Last week I coughed a lot, had a non-stop headache, my muscles ached, and my chest hurt as I battled the COVID virus. Today I feel physically fine and healthy, but flat, depressed, and wrung out. When I feel this way, I also feel unmotivated to do much of anything. When this happens in me occasionally I turn it into a contest, a battle between my feelings and my will. I like to win and I don’t like the idea of losing to my wimpy, selfish flesh., although I do pretty often.

There are certain activities that I have discovered over the years that are very therapeutic for me at times like this. The problem is that I am not very motivated to do them when I am in this state of mind, so I have to just do them. One of them is to read, meditate on, memorize, and pray a large volume of the Psalms. There are 150 chapters in Psalms, and today I am going to read 100 chapters reflectively, prayerfully, along with some writing on observed insights. The chapters in Psalms are generally short, except for chapter 119, so the exercise usually takes about an hour, but it is very effective in jazzing up my passion and fire.

It seems like a lot, but it isn’t, and It seems to go rather quickly for me. Try it yourself and see what happens, and if the volume I suggested looks too much, make a 15-minute goal, or 30 minute

It is funny how certain fundamental principles keep popping up over and over again. One of those principles is, “You don’t have to act the way you feel.” In fact, if you do, you are going to mess up your life, and the lives of those you love.

During these days of pandemics, woke culture, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, crazy inflation it is very easy to get emotional about current events in our life, and about our own experiences and circumstances.

Emotions are normal and expected, both the highs and the lows, the angry and the sad, and the positive and the negative. The problem comes when we make choices, act, and treat people according to how we feel. Children do that and we are not surprised when they do, they are children, but many adults are behaving like children in our unpredictable culture.

The key to acting right when we don’t feel like it is to follow principles and guidelines, here are half a dozen simple, but good ones.

1. Always obey Ephesians 4:29 – Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only words that edify, honor, and give grace to those who hear.

2. If we don’t forgive others, God won’t forgive us.

3. God is in charge, He knows what He is doing, trust Him.

4. Always obey Philippians 4:4, “rejoice always.”

5. Always obey Philippians 2:14, “grumble about nothing.”

6. Guard yourself against speaking slander and gossip, it is easy to do, and it feels so good, but God hates it and consequences will follow.

Isolation may keep COVID from spreading, but this is what a person gets to looking like when they do.

Why comb my hair or take a shower or change my clothes!

I plan on joining the world on Saturday and I plan on cleaning up good before I do😀

We grow in character much faster together with other people. We resist the devil and his temptations much better together. Our praying has so much more power together. Here is a description of hell in the Bible.

Psalms 88:4-8
I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit;
I have become like a man without strength,
Forsaken among the dead,
Like the slain who lie in the grave,
Whom You remember no more,
And they are cut off from Your hand.
You have put me in the lowest pit,
In dark places, in the depths.
Your wrath has rested upon me,
And You have afflicted me with all Your waves.
You have removed my acquaintances far from me;
You have made me an object of loathing to them;
I am shut up and cannot go out.

sounds like COVID isolation to me.

This next week is JBC’s “Five Days of Prayer.” I plan on praying 40 hours during the five days with many of you. I expect that I will grow a lot and that God will work powerfully in the world around me because of it.

2 Corinthians 5:2-3 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened,

Paul uses the words house and tent to describe our physical body, and he said while we live in these physical bodies we groan. The older we get the more we understand what that means. More aches and pains, and so we groan, longing for our new, glorified body that won’t get old, get tired, get sick, or get ugly. Occasionally something comes along that ups the “groan factor,” like COVID and we all tend to wonder why.

Philippians 2:27 For indeed he was sick to the point of death,

Paul’s friend was sick to the point of death, many people die from sickness. Everybody is going to die from something.

Very few things in life do I dislike as much as being sick, and I groan. But this bout of sickness is close to being finished, just a little headache this morning, all the other consequences of COVID are over, and I anticipate being as good as new in a couple of days. But it is just a matter of time until the next bout of something comes around, and one of them is going to be the last one.

The cool thing for me as my life unfolds event after event is that I have no fear of death. I am looking forward to being done with this life and moving into the next phase of God’s plan for me. There is the nervousness of a new experience, not knowing exactly how it is all going to unfold, but I have no fear of dying. I am curious and wonder what form my death will take. My Dad died of cancer and almost every relative has as well so the probability of cancer is high. I might get hit by a car as I ride my bicycle across the USA this summer.

The main thing for me is that I finish this race called life at a sprint, living life with a purpose.

Well, I guess this COVID thing is going to hang on a little longer. Kind of like a bad cold. I tell people that I don’t get colds, but now I have the granddaddy of all colds. I sound like Sam Elliott, sneeze often, cough a lot, blow my nose every couple of minutes, have a headache, muscle aches, and enjoy a nap every couple of hours.

But my energy level is good and my attitude is positive. I plan on riding my stationary bike for an hour today, lifting weights for an hour, and working on the mustang for a couple of hours. I am also going to get a bunch of “Pastor work” done. I am going to write birthday and anniversary notes, grade leadership class papers, write my sermon for next Wednesday’s service, go through my prayer journal as I pray for people in our church, write the church family letter, and fill out and send out my “pastor accountability” report to the pastors that I am in a group with. If I get all those checked off of my “to do” list, I will feel pretty good

My old motto, “don’t act the way you feel,” works good when you are sick as well. So, even though I am sick with the COVID I can act like I am having the time of my life. The way we act, the level of positiveness, the attitude we choose to have, all has an impact on what happens in our life. I for sure don’t want to act and talk like a victim. I thank God all day long for all my blessings that I have received from Him.

I slept 10 hours last night, and got up this morning and rested in my chair while reading. At noon I went out to my shop and worked on the mustang for 5 hours straight. I am redoing all of the wiring in it and it is a slow, tedious job trying to figure out where everything goes to. Right now, sitting in my recliner At 8:00 pm writing this blog I am feeling much better. No cough, no sore throat, no muscle ache, no runny nose. I think that tomorrow I will declare myself healed! I probably won’t go out and about until Saturday in case I am still a bit contagious. Thank you very much to everybody who has been praying for me!

I am looking forward to teaching all of my classes this weekend at church. And this next week is our “Five Days of Prayer” for our Missions Ministry. We pray Monday through Friday, 5:00 to 10:00 am and 5:00 to 10:00 pm each day. These prayer times as we gather as the church are the most spiritually invigorating times in my life. Every area of my spiritual life is renewed by these prayer times, especially my practice of the presence of God.

Make a goal to come and pray. I am thinking Jesus is coming soon, and it would be so cool to know him intimately when you first see Him.