For This Reason 51

[HKHaugan]

Recently I stopped at our local drug store to get a flu shot. Apparently the older you are the more vulnerable you are to flu viruses due to the longer it takes to heal and the decrease of strength in the immune system. Now that is what I've been told by the experts so I follow their advice. Anyway it is a yearly discipline that I believe is true. I trust the experts and therefore faithfully submit to the needle. Bear with me on what may seem a rather mundane annual event.

But now suppose I was suspicious of the reason for the shot, that perhaps the advice is based more on profit than need. This makes me less likely to believe the advice which in turn leads me not take the shot. Maybe what I need to do is some research, look for alternatives, try another approach and probably end up doing nothing hoping in the process I don't get the flu.

Let's take a second route. I believe in the shot but don't trust the one who gives it. After all there might be a problem in the batch or the person giving it looks too young or appears not to be able to do it right. So it's not my belief in the shot but the trust in the person giving it.

Now consider a third way. I believe in the shot and trust the person giving it but while there may be little danger in getting the shot the effects may not be all that favorable and besides, I've heard where some people get the flu anyway. I may get into 'what if this or that happens?' I don't have faith because of what might happen and I don't want to be an exceptional case. Basically my spirit is yielding to the spirit of fear. Therefore I don't get the shot.

But when belief, trust and faith work in balance we get the shot.

Now obviously this isn't about flu shots. It's about taking any issue we are presented with, relational, personal, spiritual, whatever, and approaching it in a balanced use of each image ability as did Jesus. It's whenever we are faced with choices and decisions in every next moment. Do I make them subject to the Lord in the Spirit because my Father's will has given me the privilege of being His image, experiencing His presence and fulfilling the life He has blessed me with? Our mind, heart and spirit are filled with possibilities as we face each next moment and they are the gifts given us to be His witnesses. Not all possibilities may seem like gifts but if treated as such, become the ground for a response to honor Him regardless of what we may think, feel or sense at the moment of their impact.

Consider our decisions as though they were flu shots. What barriers arise in our belief, what blocks to our trusting the Lord, what fears cause us to hesitate our acting in faith? The three parts of our God-image discipled in the Word can respond but with three caveats before it. The mind must be yielded to God's Word. The heart follows with trust in the Holy Spirit to conform us to Jesus. After this our spirit steps out in faith standing on what our mind believes and who our heart trusts. The summary verse that covers this progression is John 21:31: First, for the mind's belief, “These are written (John's Gospel record)that you may believe...” and second, for the heart's trust, “that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God...” and third, for the spirit's faith, “that by believing you may have life in His name.”

So I have to ask myself the question, “Which one gives me the most trouble---believing, trusting or faith?” Then maybe I might have another problem and that is “I can take care of this all by myself.” It's right here that things can go south as they say. When I think I am in control is when the alarm bells should go off so that I reach out to brothers and/or sisters in the Body for prayer and counsel. This is when we spiritually process the reality of where we are and what we really need. Remember the Lord gave us His concept of the Body of believers to practice being spiritually geared and relationally able. As Paul reminds us, we are members one of another. So if I will embrace that verse, John 21:31, and pray to let the Spirit guide its presence in my mind, trust the Lord in my heart and move me in faith to live it, then no matter where I am or with whom I am in contact, I am filled with everything necessary to meet the needs of every next moment.

Flu shots are part of my regimen---mentally, attitudinally and spiritually.