Rx. For What’s Bugging You

Post by New Contributor Lori Travers!

You’ve got scabies.

This is not something you want to hear upon visiting your integrative doc’s office.

For a split second I was happy to hear that there was indeed a diagnosis…then reality hit.

At a very base level, this microscopic, but extremely annoying creature lives under the skin of humans. They cannot survive outside of a “host”. They can live there for weeks without the unsuspecting human ever noticing. But when the symptoms occur, they start out as small irritations…hardly noticeable. Then they become increasingly annoying…

scratch…scratch…SCRATCH!!  Eventually, the proverbial “all hell breaks loose!” The skin becomes unbearably irritated, itching becomes sleeplessness, and new meaning to the expression I want to jump out of my skin! becomes a mantra.

All of this from a tiny parasitic, unseen creature…*sad face*

I’ve learned in my 50-something years of life that what is hidden will do far more damage to a person than that which is brought to the light.  This hidden dominant force besieges us when we let the struggle stay just under the surface. The issues we let go unresolved, the times we let concealed sin rule in us, the fear of others’ reactions to our struggle…all these “host” the parasite. These will stay under the surface for only so long, but then the “symptoms” will appear.  Anxiety, scratch scratch…panic attacks, scratch scratch, depression, scratch scratch…anger, scratch scratch  SCRATCH…

So, what’s the remedy? BRING IT TO THE LIGHT! In the book of Ephesians, Paul had a succinct way of expressing this:

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’” Ephesians 5:8-14

Did you get that? “Expose them.”  Scary, huh? But by bringing that hidden stuff “to the light” you put yourself in a position for healing. LIGHT is healing. Jesus is the Light of the world. When Christ shines on us, the concealed pain that torments us no longer has dominance over us. The process might feel less than effortless, but exposure brings ultimate healing. Then you can scratch those hidden “pests” off your list of emotional and spiritual roadblocks.

Find some safe people who will help you diagnose the tormenters correctly, open up to the healing salve of God’s grace and love for you, and annihilate the culprits of fear. Healing comes when exposure takes place and what’s eating away at you is dealt with!

So, what’s under your skin? Are you covering up the critters only to have them ceaselessly plague you? Or are you bringing them the Light that will eradicate them once and for all?

The choice is yours. Your prescription is waiting to be picked up.