Desert of Adversity

Yesterday, after about 5 days of beating down the jackals of the cold, my voice went. 


It was odd. I didn't feel very sick, just on the tired side, but my voice was akin to a male bullfrog going through puberty. It made for some interesting sounding intercom building-wide announcements, asking students to come down to see me in Guidance. By the end of the day, I was either whispering or croaking, all the while telling my co-workers that I didn't feel very sick. I must of sounded as an alcoholic does when telling others he doesn't have a drinking problem after wracking up several DUI's. Denial.


Sickness is definitely a spanker of the flesh. In my more spiritual moments, I praise God for times of illness. It weans me off of the world in a way that nothing else can. Only when I feel the pains of sickness do I see the world clearly as a wasteland too and not just a wonderworld. It is really both. Adversity and Amusement. Crying and Laughing are both necessities.     


My iGoogle page has a "Bible Verse of Day" along with a linked Bible Study of that verse. Sometimes the related study just seems off but today's was piercing. It was titled, How Does Man Live?  and it was based on Deuteronomy 8:3: 


Man Doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord (Jehovah) doth man live. 


The study writes:


"The context tells us that the manna was given in the wilderness in order that Israel might learn the lesson above. The lesson is that man by himself is nothing, that all his religion and his works, that all his wisdom and inventions, can go no farther than the grave. So the man who eats bread and never takes thought of his Creator does not continue to live. Length of days cannot be his hope. He returns to the dust from which he came....Not only all people, but everything that comes from Adam ends in death. The wisdom of this world, the inventions of this world, the desires of this world, the pride of this world, and anything you can name that comes from Adam must find its end in death. This is final, this is the end. Natural religion cannot help it one bit. There is no philosophy that can get around it. And man's natural condition is such that there is no argument whatsoever in its favor. In the flesh dwells no good thing. The best righteousness that man can produce is filthy rags in the sight of God. And no man who knows God will for a moment try to reason otherwise. He knows himself. And we can add that it is impossible for a man to know himself till he knows God. And when he knows God, then with Job he will abhor himself, realize that he is vile, and begin looking around him for sackcloth and ashes in which to repent."


Commentator Adam Clarke states in reference to this verse in Deuteronomy, "God never permits any tribulation to befall his followers, which he does not design to turn to their advantage.  When he permits us to hunger, it is that his mercy may be the more observable in providing us with the necessaries of life.  Privations, in the way of providence, are the forerunners of mercy and goodness abundant."