My ears a painin'

So, I got this wicked bad earache/infection going on here. Massive pain in the ear. This last Friday, my wife (oh so loving and wise beyond her years) said I should probably go get it checked out sooner rather than later. I was busy on Friday. I had to get a ton of work done and visits in. Plus I had a sermon to finish and a funeral meditation to get done. I didn't have time to do that. And so I pressed onward figuring that if I just put some of those Wal-Mart earache drops in my ear and pop some Tylenol, I'll be just fine.

Yeah, so not the case. Saturday it started hurting and that ringing sound started playing where you want to make sure that the phone is ringing and not your ear and you're wrong, it is your ear. Yeah. That. Then Sunday it started hurting worse. Monday around 4am I was cursing the day I was born, folded in the fetal position, rocking back and forth trying hard to find my happy place. Okay, so I wasn't really doing that, but I was up with a heating pad watching late night TV in a ton of pain. I almost drove my self to the ER.

As soon as the doctor's office opened up, I called up to make an appointment. I was seen later on in the afternoon and given a bunch of stuff including the wonderful concoction of Tylenol 3.

This got me to thinking--How many times do we ignore our own pain, our own physical pain (just play through the pain), our own emotional pain (spreading the peanut butter over the pie, sealing away the cracks of pain [a line from Mall Cop]) and our own spiritual pain (God can't love me for what I've done).

Honestly, we do it way too often. We ignore the pain hoping it goes away. We ignore it or try to cover it up hoping that we can maybe get over it. Other times it becomes the excuse we use to avoid others, including God.

What pain are you going through right now. Get it checked out. What pain do you have with God? Lay your pain at the feet of Jesus. Give him your worries, anxieties and pains. He's big enough. He can take it.

And what did I learn from all of this? Listen to my wife next time.