was, by the fifth evening I felt mild relief as I came downstairs and found the room empty.  A quick check proved all were snuggled in their beds and I congratulated myself on having gotten my family through the worst the germ had to offer.  I wandered into the kitchen for a glass of water and sat myself down on the floor.  I’m not sure how long I sat there before I had brilliant idea that lying on the floor would help me cool down.  While lying with my face on the Lino, I calculate it took me about half an hour to figure out I had in fact caught the flu.  After deeply considering this sad fact from a horizontal position, 

I grabbed some medication and moved myself off the floor onto the couch. 

Over the next week I would come to describe my germ as a “milder form” than the one experienced by my children.  And it was my term “a mild form” of illness that got me to thinking this week.   As the news cycle rages as misdeeds are exposed, the world recoils and incivility increases.  I was contemplating how easy it is to fool myself into thinking the problem with the world is all the crazy people out there. 

However, the human condition is a fallen one. There is no “mild form” of human frailty.  It affects all of us, not just those who tweet or make a fool of themselves online.  I can live in my churchy community and go to my churchy school and socialize with my churchy friends, but I am just as afflicted as anyone else.  My sinful behavior might not make the 6 o’clock news, but I live with the consequences of my sin like anyone else.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  John 3:17

So I am praying for us this year my friend.  That we might not fool ourselves into thinking that our churchy bubble will keep us safe from the trials that are to come.  That we will cease to pretend that we cannot understand our neighbor.  But that we will forego our false quarantine, get engaged and radically love Jesus this year.

I pray that you are blessed with purpose, kindness and rest in 2018.

xoxK

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