The Joy of Being Sick
So I've been quite ill the past few days. Started with a horrible seafood lunch that wasn't fresh,and before I knew it, I was out running to the toilet for some liquidation. In accounting terms, as I am learning in business school, there was some serious LIFO (last-in-first-out), followed by FIFO (first-in first-out). If you're not an accountant, and don't get the joke, don't worry one tiny bit. Just know that it was a double-dose of suffering!
It is not my intention to go into excruciating details on the time and location of my discretions, but to reflect on the amazing ability of sickness to bring us back dead-centre on what matters most to us.
As I lay in bed with a churning tummy, wondering when I would get down to some serious sleeping, I prayed. I've been reading Philip Yancey's "Prayer". It has given me much comfort as I struggle in the materialism of business school. There is a God. He hears us; no, he WANTS to hear us. Above all the din of accounting, economics, modeling, organisatonal behaviour, and what-nots, the silence of a God listening in breaks through the sweat of a diarrheatic moment -- silent, not moving, clutching my belly, in the middle of the night.
I prayed to get well. But only after I learn more about praying, and putting first things first.
It is not my intention to go into excruciating details on the time and location of my discretions, but to reflect on the amazing ability of sickness to bring us back dead-centre on what matters most to us.
As I lay in bed with a churning tummy, wondering when I would get down to some serious sleeping, I prayed. I've been reading Philip Yancey's "Prayer". It has given me much comfort as I struggle in the materialism of business school. There is a God. He hears us; no, he WANTS to hear us. Above all the din of accounting, economics, modeling, organisatonal behaviour, and what-nots, the silence of a God listening in breaks through the sweat of a diarrheatic moment -- silent, not moving, clutching my belly, in the middle of the night.
I prayed to get well. But only after I learn more about praying, and putting first things first.
posted by Bim at 8:59 AM
6 Comments:
Hee hee... is there such a word as "diarrheatic"?? i just suffered from a bout myself... from eating too much kimchi. Oops.
However, i think mine was mostly LIFO... ha ha ha...
And yes, business school is very materialistic :-)
Oh btw, since we're on the diarrheatic topic of eating seafood and its consequences, one of the ARPC mummies was sharing about how the bible demarcates certain foods and "clean" and others as "unclean". So for example, i thought she made a very good point when she pointed out that the reason why Jesus chose to send that famous legion of 2000 demons into pigs (who then drowned themselves) was not becos he liked to waste food... He didn't even consider pig meat (err, pork) to be suitable for human consumption in the first place!
Then of course there's seafood. Forgot the nitty gritty of what she shared but i remembered something about fish having scales which are efficient in filtering out toxins in the ocean => therefore their meat is clean and suitable for consumption. Prawns and lobsters and crayfish, on the other hand, are literally the "cockroaches of the ocean" as they scour the bottomest of the ocean floors to consume any dirt they can find. Yuck.
That's why the folks in my grandma's kampung always told us never to eat the prawn heads 'cos that's where all the toxins are concentrated... uuggh....
Just now saw your post. Hope you are well now. Will pray that God speeds up the recovery and Ruth won't be stressed. And I am very glad that you are joyful! =)
Truly in everything there is God's good purpose. My initial experience of the existence of the living God is actually through a sudden severe diarrhea and vomit and stomache at night. Remember that on that day I tried to vender my idea that God is a conception of perfection to my friend. And at that night, God came to use these little "sufferings" to teach me. I had no one to help me, even no strength to seek help because of the pain and UABO (upper-and-bottom-out :p), and could only pray. God sped up the recovery and made me get well soon. And most importantly He made me know: He is not conceptual, He is real, true, the living One!!!
Thank God! It is indeed a great joy to know more of God and His purpose for us.
Wow, thanks for the encouraging posts! Vanessa: I'll go look up on the OT food laws, and Cassia: I am fortunate my conversion story is a little less traumatic!
Oh, need to clarify. I had already converted at that time. I had already believed in Jesus, which is definitely the work of the Spirit and God's grace because I did not yet truly understand and know Him. That experience given by God is for me to know Him in the living way so that my knowledge of Him wouldn't stay at the mind or head knowledge. That is a starting point that I gradually came to know Him truly.
there is no god
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