Risking My Life

Last week, I put my life at risk.

Okay, that is dramatic. UNLESS you partake of ANY news media, in which case, you would say that I’m totally rational.

Because last week, flu entered our home.

You hear that this is the worst flu epidemic since 19--blah blah. Media loves to tell us how many people are dying of the flu. So when your 3rd grader comes home tired, achy, and with fever…you tend to panic. And then you grab the Lysol and tell all other people to STAY BACK!!

My poor, sweet girl was down with the flu for sure. High fevers for days. Coughing, sniffling, sneezing, aching…well, you know the drill. And then my husband came down with it. Y’all. 2 down with the flu. 3 healthy kids. And 1 momma to take care of them all.

Jesus, help me!

My job? Take care of the sickies and keep the healthies healthy. And goodness knows I CAN’T get sick, or then what?!? So I would peek my head into the flu rooms and ask if they needed anything, and then hold my breath. I would sit at their feet, hand them their Tylenol and Gatorade, give them a sympathetic foot pat, and then run out to wash my hands for 2 minutes. I banned all healthy people to the downstairs. And I tried to stay down there and breathe healthy air as much as possible. Because FLU Y’ALL.

And then, a couple of days in, Ady sent me a message from her iPad.

I told her I would find an activity for her to do. She just said: Can you come up here I mentioned before I have been reading John Piper’s “Don’t Waste Your Life.” Chapter 5 is titled: “Risk is Right. Better to Lose your Life than Waste It.” In it, he says, “I define risk very simply as an action that exposes you to the possibility of loss or injury.” “If our single, all-embracing passion is to make much of Christ – and if the life that magnifies him most is the life of costly love, then life is risk, and risk is right.” Risk..the possibility of injury (or sickness)…to display Christ in costly love. So I walked upstairs. I found Ady with tears in her eyes. And I said, “Come here Baby. Let Mommy hold you.” And I snuggled her up close, with all her flu germs, and I held my girl. Because life is risk that looks a lot like costly love. I risked the flu, but my girl was going to know she is loved and okay, because Mommy was here. So far…the flu hasn’t spread. But, in the words of Esther (Esther 4:16), “If I perish, I perish.” Okay, ya. THAT was dramatic.