Links for today’s readings:
Feb 17 Read: Proverbs 8 Listen: (3:26) Read: Psalm 38 Listen: (2:14)
Scripture Focus: Psalm 38.4-8
4 My guilt has overwhelmed me
like a burden too heavy to bear.
5 My wounds fester and are loathsome
because of my sinful folly.
6 I am bowed down and brought very low;
all day long I go about mourning.
7 My back is filled with searing pain;
there is no health in my body.
8 I am feeble and utterly crushed;
I groan in anguish of heart.
Reflection: Spiritual Hypochondria and Anosognosia
By John Tillman
Do you go to the doctor at the first scratchy feeling in your throat? Or do you delay until you can barely breathe without a fit of coughing and hacking?
Hypochondriacs obsessively worry about getting or being ill, usually while perfectly healthy. Hypochondriacs annoy their friends, family, and doctors who know they are not as sick as they think.
Hypochondria’s opposite is less well known. Anosognosia is a lack of awareness of one’s illness. It can refer to simple denials in which patients refuse to stay home from work when sick. But its more severe forms include patients who deny they are having heart attacks or are paralyzed. Of the two conditions, hypochondria is annoying, but anosognosia is dangerous.
In Psalm 38, David describes horrific symptoms of both physical and mental illness. David’s descriptions have the ring of true life experience. David used his sickness as a metaphor for his spiritual state. David was guilt stricken and sickened by his sin.
“Feeling sick” is often the effects of fighting illnesses. Physical symptoms, like fever, mucus, and even vomiting are ways your body fights. These feelings are unpleasant and when your body is weak or your system is malfunctioning and overreacting, they can be dangerous, however, your situation would be worse if your immune system did not respond to threats.
What is true physically is true spiritually—guilt over sin is a good sign. It means our God-given spiritual “immune system,” our conscience, is functioning. (Romans 2.14-15; 1 Timothy 4.2; Titus 1.15-16; Hebrews 9.14) The discomfort of guilt should drive us to confession. David sought God’s forgiveness. We seek forgiveness from Jesus, who said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” (Luke 5.31) However, it is a very bad sign when we become aware of sin and refuse to admit we are sick.
Does your sin sicken you?
It is possible to become a spiritual hypochondriac, obsessed with maintaining sinlessness and overburdened with false guilt. To combat this, we must trust in our doctor, Jesus, whose forgiveness gives us a clean bill of health.
The more dangerous condition, however, is spiritual anosognosia. Those with consciences seared and burned away continue in sin and refuse to “go to the doctor” for diagnosis, treatment, or therapy.
Listen to your spiritual “immune system.” Don’t let it die. When sickened by sin, thank God for your conscience and seek Jesus’s merciful care and cure for our sinful condition.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
You strengthen me more and more; you enfold me and comfort me. — Psalm 71.21
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.
Listen to: Lady Wisdom
“Does not wisdom call out?” She does, indeed. And those with ears to hear will hear her call.
Read more: Choices and Hard Hearts
Hardened hearts happen in stages. Do we hear and obey? Our heart will grow softer…
Do we hear and turn away? Our heart will grow harder…