We are enjoying a wonderful environment in BC Canada. The weather has been beautiful, but more importantly, we are surrounded by encouragement, acceptance, counsel, love…
It seems easy to flourish… renew… even revisit old difficulties for resolution, redemption.
In a world that can seem out of control, it´s easy for me to forget that I can largely control my surroundings. I choose friends, where to buy groceries, what music I pour into my mind, when to open my eyes, and when to close them. I can start, quit, come, and go.
My conundrum, as always, is in the discernment of how to apply what I know to be true. Paul would seem to contradict Jesus when he asks ¨what fellowship can light have with darkness?¨(II Cor 6:14), instructing the nascent church to thin its ranks of evil and avoid association with ¨unbelievers¨ (I Cor 5:9,10). Jesus, on the other hand, tells us to be lights in the [dark] world, carrying our lamp for all to see (Mt 5:14). In all realities, both light and darkness are unavoidable, and both Paul and Jesus are speaking into dominion of our environment, Paul recognizing the influence that our environment has over us, while Jesus speaks of the influence we have over our environment: the proverbial, paradoxical coin.
Our physical world reflects the same truth, of course. At the macro level, we are warned that our individual emissions and pollutants influence our environment, which will accumulate, raise the global temperature a few degrees, and destroy us all. Or conversely, we can strive to reverse, repair, and restore balance as stewards of our environment through conscience daily decisions. (I´ve been doing a poor job here lately.)
At the micro level, a small skin blemish can mushroom overnight into a large, inflamed, and quickly growing bacterial infection. Left untreated, it can be dangerous, go septic, and cause loss of limb… or life. Mine started 3 days before we left Panama… perhaps a result of several rainy days when there was outside work that had to be finished… and overnight my entire shoulder was swollen, red, and starting to ooze.
Dr. Google said ¨go to the doctor and get antibiotics asap!¨, but some combination of stubbornness, squeamishness for needles, and curiosity held me back. The only option: hot water.
I prepared my ¨hot compress¨ by boiling my washcloth in tap water. After it had cooled to where I could comfortably pick it up, I folded it, and with my right hand I placed it on my left shoulder. OOOOWWWWWWWW!
I unfolded it, thinking I had made some sort of temperature miscalculation, and placed a clean part of the washcloth on my right shoulder with my left hand. Nothing. Just warm. Weighing the options, I realized how much I hate needles and going to the doctor, and I resigned myself to test the hypothesis. Could such a small change in the ¨environment¨ of my shoulder cause the good to thrive and the bad to die off?
For 2 days, I consistently altered the environment in the sub-cutaneous layers of my shoulder with clean, hot compresses. Prayer and water. Each time was easier and easier, and gradually the dying skin sloughed off, and the pink, new skin healed astoundingly fast.
What´s the point? Like an infection, bad things make their way into our lives. And while antibiotics certainly have their place, more and more evidence is warning about the dangers of misuse. In the spiritual parallel we can seek out spiritual doctors, invest money, attack the problem head-on, guns-a-blazin´, get healed… I don´t discourage that; but nor will I seek out an exorcist when I become aware that greed, pride, or lust is fighting for a foothold in my life.
Perhaps I should consider simply changing my environment. Maybe not even something extreme… but certainly something intentional and persistent… something that will inhibit the bad and encourage the good in me to thrive again. Then, healthy, I can go back into the rain to continue work.
May you find the blessed environment which you seek.
