Jesus Never Whines But Sure Listens to a Lot of It

Three weeks ago I started getting sick and while on a trip I was knocked out with a horrible bug that wasn’t the flu but you sure couldn’t tell. So I went on some anti-biotics, Mucinex (*hate* their commercials), Sudafed and whatever. The antibiotics ran out last Thursday. I was a good good boy and took every last one of them.

Felt good on Friday. I even worked out all last week.

Saturday was back to not good. Sore throat and that uh oh… you have GOT to be kidding me feeling. Last night rolled around and it wasn’t going away and I found it hard to breath. Went back to the Minute Clinic and the lady there said that if I wasn’t good to go after what they had prescribed for me I needed to go to the real doctor (she is a nurse practitioner.)

Did I mention my ears were hurting? … especially the right one … and I have to get on a plane to fly across the country tomorrow. Thankfully my regular Doctor had a cancellation and I was able to get in today. Turns out the severe sinus infection of two weeks ago has turned into “acute sinusitis” and laryngitis. He also said that I was not contagious and assured me that my head would not explode in flight.

$120 later … forget the war on whining… I was ALL about the wah wah nyah nyah’s.

After a half day at work, blackberry chirping and shaking and ringing all day, the doctors, running errands trying to get out of town, running to the pharmacy to the bank to the clothing store and then back to the pharmacy because I forgot something and then back to the store because I needed detergent… hacking my head off. I had already kicked off my shoes, dumped all these bags in the entryway and was squirting Nasonex up my nose when I realized I had Lois’ mail. The last thing I wanted to do was walk 200 feet to a ladies house that I didn’t know and hand her her mail. I was ready to get in my fat(ter) clothes and do laundry … not be nice to a new to me neighbor.

Is anyone out there understanding where I was at around 6:30 pm tonight?

Sidenote: I seem to get everyone’s mail. The willy nilly “addresses be darned!” postal carrier is a main reason I know most of my neighbors. I noticed Lois seems to have gotten a check.

Most of my neighbors are elderly. Now, most of them already own their properties but I also know that many of them live on fixed incomes. I look up to the sky and say, “You are not going to let me get away with being a whiny baby today…are you?” So, I go ahead and put on my fat(ter) clothes and flip flops (love me or not, I am in the neighborhood for a good long while) and I headed to Lois’.

I walk up to her front door and she is at her kitchen table having a jovial conversation with her cute grand daughter of maybe six years old. I smile and knock on the door and she looks up and comes to the kitchen screen door and says, “May I help you?” I genuinely smile and say,”I think I have your mail.” She looks at the envelope and she says, “well … it looks like money” and she smiled really big. The envelope window revealed enough to know it was a check. I told her that is why I didn’t wait to bring it over. Her grand daughter looked very happy and Grandma was very grateful. With genuine appreciation she thanked me with a hearty hand shake. I walked back home smiling with a good picture of the day fresh on my mind.

Also grateful the doc said I was not contagious.

I think Jesus is anti-whining and He doesn’t like that His children hustle and bustle around. I don’t think He likes the condition of the world where sickness causes His creation pain. I don’t understand all the different things allowed to exist in this fallen world but what I am always amazed at is how Jesus is never silent.  He is always giving us options on perspective: our limited “…what the heck is living in me!” view or His broader view.

I could easily meditate on the crazy day it has been, obviously, and use it as an excuse to whine. No one would probably blame me. At the same time, that one picture of a Grandma’ laughing with her Grand Daughter literally made my overall day different.

A littler larger, more beautiful.

I am glad Jesus re-orients perspectives. I am glad He allows us to whine, carry on and genuinely lament if we need to. I think Jesus and our Mom’s are the only ones who “get” it when we whine. I am so grateful He sees and knows just what we need.

… Now I am going to take my grateful self and pack for 10 days in California.

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