Nobody wants to read a deadbeat blog & when you’re sick, it’s sure hard not to be a downer.   But so many chronically ‘sick’ people (my bedfast quadriplegic Papa inclusive) face down the sick bullet each day & keep on keeping on – with Joy even!

I’m still in the ‘must-learn-to-do-better’ stage (with constant neck/nerve pain in Africa i’d hear the Dar team whispering as they tiptoed by my door, “how is Madam’s mood today?”  hmmn, had to send that Heavenly Memo for an inner-office Grace Dispenser, starting 1st with my office!!)

Bad backs, broken ankles (i have this thing about stairs, i fall down them & even once fell UP the stairs, on the 1st day of a new job, no less.. material for a hilarious post on how to manage 6 weeks on crutches getting around D.C. & a new job!), sore knees (after knee surgery in the Middle East when i complained about the Always Swollen Knee That Would Not Heal, Dr. Finsterbush said, “Virginia, if you would just stay off it, it WILL heal!”)… & disc troubles in the neck:  all that pain is terrible (indeed) but bearable.

Nausea, however, knocks me flat…

In my younger days overseas, i could manage all-nite-nausea ordeals & even Do Work the next day… in Africa that was a Bit Harder, as had to go for shots & an IV to Stop The Problem at the clinic (they knew me well there..) but sometimes while traveling i had to Keep On Going (literally, & let’s not discuss Montezuma’s Revenge…augh! : )

But now, i’m like a little baby: Totally Wiped Out.

Why is this being sick stuff relevant on a Sunday in Lent?

In the throes of emptying nausea, my prayers get Really Short:

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.”                 (Abbreviated version: oh Jesus, have MERCY MERCY on me!)

Given the high frequency repetitions of this prayer (especially during bad nausea cramps) sometimes Mercy is granted in a physical way (believe me, i know how bad Things Can Get!)… but there’s also that important Heavenly Account where i hope these Mercy prayers are Adding Up.

‘Cause guess what, being sick reminds me to ask for Mercy… but i also think it’s a Good Idea to ask for Mercy all the time (& grace & love & peace & wisdom &…)  But Mercy (like Meekness) is Rather Important.   I am too sick to tell you why (my head is also a bit fuzzy today) … but here’s a quote from one of my favorite spiritual writers:

“Lent is a sea of God’s mercy, warm & quiet and inviting for us to swim in… but we say to ourselves, ‘if I enter into that sea of mercy & I am healed, I will be sort of bound to practice that which Christ preaches, His law of love…It will mean that if I seek mercy, I will have to dish out mercy; I have to be merciful to others.’  …Lent is here to remind us that the mercy of God is ours, provided we embrace that which He has given us to embrace – His law of love – provided we realize that it’s going to hurt and hurt plenty, but the very hurting will be healing.  That is the strangeness and paradox of God:  that while you hurt, you heal.”            Catherine de Hueck Doherty  (Grace in Every Season)

grace, peace & Seas of Mercy

Virginia : ( –  : )