Thursday, April 14,
2022
Medication time is somewhat tedious if you're the giver, and the patient has four legs.
But our dog, Wellie, who is in a long term relationship with chicken (in any shape, size, original, or extra-crispy), gives me no problem with pills. I could wrap a lethal tarantula the size of Cleveland in an ounce of chicken skin and he would swallow it like a vacuum inhales a feather. Problem solved!
Overweight Shih-Tzus aside, few people enjoy taking their
meds. I could be biased…, but
nonetheless, I’m one who utterly despises any medication, even though taking the
stuff helps keep me breathing. Of late,
when my doctor asks me how I’m doing, I growl, FINE! It seems to be effective in avoiding more
trips to the pharmacy!
The apostle Paul’s words to the Corinthian believers sounds
somewhat like a doctor prescribing: Do
this…it’s an announcement of the cross, a reminder of the resurrection, and strength
for when Jesus comes back. And,
truth be told, this was a vitally-required spiritual medication for the Corinth
church. They were in dire need of healing
for their selfish, hedonistic ways. They
had little appreciation for the worship moment of The Supper,
which, in their case, had turned into a dinner-on-the-grounds pig-out.
There are some who, for whatever reason, view The
Supper that way…a routine to be followed…ho-hum, pass the bread and
Welch’s, please. It goes down like the
regimented swallowing of a pill, absentmindedly giving little or no thought to
the holiness of the moment. Somehow the
magnitude of what’s going on at the table is lost, and (sadly enough) so is its’
grace-filled benefit. It leaves no
lasting aroma like the gift of Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet with expensive
perfume, or savoring of the taste of what Isaac Watts called sorrow and love
flow[ing] mingled down[1].
For You Today
Maundy Thursday of
Holy Week, is a particularly poignant time for celebrating the coming cross,
and eating the Holy Meal, remembering that passion of our Lord’s sacrifice. Our eternal souls should not need the meal wrapped
in chicken to go down gladly. So, let’s go
there allowing the Proverb writer the last word on taking our meds…
A cheerful heart is
good medicine.... Proverbs 17:22a
[1] Title image: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
[1][1] From Isaac Watts’ 1707 hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” (United Methodist Hymnal #298)
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