For the past three weeks, I have been dealing with pretty constant headaches and an eye twitch on my right eye. Twitch, twitch, twitch. All day. It seems to be directly related to fatigue and stress. The eye twitch isn't very noticeable to other people, but it feels very obvious to me. I try to rub it away. I try to apply counter pressure. I try to close my eye for a few minutes but to no avail. Twitch, twitch, twitch.As I've struggled with being irritable about it, it has caused me to think about how complex and intricate our bodies are. I am fatigued and stressed. I get headaches. I get eye twitches. When I rest and deal with the stress, the headache goes away and the eye twitch stops. It's quite amazing, really.
It has stopped me from complaining, for the most part. Because while I can point fingers to stress and fatigue, as an adult, I know that I have made the choices that are bringing fatigue and stress, and therefore I need to live with the consequences. As I often teach, when I point my finger at others, there are three fingers that point back to myself. While I'd like to exonerate myself fully from life challenges, that almost never works in this world of relationships and choices.
I need to pay attention to twitches in my life. I need to be curious about where these twitches come from and what my part is in them. I need to be curious enough to investigate the three fingers that point back at me.
And of course, that gets me to thinking about our amazing Creator and the role of the Holy Spirit in the twitches of our lives. God has created our bodies, so intricately and wonderfully. He has made us in His image, giving us the opportunity to be co-creators with Him. He has not created us to be like animals, searching for our daily bread every day, but has created us for a much higher purpose than that - to be a blessing to others through the gifts and talents that He has endowed us with. He has given us the Holy Spirit which often can feel like a twitch, reminding us and prompting us to do the right thing as ambassadors of the Most High God. When we experience the twitching from the Holy Spirit, we can either ignore it and hope it goes away, or examine it and do something about it.
He has put us in the contexts of families and networks of relationships that can often act like twitches as well. People who know us, love us, care for us, can act like an annoying eye twitch as they seek to lovingly (and sometimes not so lovingly) remind us of who we are and whose we are.
We can ignore these twitches. We can continue to point fingers and lament the pains of life. OR we can learn to appreciate these twitches, remain curious about them and have the courage to look at them full on.
Twitch. Twitch. Twitch. While I'm not quite at the point of thanking God for my eye twitch, I do have a greater appreciation for it!
This week Friday I leave for Cameroon. They had their election on October 7 and the results have not yet been announced. There have been demonstrations and there is expected controversy for when the announcement is made, which should be while I am there. We are unsure whether or not the program that we have scheduled will be able to go forward. Please pray for this country and for peace; please pray for justice and equality for the people in this country who have felt downtrodden and ignored for decades; please pray for the safety of those who may be traveling for our DML program, should we decide to continue; please pray for wisdom and discernment on our part as to whether we proceed or not.
