Winter Ailments ~ A Question

"We looked for peace, but no good came;
And for a time of health, and there was trouble! ..."
Is there no balm in Gilead, Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no recovery
For the health of the daughter of my people?
~ Jeremiah 8:15-22 (NKJV)

It's been one exceptionally long winter.

Back home in Colorado, winter's arrival isn't entirely certain until the occasion when you step outside, inhale, and every bit of moisture inside your nose freezes. Before then, winter teases with snow from the first dusting on mountaintops in September until the last of it disappears in July—while sunny days prevail the entire time, and 70 degrees plus can show up in January.

Here in Michigan, winter steals in slowly but surely, wrapped in clouds, settling in with a dampness to penetrate places in your body you didn't know existed. You're never quite certain that the cold has departed until heat and humidity descend in full weight and finally slam the door on it.

The heat may not bother me this year. I'm usually healthy enough to sidestep winter sickness, and rarely get even a cold. But I've been run down from emotional stress for many months, and for the first year in decades I've been dogged by respiratory illness all winter long. I avoid pharmaceuticals (especially antibiotics), relying mostly on natural methods to treat sickness. But back to back ailments finally got the best of me, and I'm now on the third Rx in as many weeks, for different problems.

I've wondered if there's any connection between my recent groans to God that I feel like I'm carrying too much in one matter and the body aches that settled in my shoulder for several days. Or between re-emergence of spiritual attack and a strong allergic reaction. Might all the respiratory sickness be connected to a struggle to breathe with the strength of God's Spirit rather than my own?

It wouldn't be the first time body and spirit suffered together. Two or three times in past years, when I was being stubborn about something the Lord wanted of me, I wound up with a bad kink in my neck, and then remembered that the Lord calls stubbornness being "stiff-necked." I wasn't surprised when I heeded Him and the neck pain immediately disappeared each time.

Throughout childhood and into adulthood, I suffered incapacitating migraines. It wasn't until sometime after I gave my life to the Lord that I noticed their disappearance. I'm aware that many headaches are a result of toxins in the body. I've never stopped wondering if mine had a association with toxins in my soul.

There's no question that ailments in body can result from not only strictly physical causes but also the condition of mind and heart. Yet the Bible also has several references to connections between sickness and spiritual matters, which makes me curious about how often that happens.

If you're willing to share, have you noticed any clear links in your life?

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