This weekend was quite possibly one of the most trying and challenging weekends that Backes family has encountered in a while. Nothing flowed. Nothing clicked.

We had a great dinner Saturday night with some folks who are looking at being a part of Eternity. Also, my wife’s father was baptized at the age of 66 yesterday. So even amongst the challenges, God was extremely gracious to give us encouraging moments to hold on to over the last 72 hours.

But one of the things that happened this weekend was that my youngest son came down with red bumps all over his back and legs. We couldn’t for the life of us figure out what it was? Chiggers? Mosquito bites? Allergic reaction? What we ultimately came to yesterday was the diagnosis (self arrived at) of CHICKEN POX.

And we ran with that diagnosis. We called family members who had new babies to inform them of the news. We called my aunt to ask if she could remember 25 years back if I had ever had them. We worked ourselves into a frenzy. We prepared for the worst. We discouraged ourselves. There’s only one problem: My son woke up this morning and the bumps are gone (for the most part). No chicken pox. Just bites of some sort.

But this Scripture came to mind. And I was reminded how quickly we revert to trusting our own diagnosis of things than to go to the Great Physician. From a spiritual sense, we trust our circumstances and our hearts far too often. We don’t trust the diagnosis of Jesus. We don’t take heart in the fact that we are cared for by Jesus. We simply look to our own hearts for the diagnosis of things and then we work ourselves and others into a frenzy over it.

And I was reminded this weekend very clearly that I am no doctor. Both physically and spiritually. I can no more diagnosis a physical disease than a man on the moon. I have no idea how to tell a chigger bite from chicken pox. And the same is true spiritually. I don’t have the first clue how to diagnose someone’s spiritual problem. I have no knowledge, no skills, no training, nothing that would help me.

But thank God I have the Bible. And it is a perfect diagnostic tool for what is wrong with us spiritually and what can be done to remedy the sickness. I have nothing. The Bible has everything. Thank God that He used “chicken pox” to remind me how desperately I need the Bible.