The waiting room was quiet.
It gave me time to think about what I was there for as I waited for my name to be called. Recently I had joined my husband and other people and caught what was called the “common” cold. Unfortunately for me it wasn’t as common. The length of its stay made my doctor’s wonder if my chemotherapy medicine was interfering with my recovery or even being the cause.
After several trips to the doctor it was decided to do a pulmonary function test. As I waited my turn in the waiting room I began to wonder what this particular test would reveal. Instantly the plague of ‘what if’s’ began. What if they found something new they didn’t know before? What if there was something more wrong with me health wise?
After a few moments of self-pity and fear I managed to stop my thought process dead in its tracks as I actually started to chuckle. Suddenly I remembered going thru this same process with my epilepsy. It almost made it comical to think about how we get it into our heads that problems are handed out through some kind of rational system. A system where we are only allotted one disease or problem per person and once the quota is filled we are off the hook for the rest of our life. Pretty good wishful thinking or crazy dreaming isn’t it? Not really!
Dreaming we only should have to deal with one major issue in our life then we’re done, is just that, only a dream. This was a lesson I learned years ago and once again the old lesson plan and test I had taken back then popped up before me to review.
If you think about it, no one gets thru life with nothing but sunsets and cool breezes. There are going to be bumps in the road which turn out to be many for some and for others only a few. There is no line to stand in to get our quota for life nor is there a line set up on a punishment basis either. A line designated to inflict bad people with what they deserve and to keep the good people humble.
To withstand life’s bumps we need to build our lives on a more solid foundation than the shifting sand of doubts, fears and worries. We need to be living our lives expecting the best instead of fearing the worst. If my pulmonary function test had turned out to be abnormal then I would have just had to deal with it. Dismissing it as “one too many” to deal with in life would not have made the problem go away. There is no such thing as “one too many” that we can blame our stress on.
We might as well as face it now we are not going to meet our quota for life because there is no allowance to be filled. I’d hate to think there is more out there for me but I can’t allow that to be my focus. Although I may not see it coming I can be ready. Prepared indeed to face life thanks to the strength I find in reading God’s word and trusting in Him to do more for me than just walk me thru life’s problems one crisis at a time.
“One too many” is what we make it out to be. We can allow it to make or break us. The choice is ours.
Read more posts by Karen Gillett, JenningsWire blogger.
