Yesterday our family went on a crystal digging expedition and as the dad I did a lot of the digging. Today I woke up and was a bit sore...but when I went to lean over outside my back seized up. I came back into the house and stumbled back into bed. My wife put some icyhot on me, and I took some advil, and then an hour later I needed to poop. My wife was gone to the store so I had no help getting out of bed...10 excruciating minutes later, I made it to the toilet but some poop (of one of the biggest poops of my life, BTW) ended up in my underwear. The mess I made in my rear end needed a shower...which took another 10 excruciating minutes to finally begin. I got through the shower (hot water on my back helped) and then got out and took some alleve, which I should have taken to begin with, and now though I feel lousy I can at least move around without wanting to fall on the floor and roll up into a ball and cry.
A few years ago I had an experience in which I had a stomach flu hit me in the middle of the night and had awful things coming out from multiple orifices. At the time I thought that was hell, and maybe this has been in that same category. When you are writhing in pain in your bathroom, covered with feces, knowing that every movement you make is going to be worse than the one before, isn't that a scene of what hell might look like? I only had the worst of this for a few hours...can you imagine eternity like this?
I am hoping that my alleve will hold me through the afternoon, and that maybe some more stretching will be helpful. Tomorrow is Easter, where we proclaim the good news of the resurrection, the hope and the peace that comes out of chaos. Well, I need to believe this truth, that God is going to restore and redeem me in the worst moments of my physical life.
