jelly fish sting

Have you ever been stung by a Jelly Fish? Well, this weekend was a first for me. My family and I were at the beach, all swimming together, when the worst instant pain I have ever felt hit my leg. I was up to my neck in water, when all of a sudden it felt like a branding iron hit the back of my leg and was just left there. I started screaming and immediately left to get out of the water, the back of my leg began to swell instantly and turned purple and red, whelped up and hurt like crazy.
My immediate thought was that I needed someone to pee on my leg, to help with the hurt. I had seen on Survivor that doing that was supposed to help and because we were on the beach with no quick fixes to ease the harsh pain, I looked at the boys in my family and asked them to pee on my leg. I know, it sounds gross, but when you are hurting like that, you will do ANYTHING to get relief-and I mean anything.
While I have 4 boys in my family, none of them at that moment had to go to the bathroom. I am thinking “you have got to be kidding me!” Limping back to my chair, my husband grabbed a bottle of water, handed it to my eldest son and told him to go with me and pee on my leg. We arrived at the bathrooms, only to find there was NO family bathroom. I can’t go in the men’s room. He can’t go in the ladies room. Dilemna….hmmmm….what to do? I am dying and looking for any available solution. So, we head into a deserted parking deck, where I hope he can help me.
I lean up against the wall and tell my son to hurry up because I can’t stand the pain- just do it. To which he looks at me and says “Mom, I just can’t pee on you.” After fussing with him for a few seconds and trying to explain that it is okay, we finally decided for him to go in the bathroom, pee in the bottle and we would pour it on my leg. (probably a better plan anyway!) And yes, I think I am relieved to know my son can’t and won’t pee on his mother, even when given the chance to!
Minutes later, I am standing on the edge of the beach and he is pouring that on my leg. It didn’t stop the pain, but it did help a little. (I later discovered that HOT water is much better. Wish I had known that BEFORE I had urine poured on me!) I called a friend and asked her to look up what you could do for a sting and that is when I learned that hot water seemed to be the recommended treatment. But I am on the beach-no HOT water. I finally found a tide pool that had been heated by the sun, sat in that, took some pain reliever and found some more relief. But I can’t tell you, how quickly that pain came and stayed. How I would have done anything to relieve it. It was crazy.
While processing all of those crazy events, the Lord was clear to reveal truth to my heart. Standing in the midst of the ocean, minding my own business, I got stung. It is so easy to be caught in the drift of life, doing your own thing and to be stung-not on the surface, but deep down, underneath-where no one can see. And for that hurt to be so deep that you would be willing to do anything to find relief. The drift is a crazy a place…where deep hurt and pain can make you choose to do things you would never dream of.
Not in a million years would I have ever thought I would have begged my guys to pee on me. But the things you will do to find relief from the sting that is found in the moments of drifting is crazy. I am living proof of this. For many of us, we have been drifting and we have been stung. The pain from that may lie deep under the surface, but the reality is we have chosen some crazy things to try to get relief from the sting of that pain.
However, the remedy isn’t what we think. It isn’t what the world tells us. And though we try it, it doesn’t fix the pain.
I don’t know what has stung you or what you have done to try to bring relief to that pain. Maybe you didn’t even realize you were drifting and got stung. Maybe you have tried some crazy remedies and are looking not for relief but a way to make it go away totally. If that is true…get out of the water. Stop the drift. Don’t listen to the crazy remedies this life tells us about and know that JESUS alone fixes us from the inside out. STOP the drift…so you don’t get stung. And then run to the HEALER of all.
So, yes…I am sure you are all laughing that I got stung and peed on, but mine was just a jelly fish sting issue. Where have you drifted, gotten stung and tried a crazy relief idea that didn’t work because you chose something other than Jesus?
ALL FOR YOU