This morning was difficult.  I woke up with a headache, which prompted some early-morning throwing-up.  After everyone was showered and dressed, during breakfast, Elijah was complaining that his mouth hurt and proceeded to make some coughing sounds like he was going to throw up.  Then at the end of breakfast, maybe ten minutes before we planned to leave for church, he actually did throw up.

Normally, I am not one to use illness as a reason for missing church, but when the illness has the potential to make a big mess and cause distraction for others…and when I am really not feeling well myself…I tend to think staying home is justified.  And that is what I was advocating this morning.  Tim’s view, though, was that God could and should heal the tummy bug and staying away from church was like letting the enemy have his way.  In theory, I tend to believe the same…but, in practice? my faith falters a bit and I wonder what is really best.

Tim decided we were going, though, so we went.  And just as we parked the car, Elijah threw-up again.  I was pretty convinced that church was just a bad idea…and offered to drop the rest of them off and come back to pick them up when church was done.  And, like I said, I’m not prone to wanting to miss church for just anything.  I was convinced it was going to turn out badly.  Even so, Tim had me take the other kids into church while he cleaned Elijah up and decided what to do.  So, in I went and when Tim and Elijah joined us a few minutes later, I was a bit tense about the whole thing.  But, you know what?  Even with jumping and climbing and throwing himself around, Elijah gave not even a hint of an upset stomach.  He napped for part of the service, and when we got home, he devoured his lunch.  In the time it took to decide to bring him into church instead of heading home, he went from throwing up to totally fine.

While I have many questions regarding healing and how God answers prayer, I at least have to admit to my own readiness to give-in to illness and conventional wisdom at the moment push comes to shove.  But what is faith if not being able to look at circumstances that seem hopeless, and still trust that God is bigger?…to be able to walk into church and believe that God heard a prayer to heal an upset stomach?  It seems so simple, but it really defies logic.  I worry that somebody will find out that we brought our sick-but-with-something-that-will-eventually-go-away-without-“healing” child into church and think that we’re horrible, careless parents…that nobody will understand why we think we should be able to expect healing for something so “normal”.

Obviously, I even wonder if I should be able to expect that, sometimes.  Today, though, I was challenged to believe God for more.  I don’t want to limit Him.  I want to be able to defy logic, stand in faith, and let God show Himself strong.  I kind of think He’s wanting that, too.