8 Jul 2013

When Jesus is the head of our lives

The recent haze in Singapore finally took its toll on me and I ended falling sick right when the skies were clearing up. So now, it's blue skies and I'm feeling worse than when the skies were grey.

I think I was already falling sick prior to that but had been gulping my Vitamin C in  a bid to prevent it. On the Sunday before the terribly hazy week in June, I had been tasked to provide a short testimony of my experience with the Life in the Spirit Seminar during 11am Mass at church. Actually, let me just say that BOTH my husband and myself were tasked to do it but he ended up giving all sorts of excuses and being a tai-chi master about it (delegating it to me).

A few days before that Sunday, I started to develop a slight cough. I managed to prevent it from escalating by 'drowning' myself with copius amounts of plain water and running to the loo umpteen times (this apart from my Vitamin C 'overdosing'). This was sort of my 'body cleansing' routine to rid myself of 'sickness'. Well, thank God I managed to not fall sick and I did manage to give my testimony.

Then the haze hit. Bad. At first I had no particular reactions but by the end of the week, I started to find difficulty breathing. I fell really sick a few days later and had to miss a mini retreat to prepare facilitators for our LISS 2013. But I was really happy how things worked out. First time feeling happy being sick. How sick is that?

Mike saw how sick I was and kept asking me how I was going to attend the mini retreat. I just kept quiet and tried my best to rest. I had no answer for him. I told the Lord, if He really wanted me to attend, then He had to make me recover in double quick time. Well, I guess not.

I'm not the sort to forget to set my alarm for the next day. In my sick stupor, I knew I hadn't set my alarm for Saturday morning's retreat and yet I couldn't even make myself do it. In my feverish state, I just slept. I woke up at 7am the next morning and tapped Mike lightly. He jumped up, got changed and left for church. Yes, without me and without my urging. You have no idea how proud I was of him.

I shall not go into further details lest I embarrass him but the Lord works in mysterious ways. For the longest time, I have felt my husband hiding behind me when it comes to doing the Lord's work. In the past 2 weeks alone, he has gone on to attend no less than FOUR Charismatic group functions, 3 of them without me. This from a man who protests too much. Can the Lord work miracles? Absolutely.

Meanwhile, the protesting husband is still in denial. I have been exceptionally quiet to his protests. My only affirmation for him is that when the Lord calls you to do His work, He doesn't make a mistake about it. If you think you can't do it, then just humbly tell Him your fears and let God know that you need His help. Big time! LOL! I also told him I'd help him (in the background) as much as I can and that he had nothing to fear. It's taken far too long for my husband to surface from the woodwork. It's time for the wife to take a backseat.

Here's something surprising. He helped out in a SACCRE event yesterday and did at first complain a tad cos it was right smack in the middle of a Sunday afternoon. I'd given it a miss because I hadn't slept the night before and I was still having my relently relentless cough attacks. He came home literally singing praises and telling me that he would attend the next one. He said someone had also felt a prompting to pray specifically over him and a group did pray over him. I shall explain no further. Do you understand the weight of what he'd said to me?

I'm still sick. Better in the day now but the crazy, hacking cough comes on worst in the middle of the night. I have not slept soundly in 2 weeks. But if being sick means my husband is in the process of being empowered by the Lord, then so be it. Praise be Jesus!