3 benefits of sickness

I've been battling what seemed like a common cold for over a month. Every few days I'd get better, then I'd try and get back to normal and regress. Then I'd take a couple of days resting or off, and go through the cycle again. I tried vitamins (lots of vitamin C), anti-oxidants, OJ, Airborne, Cranberry juice, green tea and chicken soup. I finished off a bottle of Nyquil, almost a bottle of Dayquil, TheraFlu, almost a bottle of Advil, a bag of cough drops, some Sudafed, some Benadryl, a little bit of nasal spray, and now I'm on some antibiotics as my cold turned into bronchitis.

When it turned into bronchitis, it knocked me out hard for over a week and I am now just getting back to the routine. In our 11 years of marriage, Sandy can't remember a time I have been so sick for so long. Although this has not been a long term illness and not debilitating by any means, it has been quite a doozy for me. But through it, I've managed to benefit in a few ways:

1. I have a new appreciation for the difference between God and man. You always know it in your head, but I appreciated anew how fragile my human body really is. In contrast, God never gets sick. He never feels bad. He never is less than 100% perfect. He will never change and never physically decays like my outer man which seems to be decaying extra fast lately.

2. As I lay around helpless, Sandy took care of our kids and me. I tried to help, but physically couldn't. I contributed nothing to her. If anything, I was a drain as I created more work for her. She truly loved me unconditionally as I did nothing positive for her. I realized that my spiritual state before God was the same thing. I contribute nothing to God. I can do nothing honorable or worthy or acceptable to Him. The difference is that Sandy had hope that I would get better and start to get back to my old self. God knows that there is no hope for me to ever do anything good for Him. And yet He gave His only Son for me by His grace. I have been humbled physically and spiritually this past few weeks.

3. Most of the time, I was coughing. Lots and lots of coughing. It gave me a great ab workout. Hardly worth it, I know.