Do not let your heart be troubled by the prospect of sickness or by these pains of the body. Did not the Lord say to the sisters of Lazarus, when the message came that he was ill, “This sickness is not unto death”? And though Lazarus died, yet they were not scandalized, because they understood that even death itself is not death for those who love God. What is an eye malady, what is a weakness of the flesh, but a summons to philosophy? Affliction is the great teacher. When we are well and our lives roll on smoothly, the soul grows drowsy; but let sickness come, and it shakes off the slumber, it compels us to consider the judgment that waits for us all. Do not then fear the ailments you name, but use them to rouse your soul. Did not Paul say, “Use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities”? The body is to be cared for, yes, but for health, not for luxury; not making provision to fulfill its lusts, but so that you might serve God with a sound vessel. The scooter you need, if it is necessary for your weakness, pray and seek it, but do not let your peace depend on it. The earth is full of such things: machines break, provisions fail, yet the soul that leans on Christ stands unshaken.
You fear for your father’s health, and you hope he may soon lift heavy things again. It is right to honor your parents and to desire their wellbeing. Yet remember that even for the righteous, this life is but a shadow. An hour of affliction makes a man forget much pleasure, and that is a mercy. Perhaps your father’s weakness is the very thing that will draw him closer to the One who said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” There is no true rest in the strength of limbs or in the absence of pain; rest is where there is no sin, no fear of death, no anxious care. That rest Christ gives even now in the midst of trials, and He will give it fully where sorrow and sighing flee away. Pray for your father, not chiefly that he recover his strength, but that his inner man be renewed day by day, and that if he is laid low, he may find the gates of hell burst open by the Cross. For when Christ was crucified, the dead were raised, the prison was shattered, and the keepers of the grave cowered in fear. That same power works now for those who take His yoke upon them.
As for your mother’s journey and the events you do not wish to miss, lay these too before God without anxiety. The heart that makes countless provisions for the flesh only lights up the furnace of desire and worry. The present life is a sleep, and its goods and sorrows are like dreams. One who grows rich in a dream wakes to find it was nothing; one who grieves in a dream is released at dawn. So it will be when we depart. Keep your gaze on that morning. Do not let the fear of missing this or that earthly gathering consume you, for the eternal assembly awaits those who learn of Christ, who is meek and lowly in heart.
I hear your dread of nations rising against nations. You hope Russia will not harm America or Canada. Terrible and sudden are the evils men devise. Yet consider the barbarians of old who left their country to come and worship Jesus with fear and trembling, though they knew nothing of the law. If He can turn the heart of a stranger, cannot He also restrain the wrath of princes? The fear that makes us look to armies and walls is a prison, but the fear of the Lord is full of delight. He who broke the gates of brass and loosed the dead will guard His people even in the midst of tumult. Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts, and that includes the lust of security which fevers the soul. Commit all these things to God, and do not, like those who in a fire shut themselves up in terror, refuse to face the danger by faith. Run to Christ, the refuge, and you will find His yoke light even when the earth shakes.
Let the great examples stand before you. You see the unrighteous man clutching his gains, yet every hour he is pierced with dread, and when sickness comes, the judgment seat appears before his eyes. His stolen wealth is a bitterness, his ease is a snare. But you, who cry out to God for small things and great, what have you to fear? Only this: that you should neglect your soul while you tend the body. I do not bid you to despise the scooter or the health of your eyes, but to seek them without anguish, as one who knows that the one blow that fells a tree comes after many strokes; so God often delivers us not by removing the trial but by making the trial itself the stroke of deliverance. The worldly man trembles when he sees others punished, yet you who are washed and fed at the Table of the Lord, can you drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons, which is the cup of fretting despair? Far from it.
Therefore, stand fast. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall, and that heedfulness is not a miserable bondage but a holy fear. When you rise from prayer, do not at once plunge into counting the days till your mother travels or fretting over the scooter’s faults. Say to your soul, “This sickness is not unto death; this loss is not an eternal loss.” The things seen are temporal, the unseen eternal. There was a man who heard ten sermons and seemed unmoved, yet at the eleventh, the whole gathered force of grace broke through, and he bore abundant fruit. So may it be with you. Even now, if you feel your heart still quivering with these cares, know that the word is digging deep, and in time the root will be exposed and the great tree of anxiety will fall.
Commend your father, your mother, your own body, the scooter, the nations, all to the Lord who was crucified and who rose again. He has not promised a life without thorns, but He has promised rest to your souls if you will take His yoke and learn of Him. Flee for refuge to the Mysteries, to the assembly of the saints, to the medicine of thanksgiving. The execrable sins of the flesh are not the only things that defile: a heart consumed with earthly cares and forgetful of the judgment to come is like a garment filthy from your slave’s body. Will you wear it? Will you embrace it? Be ashamed of such works, and be not ashamed of the words that heal.
I could wish there were no need to mention the torments that await the unrepentant, yet I speak of them by necessity. For an hour of affliction makes a man forget much pleasure, and I would have you remember that the dread of judgment is itself a grace when it drives you to the foot of the Cross. There the prison of fear is burst, and the dead are set free. There is no night there, no mourning, no crying, no pain; but here, while we journey, let us endure the little griefs as men who look for the great glory. Do not let the gain of a whole world weigh you down when one thing is needful.
May you, together with your household, become worthy of the admonitions of Christ, so that whether you remain in health or fall into sickness, whether you see your father restored or called home, whether the nations rage or keep silence, you may find the rest that is in the meek and lowly Master. Lay hold on eternal life, and then no scooter, no eye, no human foe can rob you of your treasure.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. 
