If there is one physical ailment I have trouble dealing with it is a headache. Seriously! I do not do well AT ALL with them. Joel often comments that headaches "are my weakness" and they are. I pretty much just don't function well when I have ANY level of a headache. I would rather have a stomach bug and be puking than a headache - I know, totally wrong but just the way it is!
Now, I am the first to admit that probably 90% of my headache phobia is a mental issue. For those who don't know, my older sister Sherri suffered from MAJOR migraine headaches - so bad that she would pass out from them. My parents had many tests done and no source could really be identified. Sherri passed away as a result of suffocating after passing out due to one of these headaches - she fell between a door and furniture. So, yes there is an element of fear and bad memories associated with headaches for me. Anyway, this whole week Joel has been out of town (he comes home TODAY!) at a conference. Like many wives, I don't sleep great when he is gone...just don't. Last night, I decided to try to go to bed at 10:00 and catch up on my lack of sleep. Ugh! One thing after another kept me awake. First it was the dog wanting out, then it was the heat in the house (AC is out, but getting fixed today!), then it was the wind causing house to creak...FINALLY I was able to rest and sleep. UNTIL...I woke up at 2:00a.m with a MAJOR headache! Not the kind that is just mildly annoying but the kind that was so bad I couldn't focus!!! I got up, took Aleve and tried to lay back down - it was POUNDING!!! It was incredibly intense - in fact, I can't ever remember crying because a headache hurt so bad - but cry I did! After about 45min of this raging headache, I had decided that if it didn't start getting better in the next 30 min I was driving myself to the ER! (I know, hmmm driving with headache so bad you can't focus not smart!).
This morning as I thought about all that happened last night two things stuck out to me. First, I DO want to make EVERY moment of my life count for Christ...the times with my kids at home, the time I am subbing with 44 pre-k students, the times I am at a ball game, or at church, or even in Wal-Mart! Every moment!!! Second - how often do we ask God for something, He grants it to us, and we just go on never bothering to say THANK YOU! You see, I tell God thanks for the BIG things but too often I forget to say thank you for the LITTLE things - you know, like telling Him thank you for relieving a headache in the middle of the night!
PS - just a side note to those who may be concerned: I do not get headaches on a regular basis, in fact they are very rare and definitely do not get the intense ones too often!
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A Deep, Settled Peace
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives... John 14:27
In his devotional book By the Still Waters, Vance Havner tells of attending a small service in a little church on a cold February night. The people were local farming folk, and a time was given for sharing testimonies. The last to speak was a humble woman plainly dressed who rose and simply said: "I praise the Lord for a deep, settled peace. The world did not give it to me, and the world can't take it away."
"That testimony lingers with me," wrote Havner. "I think of scholars and sages ransacking libraries and perusing heavy philosophies, searching for the secret of peace, while the plain, farm-woman had been enjoying it through the years."
There's much we don't comprehend. The plans that God has foreordained for us are beyond our understanding, but we know that when we are with Him, there will be peace and rest and joy such as we have never imagined.
The world didn't give it, and the world cannot take it away.
"There are thousands of earth's rich and renowned who would give it all for the childish confidence of the soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose." Vance Havner
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