The Briefness of Life

So being sick is never fun.  For the past 10 days I have been battling pneumonia.  I had pneumonia once before, but it was while I was in the hospital recovering from surgery, so I don't think I was capable of discerning what pain was from pneumonia, and what pain was from surgery.  This time, however, there were no such complications and I will not soon forget the misery that is pneumonia.  I have never had such a persistent fever and headache.  Ever.  My fever topped out at 104.3 and my head literally felt like it was going to explode.  Actually, I think I was hoping it would explode to relieve the pressure that was relentlessly beating the inside of my skull.  I had this fever/headache for almost six days.  It has been 10 days since the beginning of symptoms, 4 days since the end of the fever, and I am still not feeling normal. I cannot walk to the top of the stairs without having to take a rest.  I went to the grocery store the other day and then took at 3 hour nap I was so exhausted from the experience.  My brain still feels not quite all there.  In short, I got absolutely leveled by a disease I could neither see nor prevent and it will probably be weeks before I feel "normal" again.

Which means I've had quite a bit of time staring at my ceiling whilst lying on the couch/bed unable and unwilling to move.  There is nothing quite like sickness and disease to remind us that we are small, weak, and horribly fragile beings.  And yet we never seem to ponder these things long, much to our detriment.  These feelings remind us that we are indeed finite, that we do indeed have an end.  I am in no way shape or form in the best physical condition of my life, but I am not a couch potato.  I run regularly, lift occasionally, and generally stay pretty fit.  And yet I am a heartbeat away from my end.  I am a created being, and one day I will wake up not feeling well and it will be my last day on earth.  Sickness should, above all else, remind us of the shortness of life.  That our time here is brief, and that even if we live to be over 100 years old, our lives are still a vapor, a mist, and flash of light in comparison to eternity.  Are we spending that brief time we have been allotted trying to accumulate for ourselves comfort, or are we spending ourselves in order to see Christ be lifted up and made much of in our lives and in the lives of others?  Do we seek to behold His glory by faith or do we disguise our worldliness in religion?