The
Guide
By Tracy Smith
“But
when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the
truth.”
John 16:13a (NIV)
This past year, my 15-year-old son
was diagnosed with benign hypermobility
syndrome (commonly referred to as double-jointed). The medical definition
is, “Benign joint hypermobility syndrome (BJHS) is a connective tissue disorder
with hypermobility in which musculoskeletal symptoms occur in the absence of
systemic rheumatologic disease.” [1] But to a 15-year-old boy, it means that he can bend and stretch
in ways that others cannot. And he can gross out and/or amaze people very
easily!
When talking about this once,
someone asked me why “benign” was in the name. My understanding is that the
characteristics my son displays, if paired with other characteristics that he
does not have, could then mean he had something called Marfan’s Syndrome. Marfan’s has other health problems and issues
that are more serious. Since my son does not have enough markers for Marfan’s,
his set of characteristics are considered “benign.”
This got me thinking about things in
life that, in and of themselves, are benign, but if they are not used correctly
or paired with other characteristics, they could become something more serious.
There are many examples, but a few come to mind that are especially relevant
today are: online time, TV watching, gaming, time spent on social media, etc.
It is really anything that takes our time away from other things that we should
be doing, or away from people we should be spending time with. All the things
on the list, or anything else that you can think of, when used correctly or in
correct time amounts are benign. But with all of them, a line can be crossed
that can make them damaging or addicting.
What is that line? Is it the same
for everyone? How do we know when we’ve crossed the line? The Holy Spirit is
our Guide in this. I know I’ve felt the nudging of the Holy Spirit more than
once in regards to something that was taking up too much of my time and inching
out of “benign” territory. John 14:16 says, “And I will ask the Father, and he
will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.” [2] We need to be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is telling us regarding
our habits and behaviors. We need to
allow Him to be our guide.
GOING DEEPER
- Is there something in your life that you feel
the Holy Spirit nudging you about?
- If so, what is your action plan regarding
this?
FURTHER READING
Along with being a wife and mother
to two teenage boys, Tracy is a ministry assistant at Oakwood and works with a
great group of Junior High girls.
[2] ESV version
