Welcome back to all of our listeners! I’m BJ Sipe, and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above podcast – where everyday ordinary events teach us extraordinary eternal truths. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today, I am excited to share my life and my faith with you, and I sure hope that you’ll do the same with me along the way. 

Well, here we go again. Guess who more than likely has strep once again? That’s right, it’s me. Goodness, it feels like we just can’t catch a break in our home right now. We have been dealing with one of us being sick with something for the past 6 weeks, and it just keep recycling over and over again. We have done everything we thought we should have, from changing sheets to changing tooth brushes and tooth paste, being careful with contact or sharing drinks, etc. But no matter what we do, something (particularly this strep) keeps popping back up with one of us. I started feeling not quite myself yesterday as I woke up with a pretty sore throat. I took some Dayquil and that seemed to calm it down some so I went about my normal day. However last night I could hardly sleep, even with taking Unisom to help me rest. This morning I woke up and immediately cancelled all my studies because my throat felt like it was on fire. I took a flash light and checked my throat in the mirror – sure enough, it was very red, streaky, and had little white spots in different places. My wonderful wife who has done such a good job taking care of us all immediately called my primary and left a message with the doctor while I tried to get myself ready for the day. Several hours went by and we hadn’t heard anything, which was to be expected because our wonderful doctors are just so overworked right now that they can hardly catch up already as it is. So I went to the Ephraim McDowell walk in clinic but again had to wait for over an hour to be seen. As I waited, finally I got a call back from my primary doctor’s office clerk saying that Dr. Lande had called in a prescription for me and to get better soon. A huge shout out to Dr. Lande for taking care of me today and saving me the cost of a walk-in appointment at the clinic. I ran to Walmart, picked up my prescription, and am now sitting here in my office recording today’s podcast. I’ve got to be honest, I feel absolutely miserable right now. I’m congested, my throat feels like it’s on fire, and nothing seems to calm it down. Hopefully the meds kick in sooner than later and we can finally, finally be over all of this sickness. Have you ever had that happen, where something just keeps coming back that you can’t get rid of? For some it’s allergies, or maybe it’s a virus or a lingering pain from a past injury. No matter what you do, no matter what you try, it just seems to come back up out of nowhere and continue to cause problems. I’m sure you can relate, and it can be one of the most frustrating things, especially if you’re not exactly sure as to why it keeps happening. I guess time will tell, but I certainly hope that this will be the very last time you hear me mention strep on this podcast for a very, very long time. 

While sickness or pain that continues to pop back up in your life can certainly weigh you down or be frustrating, what is far worse that takes place frequently in our lives is when some particular spiritual struggle is ongoing in our lives. That no matter what we do, we just can’t seem to shake whatever that sin might be. For some it might be lust, for some it might be anger, maybe even something we don’t speak on enough like gluttony or gossip. You’ve tried and tried over and over to kick whatever this is, and at times you think, “Finally, I’ve beaten it! I’m done!” until suddenly out of nowhere you’re tempted and fall again and the cycle repeats. I relate a lot to the lyrics from a song called “The Search” from NF where he says, “See we’ve all got something that is trapped inside, that we try to suffocate, you know, hoping it dies. Try to hold it under water but it always survives, then it comes up out of nowhere like an evil surprise, and hovers over you to tell you millions of lies. You don’t relate to that? You must not be as crazy as I am.” Man do I relate to that. What he’s describing is what is described in the cycle of the judges. How Israel would be faithful to God, but then go off into idolatry and other sinful practices, so God would punish them and they would be oppressed. After some time they would repent and cry out to God who would send a judge to redeem them and rescue them, until finally the whole process would start again. It is a vicious cycle that I personally have seen lived out in my life time and time again. So why is that? I believe one of the biggest reasons why we continue to struggle with certain things is because we set ourselves up for failure. I want you to consider what Solomon writes to his son regarding how to stay away from giving in to sexual immorality with an adulteress woman.  He writes in Proverbs 5:7-9, “And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless.” Notice what Solomon has to say about this matter – he tells his son to stay as far away from where you know she is as possible, not even to go on her street. Why? Because he would be setting himself up for failure. We all know what tempts us and what our struggles are, and yet how often do we lie to ourselves and think, “I can handle it,” when we know very well we can’t? We put ourselves in positions that we know will tempt us or cause us to stumble, and then step back and wonder why we can never kick this habitual sinful action in our lives. I love the way that Solomon continues on in Proverbs 6:27-28, “Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?” In other words…what did you think was going to happen? If you play around with fire, you’re going to get burned. If you flirt with sin and try to get as close as you can to the line without going over it, you are going to fall. What did we think was going to happen? There is certainly much more to be said on this that we simply don’t have to the time for in this podcast, but I want to encourage us to be introspective and think about how this applies to you in your life today. In what ways are you setting yourself for failure and enabling this cycle to continue? Make a change today, end the cycle in your life, and start setting yourself up to succeed and finally be spiritually healthy again. 

Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Tune in, Tuesday-Fridays, as a new podcast episode will be uploaded each day. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page for the Set Your Mind Above podcast for future announcements and video sessions that are uploaded on Saturdays. As you have the opportunity, share these thoughts with your friends and family, and share with me what important lessons you are learning from every day, ordinary events. Until next time know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.