Fever Blisters & Fat Lips

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There it was -- red, hurting and swollen. "A fitting conclusion to an exhausting weekend," I thought to myself, "or worse, an ominous portent of the coming week ahead." There's nothing like waking up to a fever blister on Monday morning. For someone who spends his time with people, and most of that time speaking, there are few things worse than a big fat fever blister on your top lip. Not only are they hard to speak around, but they make it hard for listeners to concentrate on what you're saying.

Life is full of fever blisters -- dings in your car door, spots on your clothes, acne, a tax audit, an anonymous bit of "helpful" criticism, a review by your supervisor, a sprained ankle, the electricity going out, running out of hot water in the shower,.... These are part of life's domain with a peculiar attraction to Murphy's Law. They are not catastrophes, they're life's fever blisters. Ol' Murphy makes sure each of us has a dump truck load of them in our life. What we do with them determines much about our mood, our outlook on life, and on our accomplishments.

Lots of folks get derailed by life's fever blisters. They whine and complain and make themselves more miserable than the real irritant ever could. They talk about how unfortunate they are and how it always happens to them and why did it have to happen now.... They take fever blister and blow it up into near terminal cancer. They "make a mountain out of a mole hill" as my grandmother use to say. But not only does their whining ruin their own day, week, month, and life, they share this sour outlook with everyone else. Come on now, let's get real, it's just a fever blister. Put some stuff on it and go on your way. It'll be gone in a week or so. Life goes on. There are too many good things to enjoy in life to let them get sucked down a whining black hole of self pity over some minor ugly irritant.

Maybe a few suggestions would be helpful for those days when one of life's fever blisters shows up in your life. First, ask yourself honestly, is this a life changing problem or is it just an ugly irritant that can't alter the course of your personal history. We have a tendency to "react in a rut" allowing ourselves to feel and respond with the same intensity to big things as we do with little ones. Simply taking time to ask how big a deal the problem is can help us put it into perspective. Second, write down (just thinking about them isn't enough, pen and paper are mandatory) at least ten blessings God has poured into your life much more significant than this current "fever blister." Then give thanks specifically for each blessing. Third, put down the three highest priority items of your day and make sure you do them, TODAY. Nothing helps us get past a "fever blister" like getting busy, forgetting it's there, and getting our stuff done for the day! Fourth, when you get to the end of the day, give thanks for the Lord helping you to get done what you set out to do instead of focusing on your mole hill and making it into a mountain.

Oh, and one more thing. If your fever blister is a real fever blister, they've got some really good stuff to get rid of it about twice as fast, so you might give Doc' a call. See you down the road, I'm the one with a fat lip, a fever blister, and a smile on his face.

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