Chronic

Urticaria. You learn all these obscure medical terms when you do desperate Google searches for causes and treatments for health-related issues. My health-related issue has not been hives; it’s been CHRONIC hives. Hives may last for hours or even days. Chronic hives will last for months! To be fair, I will hit three weeks tomorrow, but I have confidently self-diagnosed myself after a little detective work that unveiled a delayed reaction to a Covid booster, this year and last. If my condition is anything like the previous year, I still have about four more months to go!

Through my Google searches, I learned that the itchy welts are produced by a chemical called histamines. While our instinct may be to rub or scratch at the itch, this only spreads more histamines that appear in other areas of the body. When you don’t realize that you are simply energizing a histamine factory, especially on Day 1, you look like someone splashed a bucket of red on you. Who knew that even your palms could get so itchy!

I couldn’t help but notice that having hives has a lot of parallels to our sinful state. Sin promises a false hope and joy that only leads to death. Scratching at my hives also has its promises of relief but only for a moment! I hate how I know both to be deeply true yet still forget and pursue death. I don’t know if church or spiritual disciplines are like antihistamines, but I do know that I certainly would not like to live without them, however imperfect they may be. But in these particularly uncomfortable days, I can’t wait till I am off the meds, feeling closer to a state of glory!

Stay away from Moderna if you want to avoid risking having my experience.

Thought of the Day: NBA

Song of the Day: Oasis-Columbia