A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. - Proverbs 11:25
This past Friday, I started having a horrible toothache because of my wisdom teeth. Since surgery is the only solution, and there is no way for me to get it done on Friday, the medical doctor I saw decided to give me a strong pain-killer on top of regular antibiotics, so I could survive the weekend. It's such a strong pain-killer that I needed to provide my license number to the pharmacy before picking it up. Nevertheless, one particular wisdom tooth still kept on swelling - by Friday evening, I could not eat regular food, and could not even talk in a normal way!
The next day, our church has an outreach scheduled to a nearby nursing home. We have discovered through previous trips that the elderly people there really like to hear the hymns, so now we would just go there once a month to sing the hymns for them (and with them - quite a few of them will jump right in).
For those of you who know me well, you know how much "gift" I have gotten in music. ;-) Try to replay in your mind one time you heard me sing in church or home group, then add in the new twist - I could not talk normally with a swollen cheek.
So starting from Friday night, I began to pray that God will heal my wisdom teeth - at least calm down the swell until I get a chance to do the surgery in a month. The most practical reason - I would like to go sing praises to the Lord at the nursing home and encourage the elderly people there! By Sat morning, the meds did seem to have numbed my pain quite a bit, although the swell was still there, so I was still talking in a weird way. Plus, with the toothache, I barely slept on Friday night! I felt that I had plenty of reasons to skip this outreach, but the inside of me just wanted to go, no matter what.
When I finally got to church for the rehearsal before we head to the nursing home, I was shocked that we had been "upgraded" to a stage-like hall, so now instead of sitting (or hiding) in a corner and sing, hoping that the elderly people nearby wouldn't be able to hear me very well even if I do go off tone, I would have to stand among all the young people from church that have been brought up singing those hymns, and try not to make a weird noise from the crowd. :-\
The actual "performance" went on smoothly, although I had always felt that the girl in front of me kept looking back at me - oh well, that doesn't mean I'm just not going to sing praised out loud to my Lord! Throughout the "performance", we received one round of applause after another. (And later I found out that the girl who I thought was looking at me because I was singing badly, had a completely different reason.)
Oh my way home I suddenly realized that my toothache is gone, as well as the swell! It must be some time while we were singing, since I didn't even notice that at all. Then I remembered a verse Ross shared with me years ago: "He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." My pain was gone while I was focusing on sharing God's love and glory with others, rather than while I was thinking (and even praying) about it constantly - what an amazing "pain-killer"!
Looking back, this wasn't my first time using this spiritual "pain-killer". A few times in the past, I had put myself in extreme agony (mostly spiritually and emotionally rather than physical), usually as a consequence of demanding my own way and my own timing rather than willingly submit to God and obey His way and His timing. At one point I was in such a pain and there seemed no way out of it. That's when Ross said, "Well, since you can't do anything about your own pain anyway, why not just go and help others, so that according to the Scripture, you will be refreshed and comforted in return." And it worked. It always works, because God's Words do not change.
Are you in "pain" now? Like a situation where you couldn't change and couldn't see why God has put you in such a situation? (I am, and in a sense, I am always in such situation in different aspects of life.) Then take this non-prescription yet super effective "pain-killer" - go about God's business despite of your pain; before you know it, your pain would be gone. :) Is the devil tempting you all the time with "Did God really say..." and "How can God be good to you yet allow..."? Then praise the Lord aloud for who He is - louder than Satan's temptation - if you are the louder of the two, he will have to shut up soon. ;-)
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