He'd Better Be Sick!

“All I know is, he’d better be sick!”

Those were the words I muttered as I headed out the door. It was a busy Monday, I had lots to get done, and now I had to leave work at 9:30 in the morning to pick up a supposedly sick child from school.

It’s not that I minded having to leave work…I’m a mom first and taking care of my kids when they are ill is my job. And, I have a very understanding boss when it comes to this kind of stuff. But, to completely rearrange my schedule for a child who just has a bad case of the “Mondays”…well, that’s a different story.

Still, when I considered what I had said, “He’d better be sick,” I thought to myself, “What kind of mother hopes that her child is sick?” But, the more I thought about it, the more I felt quite comfortable with my statement. In my opinion, when it comes to a minor illness, I’d rather a child actually be sick than lying about being sick. An illness is temporary and physical in nature. Lying, however, is a condition of the heart. It’s spiritual in nature and is much harder to get over than a little bug.

I think God probably sees it the same way. There are times that He allows us to endure some physical discomfort in order encourage spiritual growth. Our eternal, spiritual natures are of such greater consequence than our temporal, physical ones. I don’t know about you, but this is such a hard concept for me to accept, because my physical nature is what affects me most right now. So, I have to learn to trust that God sees a much bigger picture than I do.

Throughout the Bible we see countless examples of people whose physical suffering produced spiritual growth. In Romans, Paul puts an exclamation point on the concept that our spiritual well-being should be our number one priority when he says, “we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:3-5).

Will you join me today in Praising God for that infallible hope offered to us through his son, Jesus? Let’s also pray God will give us the courage to always seek spiritual growth before physical comfort.