Prescription
medication and me usually don’t get along very well. I tend to always be the 1%
of patients that experience the unusual side effects. Many of the medications
on the market today that we take can cause side effects, some more serious than
others. Mild ones include things like headaches, dry mouth, stomach upset. Very
serious side effects can cause permanent organ damage or death. Others can be
anything in between.
I have had
to make some tough decisions about medications in the past. Sometimes the
“cure” is worse than the disease itself and you have to weigh the risk involved
to the possible benefit. Often I find myself taking one medication to treat an
illness and then needing another medication to treat the side effects of the
first meds. I rationalize that the treatment must be taken for the greater
good, and deal with the bad things that come as I hope to see some good
results.
If you have
read any of my previous blog posts, I tend to find spiritual analogies to fit
the medical situations I face. As I prepare to begin a new medication to treat
my current nerve issue, I thought at how the domino effect of one
medication causing side effects and the need for other medication is very
similar to sin. We tell one little lie, thinking that there will be very little
“side effects” or consequences. One untruth can’t be that bad, right? We rationalize that it will happen just this
once, it won’t hurt anyone else.
Sin has
consequences and it can snowball into something deadly. We lie, steal, cheat or
are unfaithful. We think it is no big deal. One lie causes another and then
another. Pretty soon the side effects are catastrophic. Families and lives are
destroyed.
You should read the instructions and warnings before starting a new medicine, and you must know the dangers of your sin. “For the wages of sin is death….”
(Romans 6:23). There is only one “treatment” to fix your sinfulness, and that
is Jesus Christ alone. “…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord.”
I'm also the 1% except I call myself "the 5%". Just to let you know you have company. When they say, "This shouldn't happen", it often does. Unfortunately, most don't cure, they only treat the symptoms. (I'm not anti-med, I take a lot of them.)
ReplyDeleteWhat you say is a good antidote (get it?) to moralism. Most people don't bother to research medication they take or think ahead of what sin will do. I would like to think I prefer to not even go that far as far as sin and just know it's wrong, but some can start out small like you say. But Jesus is the answer, not trying harder or expecting people to act like they have the Holy Spirit.
I like to think of it as counting the cost, whether it's something we probably shouldn't do or even something we want to undertake that's something good.
Jeff
It is good not to be the only one that has this problem. I figure they should just test new drugs on me, since they will find out all the bad side effects!
DeleteCounting the costs is most definitely the best policy. Thanks for reading!