Surviving Covid

I tested positive for covid just after my previous blog entry. Subsequently,after 3 weeks of intense suffering, me and my family have returned to health. We survived. Today I have enough strength and resolve to write about my experience of surviving covid, from a Christian perspective. It was a difficult path.  My symptoms included

• • • extreme weakness and tiredness.
    • nausea, and no desire to eat.
    • some shortness of breath and coughing
    • occasional low fever
    • diarrhea

My intention is not to replay the suffering or the symptoms. I think of this event  as an  opportunity  to reflect on the goodness of God, and to recognize that God is not the author of my suffering. It was merely something that He allowed. Consider what happens when you turn on a light: objects in the light will invariably cast a shadow. For me or anyone to exist in God’s universe, these are natural laws associated with ‘being’. We have to expect there will be shadows. The world does this, not God. Certainly God can intervene in natural laws, but He does not have to do so. Many times, we should recognize that experiencing God’s light provides a lesson. We can recognize the lesson at times, but not always.

Job survives

In the book of Job, most of us are familiar with the suffering Job went through. It was far worse than anything I have experienced. I am certain that Job survived without complaining to God.  Job 1:1  Job … was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. Job is a book that runs for 42 chapters. It is a dialogue of several believers and God, as suffering is discussed. In Job 42:2,3, Job summarizes his findings:  ² “I know that you can do all things;  no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ³ You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

I love the truth that Job describes here. We do not need to question God. In effect, we are like dumb idiots in comparison to what God knows. Like Job, I only need to resolve to follow Him, and trust that He knows what he is doing.

From a worldly perspective, this understanding sounds naive and way too compliant. But that is OK. I am not listening to the world’s perspective.The reality is, my understanding of God allows me to realize God is good, and I do not have to know everything.

Surviving as a Christian