Self Diagnosis

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits- who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:1-5 (NIV)

I made it through yesterday’s round of meetings, and all went well. It was a non stop day but lots of good things are happening in our community. There is much energy and excitement about taking the good bones of what we already have and polishing them up a little for the world to see. I think marketing directors must be like make up artists. Putting the lipstick on the pit bull so to speak. When I got home, I was too exhausted to do anything but eat my salad from Panera Bread (Fuji Apple Chicken Salad is finally back on the menu, hooray!) and sit listlessly in front of the computer before deciding I did not have it in me to write one word and heading for bed. Of course, I read into my fatigue much more than a hard day and self diagnosed myself with a defective adrenal gland. You see, between meetings I talked to one of my colleagues who is going to have some major surgery because she has a tumor on her adrenal gland. Did you know that sort of thing is contagious? It is because even though I have none of her symptoms, I lay in bed last night examining my sides to see if there was a lump. But, since I haven’t lost buckets of weight or go around feeling lifeless and bland all the time, I guess I was worrying for nothing. I did look up the adrenal gland in the on line Merck manual and learned some interesting things. The adrenal gland kicks in when our “fight or flight” impulses take root. It works particularly hard during stressful periods of our life producing hormones that help heighten our awareness to make quick decisions as well as giving us the energy to keep going even when faced with obstacles. The downside of being under stress for long periods is you can “wear out” or fatigue your adrenal gland so that it stops working or is not as effective. So, my tiredness was really my body just saying, “Hey, girl, we’ve had enough of this running around like a chicken with our head cut off. Sit still and be quiet for a sec and let your poor old adrenal gland catch its breath.” I need that kind of advice in my spiritual life as well. I get going on committees or event planning and let my time in Bible Study and prayer slide at the moment when I most need to be quiet and listen to what God would say to me. When, the best thing I can do is to fill myself up with God and His wisdom, I tend to go it alone in my own strength. Like feeding my body for endurance, I need to feed my soul as well. Hmm, now that I think about it, I ate nothing but carbs all day long yesterday. Maybe I am getting diabetes. I better take another look at that Merck Manual.