That's the only word to describe how I felt when, six months after finally clearing my chronic case of Lyme disease, I found a tick embedded in my left leg. I carefully extracted the blood-sucking bug but it was too late. His disease spreading deed was already done. Within days sickness and symptoms returned and my health deteriorated before my very eyes.
For the first two weeks post tick bite I attempted to deny the obvious decline and embraced the mantra "fake it till you make it." I did my best to live a lie of health while, in reality, I was becoming sicker each day.
But by week three the pain was so intense I had to give up the act. The muscle spasms, head aches, itching and back pain had returned with such vengeance that they couldn't be ignored. I had to get real with my doctor and voice my concerns.
When I heard the word "re-infected" I held back tears with a lump in my throat. It was one thing to know in my own gut that I was sick but having it confirmed was a different story. The doctor's diagnosis made it a reality.
Jesus made it clear that dealing in truth isn't just a good idea. Truth isn't a suggestion. Truth is a demand. Truth is an order for how I am to live my life. To be freed from the sadness and sorrow of sickness I have to be truthful about my condition. I cannot live a lie of health and be well in my soul. I cannot fake physical healing and experience spiritual recovery. I have to be honest about my re-infection to be free and whole in Christ.
The truth is that I have been re-infected with Lyme.
The truth is that I have encountered a set back, but not the end of my story.
The truth is I have been delayed, not given a death sentence.
The truth is I am still traveling on the long and winding road to physical recovery.
And, the most important truth is, I am still on the glorious road to spiritual recovery.
Speaking the truth of Lyme in my life has set me free to experience the spiritual growth God has planned on this part of my journey. By denying the presence of the disease I was denying God's purpose for it. When I was busy pretending I wasn't sick I missed the peace and joy of living in honesty and truth.
Re-infection is not an accident. I know that to be true because God doesn't make mistakes. He always has a plan and a purpose. Not once has He ever allowed sickness to strike my body without using it to sanctify my ailing soul. Every pain has had a greater purpose. Every symptom has been employed to strengthen my need for Jesus and increase my dependence on the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.
The truth is that I was meant to be re-infected with Lyme because it is part of God's perfect plan to purify my soul and unify my heart with my His Son, my Savior, Jesus Christ.
"Good question," is my first response.
Until I became sick and began searching for answers to my own decade long health saga I knew nothing about homeopathy. Explaining this ancient medicine was like speaking a foreign language. Actually, it is speaking a different language – the Greek language.
If you just blinked and thought to yourself, "Come again?" then welcome to my world.
Truth be told, I don't understand homeopathy. The principle of "like cures like" baffles me. Administering natural substances that cause disease as a method to cure disease is downright perplexing. In my feeble mind I simply cannot logically comprehend how homeopathy works and yet I believe wholeheartedly that this form of medicine is the one true way to be healed from chronic, incurable disease.
The reason I believe so completely in homeopathy is because I believe that Jesus Christ is the one true way to eternal healing of the soul.
Long before I ever became sick, I trusted and believed in "like curing like" when I surrendered my life at the foot of the cross. The moment I trusted in Christ I placed my belief in a method of healing that I do not understand. The Son of God dying on the cross to save me baffled me. The love of my Savior has always been beyond my ability to comprehend.
God sent His one and only Son to become a man and die as a man. Jesus, the perfect, spotless Lamb, bleed as a sinner to save sinners. He conquered the grave and rose to new life to rescue the hell bound and heal the heart for eternity.
Jesus Christ is homeopathy for the soul.
If you just blinked and thought to yourself, "Come again?" then welcome to God's world.
Jesus knew that even His followers would be baffled by God's plan of salvation that's why He warned them in advance that the way to healing would be beyond their understanding. Before He went to the cross He urged them to place their faith in Him and believe that He alone is the cure for eternal sickness and disease.
At the foot of Christ's cross the baffling principles of homeopathy finally make perfect sense.
Like truly does cure like. I don't need to understand it by logic because I know it by faith in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.