We're back at it again, and unfortunately so is some kind of virus or infection with our kids. Dane has been running a high fever for several days, and Ava just started tonight. We've ruled out almost everything after several visits to doctors, which is good but also frustrating. Rotating Tylenol & Motrin is fine, but it just treats the symptoms & not the root issue. Well...don't we deal with our sin the same way sometimes? We attack the symptoms, but not the real issue. We don't stop to ask ourselves, "Why am I behaving this way? Why do I do this?" If we want to make lasting change, we've got to figure out the origin of our actions.
#SetYourMindAbovePodcast
We're back at it again, and unfortunately so is some kind of virus or infection with our kids. Dane has been running a high fever for several days, and Ava just started tonight. We've ruled out almost everything after several visits to doctors, which is good but also frustrating. Rotating Tylenol & Motrin is fine, but it just treats the symptoms & not the root issue. Well...don't we deal with our sin the same way sometimes? We attack the symptoms, but not the real issue. We don't stop to ask ourselves, "Why am I behaving this way? Why do I do this?" If we want to make lasting change, we've got to figure out the origin of our actions.
#SetYourMindAbovePodcast
Welcome back to all of our listeners! I’m BJ Sipe, and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above podcast – where everyday ordinary events teach us extraordinary eternal truths. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today, I am excited to share my life and my faith with you, and I sure hope that you’ll do the same with me along the way.
Before we start todays podcast, I want to thank everyone for their patience with the short delay of the podcast. Our last full episode, I shared that I wasn’t really at a good place and was struggling with so many different things that all hit at the same time. I was trying to control things that were beyond my control, and your overwhelming love and support reminded me that I needed to give it up to God. So, thank you. Thank you for your patience, your understanding, and most of all for your love and encouragement. Not to be a downer, but while my perspective has shifted and I am at a better place emotionally & spiritually, things continue to pile on as they tend to do. To quote one of my favorite bands called Dawes, “Things happen. It’s all they ever do.” So I’ll share the good news and then share the rough news. Here is the good news: yesterday my wife and I hit the 7 year mark of marriage. It is so hard to believe how much has changed over the past 7 years, but beyond any doubt they have been the best years of my life because they have been spent next to Kylie’s side. I love my wife with all my heart, and I absolutely married up – trust me on that one. We’re the kind of couple that if we stood in line together at the grocery store, the attendant would probably put a divider down the middle of our stuff because they wouldn’t believe that someone like her would be with someone like me. Well all jokes aside, here’s the bad news: instead of spending the day celebrating together, the day was spent tending to a very sick little boy. Our son Dane came down with a pretty high fever Sunday night, and that fever has persisted to linger clear into today. When I say a high fever, I mean that last night he peaked around 103.5° F. So, Monday morning Kylie got up early and took him into the walk in clinic here in Danville so we could have him seen ASAP. They ran a lot of tests: they ran a test for RSV, for Strep, and for Covid – all of which came back negative. They checked for infection in his ears, but everything seemed to be just fine. They sent us home without much of an answer except to keep treating the symptoms, rotating Tylenol & Motrin. Well after the very high fevers returned that night, that’s when we called our pediatrician who asked to see him immediately this morning. Kylie brought him in & they did more tests. They checked his ears again & cleaned them out – saying one looked a little red but not enough to do all of this. They did a flu test, which came back negative. We were all left just scratching our heads, trying to figure out what has our little boy so miserable. Finally the doctor suggested something to helps us get down to the root issue, and not just keep treating the symptoms. He prescribed some amoxicillin to combat infection, in case that is the origin of the problems and we’re just not able to pinpoint it. We are going to let that run it’s course over the next 24 hours, and if he is still not better our pediatrician has recommended that we go to the UK children’s hospital and have Dane admitted for some more extensive blood & urine testing. Perhaps the reason we have no answers as to what’s going on is because we haven’t taken the right tests yet. Maybe it’s something bacterial? Maybe it’s something more serious that we though originally? Whatever the case is, we are praying that it’s simply an infection and that the antibiotics will make it all better. With that being said, once again I’ll ask your patience this week if our podcast schedule is a little off depending on what happens with Dane, and now also Ava who just started running a fever tonight. We just want to get some answers. When you just treat the symptoms, you don’t actually fix the problem. Sure he might act normal for a few hours with Motrin in his system, but then it’s right back to the high fever. If you want to really help your kids to get feeling better when they’re sick, you’ve got to get down to the root of the problem.
It’s amazing how God has designed in many instances for physical things to be a reflection of spiritual realities in our lives. As I reflected on these things over the past few days, I couldn’t help but think of the words of James, the brother of Jesus, in his letter that can be found in our New Testament. Let us read together James 4:1-5, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us?” When you read the entirety of this letter, the contexts reveals to us that the Christians James was writing to had a lot of problems going on among them. They were divided, quarrelling with each other, and acted with a great deal of pride rather than humility. When you read this, a good question might be this: what was the problem that needed fixed? You might originally say something like, “Well they were fighting with each other, so they needed to stop it.” And to an extent, I would agree with you. God’s children ought not to fight one another, and obviously their behavior was wrong and needed stopped. But just getting them to stop fighting was not going to actually solve the problem, because before too long they would just be right back at it again. Why? Because their fighting with one another was not really the problem, it was merely a symptom of the real problem. Look at the text again: James asks them – ‘what causes fights and quarrels among you’? In other words, he’s saying, ‘Let’s back up here…where is all of this originating from? What is the root issue that needs addressed?’ And that is where we get to the real answer we are looking for…their passions were at war within them. They were being selfish, led by the flesh, and as a result of their worldly heart it manifested itself in worldly actions. The root issue wasn’t that they were fighting, the root issue was that they were covetous & selfish. I think we can recognize that pretty clearly when we look at this text, but what about when we look at our own lives? How often are we concerned with the symptoms rather than really getting down to the root issue? We sin, and we know what we have done is wrong, so we “attack the symptom” and swear to ourselves we’ll never do it again. We’re good for a little while but guess what? We do it again. Why? Well for the same reason a fever would keep reoccurring with our son: we’re just treating the symptoms, not the root problem. When you stumble & struggle with a sin, ask yourself this question: why am I doing this? Let me use myself as a case study. Last week I was anxious, frustrated, and as a result not very kind to my family around me. But those were not the problem, they are problems, but they are merely symptoms of the root problem. The real problem was I was being prideful & trying to control everything in my life instead of giving it up to God. If I wanted to make lasting change, I needed to deal with the real problem – which was my pride. Take a moment to think about your life & think about how you have approached your sinful condition. Are you asking the right questions, dealing with the real problems? Let’s not just treat the symptoms, let’s get down to the heart of the matter in order to make lasting change in our life.
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Tune in, Tuesday-Fridays, as a new podcast episode will be uploaded each day. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page for the Set Your Mind Above podcast for future announcements and video sessions. As you have the opportunity, share these thoughts with your friends and family, and share with me what important lessons you are learning from every day, ordinary events. Until next time know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.