Non medical people: hang with me just a second.
1. I became aware that his temperature had risen to 99 degrees. It wasn’t a high fever mind you, but it was mildly concerning none the less. Coupled with the sound I heard when I placed my stethoscope on his chest, the rattling gurgle sound, and the numbers on the monitor telling me his breathing wasn’t optimal, I was a little concerned, but not too much. I knew what he needed to do. A common complication after surgery is pneumonia. People lay in the bed, sleeping, in pain, under the effects of lingering anesthesia and pain medication. They don’t take deep breaths and they don’t cough. To put it simple and plain, junk settles in the bottom of their lungs and gets infected. My patient didn’t have pneumonia, but he was at risk of developing it. He needed to get up and get busy deep breathing and coughing. It’s quite amazing really. When they do these things you can hear the lungs clear, see numbers improve, and the temperature return to normal.
2. I’ve come to realize that doubt is a lot like pneumonia. Doubt sets in when we are vulnerable. It often comes on the cusp of something good coming our way. There are a lot of ways doubt comes to you. I’ve noticed that often times when I’m really praising God for His goodness that I’ll be bombarded by doubt in my faith. I don’t think for a minute that it’s a coincidence that when I’m in the midst of being thankful that I’m attacked at that moment with doubt in my beliefs. I used to feel guilty about that, but not anymore. I think guilt over your imperfection can just be a catalyst for doubt to multiple. Example: “I am such a bad Christian to have doubt. I don’t know how God could use someone like me!” Your guilt over doubt has you doubting yourself. Confused yet?
3. Doubt is a festering infection that can build over time if not dealt with properly. It’s not just doubt for your lack of faith. It can be doubt in yourself. I am a master at self-doubt. I have a Mary Poppins mentality as I’ve said before, wishing to be practically perfect in every way. Since no one is perfect other than Mary Poppins and Jesus (and Mary Poppins is fictional), I set myself up for disappointment. I doubt my abilities as a mom. I doubt my abilities as a wife, a nurse, a sister, a friend, or a writer. I doubt my ability to hear God and to share my faith to others. This doubt, the feelings of inadequacy and self-defeat simply settle in my spirit, accumulating into something nasty. They keep me from obtaining God’s best for me because I don’t believe I can. And I suppose I can’t, but God can. So what can we do to prevent a full blown case of doubt pneumonia? We got to deep breathe and cough. We have to inhale God’s truth and exhale the lies from the enemy, coughing out every single bit of junk, every infecting thought of doubt. We won’t get it all out with one coughing spell either. We’ll have to work on it, breathing deep and increasing our capacity for truth. Breathe in the word of God, His truth in scripture. Exhale and expel anything that doesn’t go along with those truths. Like my patient you want to catch it before a serious infection sets in. When you do you can breathe easier and work on healing, work to be stronger and fulfill all that God has for you, unhampered by infectious doubt.
That is all 🙂