**beware, kinda serious blog entry**
I’ve never been so deep in the pit as I was yesterday. Not that I can remember, anyway. I may have been that low sometime as a child, but fortunately, I have matured as a Christ-follower since that time.
I’ve been running a fairly high temp off and on since Friday afternoon. 101, 102, somewhere around there. I was a little bit miserable, but dealing with it. On Monday night, I finally went to Urgent Care over at Kaiser. The guy diagnosed me with Strep Throat (thanks, Shantelle!) and gave me some antibiotics for the strep, and a pretty high dose of Ibuprofen to take the fever down. As soon as I got the medicine from the Pharmacy, I took it at the water fountain right there…I was a little relieved to have medicine, but not to find out that it usually takes a week to get over this stuff–I mean, Easter is Sunday!!! Not to mention the premiere of the musical we are doing for Lillenas at Musicalifornia that is the following Tuesday…anywho…
I had a little bit of a rough night on Monday night, waking up sweaty and stuff, all the time…then all day Tuesday my fever was a constant. 103, 104. I was taking the medicine and my fever was going UP!!! Argh! By the time 3PM came around, and I was NOT getting any better, we decided to cancel choir practice, although we really need it (we’ll tack a little extra time onto Saturday’s rehearsal). My fever was JUST not getting any better and my head was pounding. I asked people to pray, I asked for people to come pray at our house (even though I told them not to come inside–Strep is highly contagious).
During the afternoon we tried EVERYTHING to get my fever down. I took more Ibuprofen, I took a luke-warm shower (I hate baths…yuck!). We did everything you could think of, and nothing worked. We called the Dr again. They said someone might call back in 2 hours, if they didn’t we should call the after hours Urgent Care…so wait until 5PM. We called, they said someone will call me back after 6PM. Yikes! My head was pounding, I could feel my heart beating all over my body, my neck was stiff and sore from the fever. I was truly in the worst anguish.
It was somewhere around 5PM that I realized I had not really been faithful to spending time in God’s Word that past couple of days, maybe because I was sick, or maybe not. I don’t know. I knew that this was a problem, so I turned to the Psalms (where I am reading off and on). I have never been able to identify with these scriptures so much as I did on that day. I read Psalms 54 and 55, underlining madly, and crying through most of it. (btw-if you don’t know, I am NOT a crying person. I am usually much more robotic with my emotions, just ask my wife–HA!).
Here are the scriptures that ministered to me like never before. I understand that David was talking about his mortal enemies, but for me, at that point, my enemy was my fever…I heard God speaking to me through these words…and I was truly crying out to Him–like never before…
——-
Psalm 54 (excerpts)
1 Save me, O God, by your name;
2 Hear my prayer, O God;
listen to the words of my mouth.
4 Surely God is my help;
the Lord is the one who sustains me.
6b I will praise your name, O LORD ,
for it is good.
7 For he has delivered me from all my troubles,
and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.
Psalm 55 (excerpts)
1 Listen to my prayer, O God,
do not ignore my plea;
2 hear me and answer me.
My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught
4 My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death assail me.
5 Fear and trembling have beset me;
horror has overwhelmed me.
6 I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest-
7 I would flee far away
and stay in the desert;
8 I would hurry to my place of shelter,
far from the tempest and storm.”
16 But I call to God,
and the LORD saves me.
17 Evening, morning and noon
I cry out in distress,
and he hears my voice.
22 Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
23b But as for me, I trust in you.
——–
It was that last line that really got me. I had to trust in the Lord. So I went to lie down on my bed, and try to rest. Christy had left to take the kids somewhere else. After a little bit of lying in bed feeling horrible still, I got up and went out to the living room, where I saw through the front window a group of people praying for me. I was so blessed. After they left, I went to the front window, opened it, and felt the cool breezes of the evening on my face and body. It was nice. I drank some Orange Juice. Christy came home and the Dr. called back. I got an appointment for 8PM…when I got to Kaiser, they asked me why I was there, I said because my fever won’t go down. They took my temp and it was 98.6….98.6!!!!! That is a totally normal temp!! Now, my temp had fluxuated, but since Friday, had NEVER gone down to normal. It was almost embarrassing to have gone to the Dr.’s office complaining of too high a temp and then not even having one. I was llke, “I swear it was really high like 2 hours ago!”.
Nevertheless, I firmly believe in the power of God through prayer. I could say that it was anything that finally brought my fever down, but I really believe that it was all of you that were praying for me that was the key.
The Dr. also said that the two main symptoms of Strep Throat are a sore throat and fever, so I will continue to have fevers until it’s gone. But I had a pretty good nights sleep last night, and I am so thankful to our heavenly Father who answers prayer. Thank you LORD!!!
…and this is perhaps the longest blog entry ever!
