Unwanted Guests and a Very Common Name

A month ago during my flight home from Africa, I remember thanking God that I had made it through the trip without getting sick (which is always one of my greatest concerns while traveling on a short term international mission trip - it is tough to keep up with the schedule when you are incapacitated due to illness!). Little did I know then that I was not totally accurate in that assessment.

About a week after being home and having overcome the effects of jet lag, I began to notice that I wasn't quite feeling right - fatigue, some digestive issues (that's all I will say about this) and weight loss (which I thought was due primarily to not eating due to the off and on nausea I was experiencing). I kept thinking that things would clear up ... but when they persisted, I made an appointment to see my doctor which I did last week. He called me yesterday with the results of some stool samples that I had to deliver last Friday to the lab (fun, let me tell you!!!). Sure enough, I did not come home alone from the Central African Republic. I brought a number of microscopic parasites with me. My doctor assured me this is easily treatable via antibiotics (in fact, this parasite exists worldwide -  it is contracted when one drinks contaminated water (contaminated by contact with either human or animal waste) or eats food washed with contaminated water. I am thinking the latter is how I contracted the parasite). So last evening I went to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription that the doctor's office had called in for me.

Now I gave the pharmacy plenty of time to fill the prescription before going. So when I gave my name at the pharmacy counter and they did not have my prescription filled, I was a bit surprised. I explained that the doctor's office should have called in the prescription a couple of hours earlier. So as the woman who waited on me began to enter my personal info into the computer, another pharmacy tech said, "Oh, you are looking for a prescription for a John Smith? I have it here. I thought it was a joke!"  Well, I was a bit irritated by that, because I had to make a return trip later to pick up my prescription (which I was anxious to get started on so it could begin to rid my body of my uninvited and unwelcome guests!). But I did not stay angry long ... things like that incident have happened to me before because of the name that I bear!  Reminds me that as Christians we can expect things to happen to us because of the name we bear. Jesus himself said, "They will treat you this way (in the context he is talking about persecution) because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me" (John 15:21). So as you bear the name of Jesus, be prepared to face some sort of persecution. And be glad and rejoice when you do for you are BLESSED! (see Matthew 5:11-12).

Thanks for stopping by . . .

pj