A solid week of unrelenting nausea and a persistent upper respiratory infection has left me exhausted and fuzzy about what day of the week it is. Every other thought is interrupted by four interchangeable thoughts: I can't breathe. I'm starving. My head is pounding. Nothing sounds good.
Oh, I guess one other thought comes to mind: Why is it so easy to become discouraged with physical discomfort?
I'm not in chronic pain. I don't have a terminal illness. My discomfort is treatable (or at the very least, some of the symptoms will end in 9 months!) And yet, the misery seems to never end.
Until I read:
"My grace is sufficent for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
...I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Philippians 4: 11-13
The secret to being content in whatever circumstance: Do everything through the strength of Christ.
Whatever circumstance. Whatever length. However painful. However trivial. Praise the Lord for our weakness and his power!