Week Five: The Cold that Refuses to Die

I’m not sure how long I’ve had this cold. I feel like it’s been an eternity. It’s one of those that just when you think you’re getting better, it hits you ten times harder.

What I don’t like about colds is there’s like no way to function normally. If you don’t take medicine, you feel horrible. If you take medicine, you feel groggy and weird. What’s a girl to do?

It’s frustrating when you want to be able to do something 100% and all you’re capable of is the bare minimum. You can’t just stay home in bed when your job is serving God. You have to get up, try to be as happy as possible, and be there because people are depending on you. It’s hard to do if you focus on your own weakness and imperfections, but if you focus on the example of Christ, it’s a little easier.

Like Paul says in Philippians 3:8-14, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

I like how Paul says that it is an upward call. It’s a call to be more than what you are, to be better than what you’ve been. We all know that walking uphill is harder than walking downhill. It’s a struggle, and sometimes, like here in Quito because of the altitude, you think you might pass out before you get to the top. But when you are walking with a friend it’s easier, isn’t it? You see them and they don’t even look tired, and it motivates you to go a little further, if only to not look like a fatty. We have to remember that it is an upward call, but we are not alone. We are walking with Jesus, and He can be our motivation to keep going a little further.