Sometime ago, a friend of mine had to travel around the African continent with the result he had to get a whole bunch of different injections to combat diseases like malaria and yellow fever. It was pretty funny watching him being all delirious and loopy at times. Well, at least to me it was.
He, on the other hand, felt sick and appeared to be losing control of his faculties. I thought this to be most ironic, since he went for injections preventing him from getting sick and yet he came back worse than when he went to the doctor. It turns out that when you go for a vaccine injection, they actually pump your body full of the virus you’re trying to avoid so that your body can develop some kind of resistance against it.
By my friend’s account, this is not a very pleasant experience and I can’t say I’m looking forward to a similar injection should I ever get to travel the African continent. Like most people, I hate being sick and like the idea of loopiness even less.
If I were to travel to the same countries my friend did, whether or not I like the idea of vaccination or not is irrelevant. The fact is, there’s a very real chance that I may contract a life threatening disease like malaria and may very well die. Knowing this fact, I think I’ll take my chances with loopiness and feeling sick for a few days.
Sometimes our lives are like this. Most of us would probably opt to avoid conflict or dealing with a sensitive issue in our lives or our relationships because we’re scared of getting hurt or hurting someone else. We’d prefer not to deal with the ‘virus’ so to speak. The fact however is, if we don’t deal with it, it will eat us up from the inside. It can only manifest itself in anger, resentment, and bitterness.
The Bible talks about the little foxes spoiling the vine and this for me, is just a reminder that the little things (or even the big ones) that go unchecked, will become strongholds in my life but also in yours. Unless we wrestle with the foxes or allow our bodies to build up its immunity against the viruses seeking to steal, kill and destroy us, that is exactly how we will end up.
