When Good is distorted

I must be getting old...or lazy. Probably both. I curled up with a book, on the off and on rainy day while little tumbleweeds of dog fur blew about the house. The bathrooms, while not yet to the level of disgusting could use a good swipe. Yet, I curled up with a wonderful whodunnit book and read to my heart's content. Honeybun curled up on the couch next to me and we supined the day  away. An oasis of hours in a whirlwind year.

My sister Amy called from the hospital. I hadn't heard her voice in almost a week and after how perilously sick she was, it was music to my ears, albeit drugged, groggy, slooooooow music. She sounded a little like a record played at half speed.  She advanced yesterday to a liquid diet. Until then, she has been fed only through an IV for almost a week.
"Oh, a 5 star liquid diet too," she said, slurring a little through the pain killers, "I even got jello!"
"Jello is liquid?" I asked.
"Yes, this is a little known fact...."
"Wow, well then I suppose you got some yogurt too?"
"No silly, don't you know the meaning of 'opaque'?"

"So Amy, I was looking up what happens during pancreatitis. It is an autoimmune response."
"I know," she drawled with an indignant rise in her carefully paced voice, "Can you believe how dumb a design that is...to make an organ that decides to eat itself?"
And indeed that does seem a little silly. The pancreas produces enzymes that help with digestion, but for various reasons, in Amy's case- unkown reasons, the enzymes turn against their maker...and begin to eat away at the pancreas instead.

This is not unlike sin. Most, if not all sin, is an extreme of a normal and good purpose or function.  It is only when what was intended for good is triggered to exaggeration and goes haywire, devouring itself and unfortunately others in its distorted path. Hunger is good; gluttony is not. Sex in the healthy and safe context of marriage is good; promiscuity is not. Self care is good; narcissism is not. Rest after hard work is good; laziness is not. Etc. etc. etc. (One etc. is good....three etc. is overkill....)

The inevitable result of a distorted good is self destruction. Like a pancreas eating itself.....

Amy has spent a week in the hospital in a very not fun treatment. She was not allowed even a sip of water for almost the whole week. The treatment for pancreatitis is complete cessation of digestion so the pancreas can heal, along with healthy doses of antibiotics.

The treatment for sin is a little trickier. The Bible advises to flee when possible. Sometimes it still overtakes us. God knows of course that it will. So He gave us a book to shore ourselves up, to remind and encourage us, and He gave us a covering so the ravages of sin eating away at a fallen world doesn't chomp on our vulnerable weak souls....but on Him who is able to overcome instead. Ultimately, good will be restored and all things will work as they were intended to work at the dawn of creation.

I got a text message from Amy's saintly husband, Jim last night:
"Amy had solid food!"

Job 20:13
¹⁴ yet his food will turn sour in his stomach;
   it will become the venom of serpents within him.
¹⁵ He will spit out the riches he swallowed;
   God will make his stomach vomit them up.

1 Corinthians 6:12-14 

  ¹² “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. ¹³ You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴ By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.