Have you ever wanted to have something that is part of your life or a time of your life to disappear? Or, have you felt like part of your life did not account for much? The past 3 weeks of my life have been pretty much like the last question. I managed to catch a nasty bug, a real nasty bug. And consequently, the last 3 weeks have not been very productive - did not account for much. This happened just at a time when I really did need to be productive. Every symptom that goes with any one of the various forms that a cold can take, seemed to be included in this variety that has been making me sick. I wanted the first question above to happen for me--that is, I want the effects of the nasty bug to disappear from my life. In fact, it would be ok if they would just disappear for everyone!
I used to congratulate myself in that I have escaped being very sick for the last 3, maybe more, years except one time back at the very early beginnings of Covid. And that was before testing was becoming the thing to do, so who knows--maybe it was covid, maybe not. Anyway, I was very happy staying well. And now I have had 3 weeks of being sick and I am very ready for health again--with no coughing, no nose dripping, no sleep interrupted by coughing, no breathing troubles, no draining energy-----mostly no coughing!!! And I would be very happy to have energy to do a few things. I suppose one could say that my time of staying healthy was running out.
In this world of sin, generally everyone will be caught by some sickness bug sometime. It doesn't matter how careful one is, those bugs are invisible and attack when you least suspect. We all are exceedingly aware of this thanks to what we have all experienced with covid.
Yes, my healthy time was perhaps running out!
I decided that maybe my health had been on probation.
Going to google I learned--
Probation, (noun)--The act of proving; proof.
1. Trial; examination; any proceeding designed to ascertain truth; 2. Moral trial; the state of man in the present life, in which he has the opportunity of proving his character and being qualified for a happier state. Probation will end with the present life. (http://webstersdictionary1828.com)
In our society, a time of probation is most commonly understood as a time to be on good behavior, to prove self, to demonstrate character especially after the commission of some wrong. There is always a test, or criteria for behavior, some way to determine a pass or fail. A pass can lead to full or greater privileges; a fail to further restrictions or loss of privilege. Whether we pass or fail in the probationary period of our lifetimes is determined by the choices we make and no one else.
My time of enjoying reasonably good health with no cold or flu ended abruptly in March. Good health ran out of time. In a way, it had sort of been on probation.
Most of us in church have long heard that we are “living during the time of probation”. What does probation mean? There are 2 different definitions. The traditional Legal Model is a period of time allotted by God at the end of which He will examine our life record and determine whether to save us or not. And the Biblical Healing Model is the opportunity given by God for us to decide for or against having a relationship with Him. If we allow Him to heal us from our sins, then we are safe to save. We make the decision, not Him.
God has given us a period during which we must choose. We should not take our "health" for granted. Eventually time will run out and we will be ready for salvation or ready to be very sick—this is a time of probation. God leaves it up to us to make the decision to live with Him in health and to determine to be a candidate for heaven or to choose the opposite. I do not ever want to take my spiritual health for granted. I want to pass through probation to a happy end of the trials of earth. I want family and friends to pass probation with me!
As I write this, time has run out on the month of March--I guess it's probation is over. With the end of March, we always check to see if it goes out like a lion or lamb. I suppose that this year we think that our snow on Thursday means it ended as a lion, though in my opinion it was pretty much a lamb-lion day, not even a cub-lion day. But the lamb-lion day is ok--God in the Bible is represented by both--a lamb and a lion. And we love Jesus the sacrificial lamb and Jesus the Lion, a powerful Savior Lion. After the end of March, comes the first day of April. There are verses in the Bible that warn against this day so I try to never acknowledge it. A day for fools is also a day for the devil to come about and do his evil. Proverbs 26:4-5 – Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. Or--Stay away from a foolish man, for you will not find knowledge on his lips. The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception. Growing up, I thought it was just a time/day for joking and for fun. Now I look at it from a more Biblical point of view.
March has definitely given me some time for serious thinking!!
Perhaps it is time for all of us to do some serious thinking.
The good news--I think that I am not coughing as much!!
