Stomach Ache?

As we make our way through this topsy-turvy virus crisis with all it ups and downs… deaths, tests, ventilators, layoffs, quarantines, wet markets, statistics… does your stomach ache?

Did you know that motion sickness is caused by a confusion in your brain between your inner ears and eyes that ends up on your stomach?

If you are traveling by car, plane or boat and are reading a book, magazine or iPhone, your inner ears and eyes send conflicting messages to your brain. Your inner ears sense motion and movement from the jostling of the car, plane or boat. Your eyes detect stability as they focus on the book, magazine or iPhone. Are things moving or are things stable?

The truth is that indeed things are moving and are not stable. It is just that your eyes sense a stability that is not real. That false signal combined with what your inner ears sense messes with your brain in a way that leaves a mess in your stomach.

I am sure that you know what to do in order to avoid the stomach ache. You fix your eyes ahead to the horizon and focus on that. That helps your inner ears, eyes, brain and stomach all find an equilibrium.

Does your stomach ache because of all that is happening around us? Perhaps you had been seeing life as more stable than it really is. Like reading a book on a plane you have been seeing things in life as steadier than is the case. Like eyes trying to overrule the truth inner ears sense, you have come to believe that life can be stable, safe and secure, when it never really is. And in doing so when you hear all the commotion around you your brain and stomach go into revolt.

Here’s the solution. Fix your eyes on Jesus there on the horizon. Look for him. Watch for him. The one who was crucified, the one who was raised from the dead, the one who ascended into heaven, that one is coming back again. Watch, out there on the horizon.

Eyes fixed on the horizon will enable you to get through all the topsy-turvy events surrounding the virus crisis… and whatever is the next crisis… without getting a stomach ache.

That’s what seems significant to me this week.

What has stuck you as significant?