For the past couple of years my secret to good health has been this: Avoid doctors. After all, they might tell me some bad news, prescribe a bucketful of pills, or demand that I give up chocolate. My husband disagreed with my laissez-faire approach. But I leaned on that rickety cane of human understanding, determined to live in ignorant bliss.
And I did live in bliss, until the sore throat showed up. It lingered; it loitered. It unpacked its bags, refusing to leave my esophagus. So I decided that maybe, just maybe, my previous approach needed to be tweaked. Okay, I would admit that living in ignorance when something seems to be amiss is a bad idea. And I reasoned that keeping tabs on my health is simply being a good steward of life. I needed to take care of my children, after all, so my haphazard approach had been less than the best.
But once again I leaned on that wobbly cane of human understanding, and I came up with this: I would ask God to keep me alive for as long as I am useful, but not long enough to be a burden. There. That sounded noble, generous, wise.
Then it dawned on me. Since God is in control of life, since He is able to bring good out of what seems to be bad, shouldn’t I willingly place my health in His hands? And if I ever am a “burden,” I know He can use that situation to humble me, to bring good out of my life and out of the lives of those who care for me. My new idea — which is neither my own nor new — boils down to trust.
God knows how long we will live; He knows how to bring good out of every one of those days. I believe that, even if I needed a reminder. So while I await an appointment to have my sore throat evaluated, I will try to avoid that old cane of human understanding. I want to lean on God, trusting Him with all of my heart.
Christine Laws is a freelance writer and editor living in Amity. Her stories, poems, and essays have appeared in a variety of publications. She is also the author of “Fresh and Fruitful: Cultivating the Art of Writing,” available at www.clp.org.
