Shh…God's shouting

My friend Eddie hit a wall.  Not literally. Maybe he did. I don't know. I didn't ask.  What I mean is that he hit his limit.  The fatigue and stress he'd been pushing through caught up with him and he crashed.  He got sick and ended up in bed for several days. Sickness on account of stress is real and not unusual. 

Eddie spent time in the Army, noting that 'feeling bad most of the time is part of the deal.' Professional athletes I know echo the sentiment noting that the only day you feel 100% is the day before practice starts.

But Eddie's sentiment struck me: 'I've gotten used to the pain, I guess'. His fatigue, aches and pains created confusion in his mind: is this pain telling me something or is this just the way it is?  Over time, the ache dulled not only his senses but his discernment, clouding his ability to know the difference between fatigue and sickness.  His body was saying something that his mind couldn't hear.  His heart was also telling him something that his mind couldn't hear, lost in transmission between his body and soul. 

So he took a nap and binge watched Christmas movies with his kids until his senses returned. 

I wondered the same: have I gotten used to the pain?  Has the ache of routine dulled my senses?  Can my heart hear my mind? Can my soul hear my body?

So how do we get out?  Take a spiritual nap? Take a vacation -- vacating this world for some other state, however temporary?

Eddie noted that the road to recovery began with an acknowledgement that he was in pain, real pain. Without addressing his sickness, he risked something worse: sniffles-turned-pneumonia kind of worse.  Thankfully, he listened to his body (and his bride) and took a nap. 

And again I wonder: who is trying to speak into the pain I can't see or feel?

CS Lewis notes in the Problem of Pain: "Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

Are we listening? Am I listening? 

While we don't choose to get sick, we can choose how sensitively we listen: in the whispers or the shouts.  Life hurts less when we listen to our pain in the whisper. God loves us enough to shout although I'd bet He prefers his inside voice when speaking to His children.