383. Benefit of Physical Illness

This week was ridden with incidents of physical weakness, of my own and my youngest daughter. After coming back from the Ecuador mission trip, I felt pretty weak. I find that long flight is becoming more challenging than before. I didn’t have a cold, but I felt a general weakness that was pretty pervasive.

Then my youngest daughter Senna had a stomach issue for a day, and as it didn’t get better, I had to take her to the emergency. It turned out that she had swollen lymph near her stomach. Thankfully, the doctor ruled out appendicitis and told us it would get better with time. But she had to miss the church summer camp.

Because we had to wait for hours in the emergency room, and Senna woke up with pain in the middle of the night multiple times, my sleep schedule was disrupted. I was already under the weather, and sleep deprivation worsened it. As I still had to wake up for the EMP, it was extra challenging. But I felt a strange sense of strength during the prayer. It was comforting to know that when I didn’t have much energy to even pray, I sensed God providing for me more than before.

As challenging as this week was, I realized that physical weakness makes you cherish people around you more. It is easy for us to take people (and God) for granted until we are weak and require people’s help. It is easy for us to think we are very independent until we need people’s assistance.

Thanks to Senna’s illness, I heard “Thank you Daddy” so many times from Senna, every time I brought her painkillers or water. It was painful to see her in pain at times, but I was also happy to be needed in her weakness and provide for her. I certainly hope that she doesn’t get sick again, but illness does challenge our sense of reality and has the potential to bring us closer to God, who is an ever-present help in times of need. (Psalm 46:1)