26 Feb 2015 by Adeliyn Lim –
Imagine going through life with a minor, but constant nagging hum on that one area where you had a surgery several years ago. Lately, the hum stopped humming; it throbs. You tried to ignore it, but the longer you try the throbs become louder and deeper. Sometimes it feels like there’s an invisible person stabbing you at the same place over and over.
No longer able to ignore the pain you decide to go to a doctor, instead of the surgeon. After a brief check up, the doctor sends you home with a bag of painkillers. The pain “goes away” whenever you pop a pill. But the pain never truly “goes away”. As time passed, you get stronger, and stronger painkillers. After a while you realize that the doctor you have been seeing is nothing but a legal drug-pusher, and decide to seek a second opinion. The second doctor checks you out and prescribes a series of antibiotics. Again, you realize the doctor is another legal drug pusher. The third doctor offers you homeopathic remedies… and so on.
Finally you go the surgeon who did that surgery a few years ago. An MRI and biopsy revealed that your illness recurred. Surgery is required, and it needed to be done urgently. Sepsis had set in. You were literally rotting from the inside. The doctor looked into his calendar, shifted around the patients scheduled for the month, just so that he would be able to perform the life-saving procedure. Your surgeon only had one question, “Why didn’t you come to me earlier?”
The surgery need not had to be so rushed if only you had went to the surgeon in the first place, instead of looking for a way to ignore the pain.
So it is when dealing with certain issues in your life.
Oh what peace we often forfeit
You give it up to God – the initial surgery. You feel hunky-dory. And for the first time in a long time, life is going on well. Then you feel that hum, and think to yourself “I have given that to God already haven’t I?” After all, life is going well for you. You ignore that hum.
You hear a word or a phrase and it unexpectedly jabs you where it hurts most. You pretend that it didn’t reopen an old wound. When whatever that pains you becomes more apparent, you try to distract yourself.
Psalm 32:3
When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
Oh, what needless pain we bear
Distraction by burying ourselves in work, hobbies and God-knows-what-else does not solve the issue inside us. Try as we might, that irritating hum will be constantly there. We know we need to deal with it. Ironically because we know we need to deal with the issue, something stops us from going to God. We actually turn and walk away from God.
Any good gardener will tell you that the longer you wait to uproot a weed, the harder it gets. Likewise, the pain that we ignore slowly takes its root, growing deeper and deeper. If it is a sin, you will fall deeper and deeper into it. If it’s a hurt, bitterness sets in. The longer you wait, the harder it becomes to deal with it.
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer
Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The story of the prodigal son features God the Father who anxiously waits for the son to return at the same place (Luke 15:20). Likewise, our Father patiently waits for us to turn back to him at the same place. A place, which is just a prayer away. All we need to do, is to allow Him to work through us. If not, we die a little more inside as the days pass us by.
Now unto Him who is able
Know that God wants the best for your life, despite all the things He allows to happen in your life (Jeremiah 29:11). Acknowledge that it’s not going to be an easy process. You will most likely be dealing with the same issue over and over again. That recurring thing may never fully go away while you are here on earth (2 Corinthians 12:7). Trust the Lord will carry you through, and use what you go through to bear witness and minister to others.
More importantly, is that you allow God to work through your life. To do so means that you yourself must work hand in hand with God to get past the things that hold you back from the fullness of His joy.
Jude 1:24-25
To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
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Adeliyn Lim has oscillated between Kuantan, Penang and KL, currently working as a human resources specialist in a telecommunications company. She admits that the walk with God is at times like a walk on the beach in sunny weather and at times like stumbling on cobbled alleys on dark, stormy days. Her philosophy in life is, “Life is a bed of roses. Thorns included.”
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