White Man Can't Jump

This week at the grocery store I couldn’t quite see the contents on the sign for aisle six, so I jumped up over aisle five for a better look and found what I needed: pasta. I immediately thought: “I wouldn’t have done that a week ago. Even then, my vertical was only a few inches, but when I get a sinus or chest infection, I trudge through life as if going through the motions. I don’t do anything extra—I don’t want to do anything at all, least of all jump up in the air. For some reason, God puts me through the ringer when I am under the weather.

Psalm 119:71 tells us, “It was good for me to be afflicted.” I believe the past tense is indicated here for a reason. When King David was right in the middle of suffering, when I am a sick zombie, when any of us are in the middle of a trial, it is difficult to recognize any goodness. We want it to be over, we pray for it to be over, we sometimes get angry at God.

Here, it seems as if David is looking back at a trial, contemplating the outcome, the consequences, and what he learned, and he says, “It was good for me to be afflicted.” Can we not often do the same thing, though our attention spans are short, and we are quick to move back into the routine of life—speeding by the lessons of God’s sweet providence.
I realized this last month, I somehow feel more compassionate and loving toward others when I am sick. Perhaps it is because God is stripping away my activity, my works, my service which pops the bubble of my pride and shows me that I am no better than anyone else.

Father, show me how good it is that you afflict me. And not only after the fact, but may it be that in the midst of suffering I can sense your hand, your love, your protection, your good purposes, and say, “It is good for me to be afflicted.