Having not been sick with anything at all for a number of years it was a bit of a shock to come down with shingles last week, a quite painful condition affecting nerve endings and causing an unpleasant rash. I'm thankful it was not on my face or anywhere weird, and seems to be a brief affliction when teamed with appropriate rest and treatment.
As a youth I was something of a hypochondriac, prone to catastrophizing the slightest physical ailment. Of course, team this with man-flu tendencies and you have a perfect storm of male teen anxiety. Mercifully, maturity has brought a more balanced approach to navigating health issues.
How much do we trust God with every aspect of life, including physical health? I have personal experience of snatching things back from God in order to worry over them. It can be a real faith killer.
Lately I have been exploring silent prayer which deliberately incorporates acknowledgement of the body as part of prayer. In her book Invitation to Silence and Solitude, Ruth Haley Barton writes;
It can be hard and humbling to pay attention to your body, whatever state it is in, because it brings you face to face with your finite-ness, your vulnerability...
But the truth is that the spiritual journey is taken in a physical body, and there is a very real connection between caring for our body and deepening our relationship with God.
So we live in bodies, which are easy to overload, burnout or neglect. Bodies have a shelf life, yet are to be treated with care and respect, as a gift of God. Living spiritually in the body is a life-long project. All of us are still learning how to balance self-care with selfless sacrifice. Some are better at it than others.
My prayer is that as we age we may get wiser, listening to the body, and listening to God's Spirit, appreciating the gift of life in all its fullness. 'My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.' (Psalm 73:26)