In October I came down with a horrible sinus infection. Had one of those? The pain, stuffiness, headaches, you know the drill. I didn’t go to the doctor. I treated it with saline rinses, vitamin C , bed rest and other “good” stuff. It took a while but I was able to finally beat it. At least I thought so. But 4 weeks later here it is again. The reality is, I never got completely over the infection I had the first time. It just went into a lessened state, which I thought was normal.

Do you ever do that? Do you ever treat ‘issues’ in life that way? Rather than dealing directly with the issue, we try to "home remedy it" – hoping for the best. And we get some relief, so we think we’re getting some forward movement, or things are getting back to ‘normal’. But if we let it go for any length of time we find that the infection just went underground, but it is still there.

Jesus tells us to love people. That's messy. But it's what we're told to do. Sometimes relationships are messy. Even painful. But it doesn't excuse us from what Jesus has called us to do.

At this wonderful time of year, with so much to be thankful for, just get in there. Deal straight up with the stuff in front of you. Don’t try to home remedy it, hoping for the best. Get in there, deal with the tough stuff, and you’ll find true health is waiting on the other side…..