Faith Can Be A Tough Pill To Swallow

When I was younger I could never understand why some kids made such a big deal complaining about taking medicine when it meant taking a pill. It was no big deal to me. I could swallow big pills without drinking any water, but some kids would literally gag if they tried to swallow even a tiny pill. If they could eat food why couldn’t they take a pill? Now my “bad medicine” was all that yucky (great descriptive word) foul tasting liquid medicine that would leave an even yuckier (see how well it works) after taste in your mouth. That after taste would take forever to go away. Whenever I would get sick I would try to make deals with the doctors or my parents. If that did not work I would plead (yes I would even stoop to begging) with them to give me pills to take instead of the dreaded liquid medicine. My doctor would usually look at me like I was crazy. He was so used to his pill phobic pediatric patients that he was not sure if I was for real or not. “Listen doctor, I would rather have to swallow big horse pills (That’s what we called those really big pills.) all day than take that gross liquid medicine. Well, it would work sometimes, but unfortunately sometimes the medicine only came in liquid form (I still think they were lying about that one).

My dad would get such a kick out of all the drama, when I would have to take liquid medicine. You know the avoiding, griping, holding the nose, gulping the water afterwards, rolling the eyes, etc. He would continue to tell me that sometimes you just need to deal with things you don’t like if you are going to get better. All the drama just made it worse and prolonged the suffering. He would say, “Just take the medicine! It would have been all done by now if you had just taken the medicine without all the drama.” He was right of course, but just try telling that to a very stubborn, strong-willed, dramatic sick kid. I could only focus on the dreaded medicine and what I was going to do to try to avoid it each time. Hey, I even had the Mary Poppin’s song, A Spoonful of Sugar to validate my struggles. Oh children please don’t take this line of the song literally. Trust me. It does not work. I tried it. Ok, so it was only a case of mind over matter just like taking pills were for other children, but the “matter” back then was always winning the battle. When I finally smartened up and matured I could not believe that I had ever made such a big deal over taking a little spoonful of medicine.

I look back on this part of my childhood now (especially since I had to go through it on the other side with my own children) of course and have a big laugh. But the other day when I started to think of it after I was reading my Bible I started to think about it in a very different light. There are times in our life when we are sick. Not literally sick but sick in our walk with God. God has it all spelled out in the Bible what we have to do to stay well in our walk with Him, but sometimes we just don’t listen or we figure we can push the envelope a bit and still be ok. When we start to get sick (in faith) we often ignore it and continue on with our sinful ways figuring it will just go away. TRUST ME IT WON’T! If we had only nipped the problem in the bud when it was small how much easier would that be?

Ok, so now we at least have to admit we are sick. This does not mean we are ready to deal with things. Often at first we only look at the effect of the illness instead of dealing with the real cause. When we do this, God will allow our lives to continue to suffer and run in circles until we face the cause. This can be years in a person’s life if they do not want to listen to God. Like illness and diseases, small problems can fester and spread in our lives if we refuse to look at the real cause.

I wish I could tell you that the problem is solved when we finally listen to God and face the real cause of why we are so sick in our faithful walk. Unfortunately, we still need to deal with the medicine. Here is where a whole new battle with God can start. Ok, so now I’m going to sound like my dad, “Just take the medicine! It would have been all done by now if you had just taken the medicine without all the drama.” This is where Satan likes to put his two cents in. He will try to blind us with fear, stubbornness, strong-will, etc. to keep us from our close walk with God. We are so wrapped up in our own drama that we often can not see that “the medicine” God is trying to prescribe us (His does this out of His love for us) is just what we need to make us well. All we see is the pain and problems we are experiencing. When God asks us to trust Him and take the pill or yucky liquid we do the same thing I did as a child. We bargain, we plead, we beg, we run away, we avoid, etc. We don’t understand why God would want to mistreat us the way He is, if He loves us as much as the Bible says He does. It is only when we really trust God and turn it over to Him that our eyes are opened and we get better.

Isn’t it a shame that just like when I was a child we often go through this time and time again, each time we get sick, before we finally see God’s wisdom and light. When we finally can reach this step in our faith we wonder why we ever allowed the drama to occur to begin with. God sees the whole path and the destination He is leading us on even when we don’t. All we have to do is trust Him and take the medicine. With this said, I want you to now take a look at the lyrics to the Mary Poppins song, A Spoon Full of Sugar. When you read the lyrics I want you to substitute the “element of fun” for “element of faith”. Now substitute the word trust for the word sugar. Boy does this song take on a whole new deeper meaning!

My faithful advice to you today is take some time today to ask God where you are harboring faithful sickness in your life. Pray for his wisdom and guidance so that you can see the true cause of the sickness instead of just the effects it is having on you. Next, pray that God will prescribe the medicine you need to make you well. When He answers you, my best advice to you is, “Trust God and just take the medicine without all the drama.” Grow in faith and be well!



A Spoonful of Sugar

In ev'ry job that must be done
There is an element of fun
you find the fun and snap!
The job's a game

And ev'ry task you undertake
Becomes a piece of cake
A lark! A spree!
It's very clear to see

That a...
Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
The medicine go down-wown
The medicine go down
Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
In a most delightful way

A robin feathering his nest
Has very little time to rest
While gathering his
Bits of twine and twig

Though quite intent in his pursuit
He has a merry tune to toot
He knows a song
Will move the job along

For a... Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
The medicine go down-wown
The medicine go down
Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
In a most delightful way



Rejoice In Hope


I’ve prayed for help to seek the light
For my brokenhearted soul
I’ve prayed to you dear Lord each night
Hoping I do not lose control

But finally I think I know
I am just beginning to see
The love you’re really trying to show
With the trials you’ve given me

Your goal is not to torture me
It’s to build my faith instead
The difficulties now facing me
Are only where you’ve led

For character is only built strong
With perseverance, faith, and hope
Your love is there to correct my wrong
I now pray for your strength to cope

Now it’s not control I pray for
But control I pray to give
In faith I wish to give you more
In your love forever I may live


FaithfulToOne © 1999


Romans 5:1-5
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we rejoice in our suffering, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.