Scratch That Itch (the right way)
Hard work can take you places. It can open up doors and create opportunities. There are all kinds of rewards for hard work like promotions, maybe a bigger paycheck, a trophy for a race, or an early retirement.
Hard work comes with a price though. Being single-minded on work means leaving something else behind. Work can generate income but also steal some time from other things. In one case for me work left me with the satisfaction of a job well done but also with the feeling my sensitive areas were on fire!
The old ranch type house was in good shape but the plants and landscape were a bit out of control. Our family met here to clean up my wife’s grandmother’s house and it was a steamy, humid, summer day. Work and sweating were on the agenda as we stared down unruly weeds and out of control rose bushes. But if we were to pass the house on to the next owner we would have to do the work to prepare the place for sale. It all looked like a weeks worth of work that I was intent on finishing on a Saturday morning.
I didn’t leave too many green things behind as I went around the house ripping weeds, trimming bushes, and leaving a wake of freshly pruned plants and new soil behind. I was dirty, sweaty, and loving it. There is such a sense of accomplishment when you can see what progress you make in a short amount of time. Couple a visable task with my natural “let’s do as much as we can in the least amount of time” attitude and we made some progress on sprucing up the old house. I was drenched in sweat from start to finish; it’s a good workout when sweat is sloshing out of your sneakers.
On either end of this landscape project I’m sure I went for a run or a bike ride. That’s as normal as the sun rising for the day. If it’s summer and sunny there is no better time to run or ride. The landscaping served as a warmup of sorts and the run was the cherry on top of a huge working day. Looking back on this I’m sure I was a sweaty mess for the better part of 12 hours.
The next day I was greeted by tremendous discomfort and skin irritation. To make matters worse it was located between my knees and waist; and everything in between. Yes, every place you don’t want to be uncomfortable! I didn’t have a clue what I did. All I knew was that I was working hard the day before and now I wanted to scratch and claw my skin off. It was pretty awful to walk around with legs that itched and other places that needed to be scratched constantly and I was desperate to find some kind of relief that didn’t involve clawing my fingernails into every place that bothered me. In my mind I did what made sense; I did a quick google and hauled off to the pharmacy to buy a bunch of random sprays, creams, and treatments to provide relief for the condition I thought I had. Some of the stuff I read the descriptions and thought, “Wow, that’s exactly how I feel! This has to work!”. Other things I grabbed because I liked the packaging or it sounded like it would work super-fast. I plopped down some cash and ran back to the house to see how something, anything, could work on my new-found itchiness.
I popped the top off of the first aerosol can and sprayed the entire affected area looking for instant relief. Within 5 seconds it felt like I used a blowtorch instead of an innocent sounding spray can that promised instant relief. By instant I guess they meant that it would simply burn off any affected skin…and the symptoms would disappear! I had to drop to my knees and was really yelping for help when my bride arrived on the scene and tried to balance caregiver without laughing in my face. I was a mess. Whatever ingredients were in this can of fire did not play nice with whatever condition I did have. I was making my life even worse with my application of improper medication. I never considered what it could be or where it came from. I simply tried anything to make my condition better.
After my episode with the wrong application of medicine to the wrong area of the body I figured I should maybe look into a real diagnosis. Luckily, or unluckily for me, I started having the same kind of rash and itchiness on my arms and ankles. And that got me thinking that it was never the ailment I thought it was; the day I was ripping and tearing in the yard was also the day that I grabbed fistfuls of poison ivy. The poison ivy oil got on my hands and all of my sweating transported it all over my body. A visit to the doctor confirmed the case and I went home with medication that wouldn’t melt my skin off or destroy anything in its path. It took a few days but eventually I recovered and learned a valuable lesson. When it comes to pain in sensitive areas it’s best to find out what the condition is, where it came from, and treat appropriately!
While this whole story is pretty embarrassing and my family gets a good laugh from it now I think it plays to a bigger picture. You and I live in a world where it’s inevitable to make it through unscathed. Working, playing, and generally living is going to make get a case of “poison ivy” eventually. It’s not real poison ivy; but it can spread and be mistreated all the same. Hurt, heartache, fear, rejection, and all of the other emotions can cause a big old itch to our spirit. There’s many more no-so-endearing condtions like jealousy, greed, and lust as well. Toss all of that together and sometimes people just don’t mix well as we spend our days here on earth. We are emotional people with conditions of our spirit that need to be treated.
After I gave up playing doctor with my own poison ivy I had to sit and be still. My own understanding wasn’t working thus far; all I did was create more calamity in my condition. Mistreating the condition with the wrong medication made sensitive areas hurt even more. What could I have, where did it come from, and who can help me?
When I figured out it was a rogue weed that was creating my issue I knew I had to go to the doctor and get some real meds to treat my rash. I did some other things like rest a bit more, and spent time in pools where the chlorine would help me recover. I also learned that it was best to stay away from the source of so much pain; that goes for the plant as well as the wrong medication! I can easily identify poison ivy and make every effort to keep my sweaty self away from that pesky plant.
I’d like to recommend a similar process to you today for whatever is going on in your heart. Accurately call out the condition, consider the source, and spend time with the One that will point you in the right direction. To be honest, I think we are mistreating a lot of wounded hearts with our quick fixes, an unwillingness to be honest, and general busyness of the world we live in. And the source of much of this is not good! Where do you think the items that make a wounded spirit come from? It’s not a good place and yet we somehow keep finding ourselves believing lies and revisiting the areas that make us sick. Sometimes we try to fix the issue with things that just don’t work and make it worse. The enemy is always working against us.
People aren’t perfect. We are a fallen group of sinners. But when we identify what we are struggling with, consider the source, and spend time with our Creator then we have more than a chance! We have eternity in our hearts when we choose the Holy Spirit to guide us every step of the way. It’s a healing solution in a world of crazy rashes and itchiness. The Holy Spirit is Gods way of speaking, healing, and providing care for us. It doesn’t always make sense to a human mind but there’s truth and healing when we listen and follow
There’s still plenty of poison ivy lurking in the area I live in; I just happen to have the wisdom and discernment to avoid it now. I don’t want to revisit the past pain of poison nor do I want to set my sensitive areas on fire with a wrong dose of a “cure”. In the rare case I get a bit of poison ivy I’m going to know what it is, where it came from, and how to deal with it. As we go through life I hope we can remember to experience God and His love and truth in all of our circumstances. It sure is painful sometimes but let’s not make it worse than it needs to be. May God help you through a lifetime of “poison ivy” cases with discernment, truth, and proper medication!
