Sick...But Getting Better

As I write this, I'm sitting in the waiting room of the hospital while my sister is in surgery. She's been sick for months. At first she thought there was nothing really wrong. Then she thought if she did things like change her diet she could make herself better. And finally she realized there really was something wrong and went to the doctor. A few months after that brings us to today where she's in the operating room so the thing that's been causing problems for months can get fixed.

The thing is, in about an hour if everything goes as expected, she'll be out of surgery and the thing that's been causing her so many problems will be gone. But even when she gets out of surgery, she won't be better instantly. She'll have to stay in the hospital for a few days. Then she'll have to stay home for a few weeks. And then she'll be well enough to go back to work and start living a normal life again.

Last week I had a conversation with a friend about habitual sin and how even though I've been a Christian for a while I still sin all the time. And how it's frustrating. And how much I wish I could just get to Heaven and be perfect already.

Being a Christian is kind of like being my sister right now, really. There's this point when we realize that we're sinners. And sometimes we try to handle that on our own--like if we can just work hard we can make ourselves good enough. Then we realize that won't work. We need help from a professional. Someone whose purpose is to fix us. So we go to see Him and He does. There's this moment when we go from being not ok to being ok. Not because of anything we do. Because of Him.

Right now my sister is lying on an operating table asleep. She literally can't do anything to fix herself. But some time in the next hour or so her surgeon is going to do some surgeon thing. And when he does that, she's going to be fixed. Because of him. Not because of her.

But even though she's fixed, she won't feel better right away. Even though there's this moment when Jesus takes my dirty, sinful heart and gives me a new clean one, I'm not better right away. I'm cured. But I still need recovery. There are setbacks. And times when I try to speed up the recovery process by taking control for myself, which usually make things worse.

And those are the times when it becomes really, really important to remember that I really have been made completely better.

I'm sure over the next few days, the next few weeks even, my sister will have times when she's in pain, when she doesn't feel all that great. And it's during those times that it will be important for her to remember she's better. And the pain that she's feeling isn't a sign that she's sick anymore. It's a sign that she's better.

So as I continue along this road to turning real it's important to remember that the hard and painful times are just that. They're a sign that I'm fixed. A sign that Jesus is helping me get better.

And in a few weeks, if everything goes as expected, my sister will go back to work. And she'll get back to life. And she won't be sick like this anymore. The only remnants of all this sickness will be a few scars.

And one day, I'll go home to my Father. And I'll get a life forever with him. And I won't be sick at all anymore. The only remnants of all my sickness will be a few scars. But they won't be mine.