It happened. I got sick. Almost two months down, thinking my immune system is awesome and I can handle anything in Malawi, reality hit my square in the face. Mother's Day was Monday and CURE hosted a golf tournament on a game reserve/lodge. The course is decent, but the cool thing about the place was the game roaming around. Sabel, zebras, kudus, giraffes around the 500+ acres. I managed to spot a zebra, kudu and sable. No luck with the giraffes. The kudu are massive and a pack stared me down for a solid 3 minutes before I turned and walked away. I'm not messing with animals bigger and faster than me. I don't care about a photograph that much.
During the tournament, I started to feel sick. Stomach felt really weird and I started having hot flashes. For the next 5 hours, I sat in pain on a couch wanting the tournament to end badly. I couldn't wait to get home. When I finally did get home, I went straight to bed with a pounding headache, backache and an empty stomach that felt like it was going to explode. I had trouble staying asleep with the throbbing headache to managed to fall asleep several hours. The next morning, my alarm went off and I turned it off completely. My stomach felt the same and my head was still throbbing. I wanted to cry. Seriously. I hate headaches, but accompanied with stomach pain, its torture. I slept most the day.
Remember the episode of Saved By The Bell when Zack skipped the first day of class and stayed home? Mr. Belding sends the gang to convince him to come to school but they just end up rehashing the summer and Zack remained at home. Well, that's what it felt like, a few people dropped by sporadically to check on me. I woke up several times and there was someone knocking on my bedroom door. It showed me what great friends that I've already made here, it's amazing.
Well, the sickness started to fade later that night and by the next morning, I was back to 100%. But I now know that getting sick here is no joke. I dont know what caused the sickness but I tested negative for malaria. It could have been anything - water, food, patients, village kids. Who knows?
Well, I leave you with a few pics of our 10th anniversary baseball game. Played with a tennis ball. I organized and pitched for both teams. I had several strike-outs pitching underhand. It was tons of fun.
Reading "Radical" by David Platt and it couldnt be better timing. Most of the questions that have been on my mind for a while are present in the book. I have constantly asked myself if I would give up everything for Christ. After all, in the book of Mark, Jesus asks a wealthy guy to give up everything and follow him. Of course, the guy chooses his things and I read that and think the man is crazy. But I choose my things over Jesus - A LOT. Probably more than I realize, I like to think the sacrifices I do make are sufficient. And Jesus only asks certain people to give up things - not everyone, right? But is this mindset biblical?
Why is such a hard subject for churches and groups to tackle. Because, it's the ultimate test - God or the world. I definitely side on the opinion that lots of things/money is usually a bad thing. But I know this isn't necessarily true either. I know people use money and financial stability to support groups, charities and individuals worldwide. We are blessed with nice things, to use moderately and without dominance or possession over us. I need to get past the point of attachment. Past the point of money and things being HIGHLY influential in my life.
Doesn't it boil down to trust. Do I truly believe God will provide? Do I truly believe he will take care of me if I take a leap of faith? Do I choose his provision over my bank account?
I don't know why these questions continue to pop up. I don't know the answers or I think I do but with some variance depending on the mood. I don't want to live a lukewarm Christian life. I want to trust God over everything else.
