How Hive you been doing?

Once upon a time I worked four summers at an amazing summer camp called Eagle Lake.  Tucked between the tall pines of Pike National Forest Eagle Lake is teeming with happy campers on any given summer day.  Summers were fun, but they were also difficult. . .and sometimes gruesome.

One summer during a particularly stretching week, I found myself becoming increasingly itchy.  At first it was just my armpits.  Yep, both of them.  I scratched away (I told you some parts were gruesome) as I picked up sandy towels and left socks with holey toes from the lakefront.  As the day turned to evening the itching sensation had spread to my back, and soon my stomach, and within a matter of hours I had a full blown case of leper like hives all over my body.  No amount of benadryl or calamine was calming this outbreak down.  The next day I rushed down the mountain to a physician.  Diagnosis?  Stress.


Who breaks out in one big blotchy itchy rash from stress?!  Solution?  Rest.  More half-conscious days induced by antihistamines and walking around smeared with a glaze of pink lotion.

(picture:  Eagle Lake circa 2006 cleaning up dinner. . .not sure if this is a fun, difficult, or gruesome memory.)

Fast forward oh, six years, and here I am at work starting to scratch my underarm.  No alarms go off until an hour later and I just can't shake it.  So much itching!  But that's probably not a picture you want in your head-Lauren, in a cute blouse (it was cute, I promise) scratching her armpit.  I immediately thought back to the summer days of Eagle Lake and that dreadful week of hives.  Fortunately I have yet to see any spots, but it did make me think. . .maybe I'm a little stressed.

January 11, 2012.

7:30am.

Surgery Time.

Today Andy and I scurried around looking for button up pajama's, buying household supplies, and trying to find those nice little bed and breakfast tables (to no avail) as we prepare for the upcoming operation.  It's a little daunting to think about the tubes, the blood, the pain, the recovery.  I'm sure I will have a million posts after surgery entitled "Things I took for granted" as I know minimal tasks will be difficult.

But this morning God reminded me through His word that He is above all things.  That He alone is all powerful and He is the one to be feared.  What can overcome God?  What is beyond His care?

"But be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you."  1 Samuel 12:24

To fear the Lord is to put all my attention on him-he is great and surpasses all things, even surgery that causes stress, that could potentially lead to an outbreak of The Itch.  And to remember all the great things he has done for me only puts his love, wisdom, and power into perspective.

So much relief and without the coma inducing side affects of benadryl.

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