The Cold and Mr. Sniffles
We all remember those
major test days in school. A classroom full of
students in their neat little rows all sitting
quietly with their eyes and their nerves focused
like glue on the test paper in front of them.
We've all been there. And, if we think back
far enough, we may even smell the desks, see the
old chalkboard and feel the hard chair as it puts
our butts to sleep. But wait. Keep listening. Do
you hear it? It's that kid in the back of the
room. The one with the cold. It's that sniffling.
You know, the sniffling that on a normal day
might be tolerable. But this is a test day!
Everyone
is quiet. Everyone, that is, except for Mr.
Sniffles. Every three minutes- SNIIIIIIIIIFFF!!
At first, it's tolerable.......barely. But after
four or five SNIIIIIIIIIFFFs, everyone in the
class is ready to run to the drug store, buy some
Afrin, bring it back to Mr. Sniffles, stick it in
his face and say, "Here! Snort this!!"
There are few things in this world more annoying
than the SNIIIIIIIIIFFF.
But
poor old Mr. Sniffles. He can't help it. He's got
a cold. He's doing the best he can. He's really
trying hard. Even he, SNIIIIIIIIIFFF, wishes he
had some Afrin.
You
see, when you have a cold, you have some or all
of these symptoms: watery eyes, runny nose, soar
throat, cough, congested chest, aches and fever.
There are so many things to combat. You can take
Visine for the watery eyes, Afrin for the
SNIIIIIIIIIFFF, Sucrets for the sore throat,
Robitussen for the cough and congested chest and
Tylenol for the aches and fever. But these are
just symptoms.
The
cold is not the watery eyes. The cold is not the
runny nose, the soar throat or any of the other
symptoms. The cold is caused by a tiny,
microscopic organism (bacteria) that you cannot
see with the human eye or hear with human ears-
SNIIIIIIIIIFFF. It is not a symptom. It causes
the symptoms.
This
was an important realization for me, because it
applies to more than just our physical health. It
applies to the health of our spirit as well.
I used
to be the one who would say, "Please don't
say that around me" to someone who cursed in
my presence. Or I would get upset because someone
wanted to have a drink or light up a cigarette
every once in a while. But I wasn't considering
their well-being as much as I was my own. Oh
sure, I thought I was trying to keep them
healthy. That's what I told myself to justify my
actions. But actually, all I was trying to do was
shove Afrin in their face. I wanted to get rid of
their SNIIIIIIIIIFFF. You see, Mr. Sniffles was
ruining my test day, ruining my quiet- ruining my
little world.
In my
aggrevation and frustration, I wanted to treat
Mr. Sniffles symptoms and not his cold. I wanted
to address the sins being commited instead of the
Sin of being seperated from God.
It is
so selfish for us to look at Mr. Sniffles and
shove the Afrin in his face- demanding he snort.
It is only so our little world can be a little
more bearable place for us to live. It doesn't
matter what the sin is that sounds like the
SNIIIIIIIIIFFF, we need to realize that it is
caused by the bacteria, and Mr. Sniffles is
powerless to overcome it on his own.
The
infection can only be treated by a doctor with an
antibiotic. And once the cold is done away with,
all the symptoms will eventually fade away-
whether you use Afrin, Sucrets and Visine or not.
That's the way it is with sins. Once the main
problem of being seperated from God by our
selfish will is taken care of by the ultimate
antibiotic, the blood of Christ, the
SNIIIIIIIIIFFF will eventually subside.
So
when our Mr. Sniffles SNIIIIIIIIIFFFs, we need to
remember this: We can treat him with Afrin and
make our own little world a litlle better place
for us to live, or we take the extra effort and
guide him to the Doctor where the medicine can be
found, and the cold behind all the symptoms can
be cured.
copyright 1992 Dale
Suffridge
|