Unforgiveness is Like the Flu

I don't generally struggle with unforgiveness.  But lest I speak too soon, I've had a bout of it lately.  And as the days pass and my demeanor improves I am feeling a bit like how I felt when recovering from the flu last month.

And it hit me:  Unforgiveness is like the flu.

You see, when I had the flu last month, I was miserable.

I found it hard to sleep because I was achy and sore and stuffy.  But sleep was what I really wanted and needed.  But the pain in my bones kept me uptight and unrelaxed making sleep very difficult.

Unforgiveness has done the same thing to me.  It made me uptight.  Unrelaxed.  Fidgety.  Unable to sleep.

The flu made me miserable.  Unforgiveness did the same.

Also, the flu is highly contagious.

I would venture to say that unforgiveness also breeds itself in seedy environments where festering, brooding and spill-over occurs.  When others catch a whiff of your bitter insolence it plants toxic seeds in their memory banks of what is possible in the human psyche.  These seeds can reproduce themselves until you have a replicated full-blown case of unforgiveness in a second contaminant.

When I finally did get some sleep with the flu, I tossed and turned and woke up early, not refreshed, not feeling much better.

Unforgiveness had the same effect.  When I woke up I wished I could be sleeping again.  But my anger burned.  Unforgiveness had its grip on me and I could not get relief.  At least with the flu there is ibuprofen or benadryl.  But these won't affect an agitated heart.  I'd say unforgiveness is worse than the flu.  It infects your soul and can creep into your body too.  I'd much rather have a miserable body and a heart at peace than vice versa.

With the flu I had no appetite - the upside of it all was I lost 5 pounds!  (Which were swiftly re-gained over Christmas...*sigh*).

Interestingly, unforgiveness has stolen my all-too-robust appetite.  This is perhaps a fringe benefit in our culture of eating less and being thin.  But if our appetite is nixed in the long-term, this is detrimental to a healthy body.  The other downside is that it is not just my physical appetite that vanished, but my appetite for normative, healthy, nourishing food.  I tended to want to eat junk food - because I was physically hungry, but had no interest in preparing or consuming proper meals.

Unforgiveness...?

           The Flu...?

                        Unforgiveness...?

                                       The Flu...?

Which has got you?

Be careful during this flu season.

But be far more careful  with the condition of your soul.