Guest Blogger…Bonnie shares her biblical perspective

Blog post from Bonnie Slack, bojesl@yahoo.com Bonnie is a guest blogger and shares her thoughts on spirituality as it relates to the Lyme struggle.

The biblical concept of sowing and reaping has always intrigued me.  There is a barbaric and creepy example of it in Judges 1.  The Israelites go in and capture a local king, Adoni-Bezek, and they cut off his thumbs and big toes.  Yikes! Then he says, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table.  Now God has paid me back for what I did to them.”

I love to listen to Joyce Meyer.  The other day she said, “If you sow to the flesh, you reap to the flesh.  If you sow to the spirit, you reap life.”  I couldn’t help but relate it to my lymie physical flesh.  I thought, “If you eat sugar to the flesh, you reap candida to the flesh.  If you drink coffee to the flesh, you reap jitters and sleeplessness to the flesh.  If you don’t detox the flesh you reap migraine, fatigue and acidosis to the flesh.”

And that got me to thinking about the seeds I have sown in my mind. 

In the course of my Lyme education I have gained tons of knowledge about Lyme, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, babesia, ehrlichia, bartonella, mycoplasm fermentans, various and sundry parasites, candida, and any other number of microbials, including malaria and West Nile Virus.  Because of the knowledge I gained, I developed a mindset that it is impossible to kill them all.  Over the course of time “my coodies” became my friends.   My identity became “steaming vat of coodie soup.”

I want to be like the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5 who just touched the hem of Jesus’ robe and was instantly healed.  I reread the story the other day and was reminded of the fact that before she was healed she had been bleeding for twelve years!  A couple months ago I had pneumonia for the second time in less than a year.  In my fatigue and sickness I prayed, “Jesus, heal me or take me.  I don’t care which.  I just don’t want to live like this.”  I felt desperate, like the woman in Mark 5.

Watching from my sick bed, Joyce Meyer spoke on the attitudes of the mind and she exhorted, “Come on, give the Holy Spirit something to work with!”  It hit me like giant herx – I have sown bad seeds in my mind.  No wonder I don’t like my harvest.
I stopped focusing on the impossible and began to sow God’s healing Word into my mind:

• Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:  Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.  Psalm 103:2,3

• Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.  Proverbs 12:18

• A cheerful heart is good medicine, but the crushed spirit dries up the bones.  Proverbs 17:22

• Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.  Proverbs 16:24

• All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast.  Proverbs 15:15

• The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?  When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall.  Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident.  Psalm 27:1-3

This one I love:

• Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.  He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.  Psalm 126:5,6

I am no longer a steaming vat of coodie soup.  I am once again Bonnie, child of God, created in His image.