The Cure for Spiritual Vertigo

In 2 Peter 1:4, we have a remarkable encouragement from God:

"Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires."

In His Word, God has given us "very great and precious promises", each of which has a two-fold purpose:

1. To help us participate in the divine nature -- to conform us to the likeness of Jesus (Romans 8:29).

2. To help us escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires -- to be set free from all that opposes God's divine nature (2 Peter 2:20)

I was chatting, via email, with my dear brother Tom Gill in Ohio, and he gave me Psalm 91 to read, particularly verses 14-16:

"'Because he loves me,' says the LORD, 'I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.'"

I've been familiar with this passage for a long time, but it came home to me in a very special way tonight. Part of the reason is that it is now 1am, and I've been awake for the last hour because of acute vertigo. If I shift my head to either side, but particularly to the right, or if I tilt my head back, the world suddenly seems to spin violently, and I feel extremely nauseous.

I've had this condition for about 48 hours now, and tonight Dr Sook Lin Lee, my family doctor, made a home visit, and she was able to diagnose it as "benign paroxysmal positional vertigo" or BPPV (click here if you want more details on this condition). Apparently the condition will clear itself up in the next few days, although it means I have to be careful walking, and can't drive at the moment. But it causes me trouble at night too, hence being up right now.

But if I hadn't been up, I don't think I would have connected with Tom in the way we did, and I wouldn't be reading that wonderful promise from Psalm 91:14-16. It's almost as if those three verses were tailor-made for me tonight. And so this time is a very special time with the Lord, which I'm making the most of.

What a wonderful promise Psalm 91:14-16 is -- definitely a "great and precious" promise straight from God to me! "Because he loves me...I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name." Wow. For once, I'm speechless.

Lord, I've been calling on you a lot over the last few months, and I've seen you rescue me many times. And I believe you are going to rescue me in "the big way". Even tonight, Lord, I'm looking to you for your rescue from this nuisance of a condition. You said, "With long life" you will "satisfy [me] and show [me] your salvation." Long life. I take that, in Jesus' name.

I was thinking a little over the nature of vertigo, and in particular the parallels that physical vertigo has with a spiritual condition having similar symptoms. Being a teacher, I'm obviously interested in anything that can be used as an example to teach spiritual truths. So bear with me for a moment while we take a look at this unusual physical condition and its spiritual parallel.

Vertigo occurs because of a misfunction of the inner ear, which includes the semi-circular canals. Fluid in these canals trigger hairs, which signal to the brain and give the sensation of spinning and similar movement, and also give you your sense of balance when you stand or walk. Apparent, with BPPV, small grains or "rocks" interfere with the normal sensations within the semi-circular canals, creating the dizzying sensations of vertigo. So, it's official now -- I have "rocks in my head" ;-)

It's amazing how something as simple as this can interfere with one's sense of balance, and even more amazing how it actually interferes with your sense of sight. Anyone who has spun around crazily as a child will remember the visual sensation of the world "spinning around you." Of course, the world is not spinning around you at all, but you actually see this due to something in your ear! Go figure!

You know, in our spiritual life we also need to keep a fine sense of balance. And I believe it isn't coincidental that in the physical body, it is the ear that controls this sense of balance. In the spiritual, too, it is our spiritual ear which determines our sense of spiritual balance. Hearing from God is essential to walking a straight line with Him.

But it is also possible to get spiritual vertigo. By this, I mean that a person can lose their spiritual balance, become disoriented and "dizzy" with all the confusion of life. And the answer to spiritual vertigo is the voice of the Lord: "Stand still and see the salvation of your God!" (Exodus 14:13).

Elijah is an example, I believe, of someone who got spiritual vertigo. One minute, he had been ecstatic about God's miraculous intervention (read 1 Kings 18), and the next moment, he's running for his very life (read 1 Kings 19:1-3). Elijah completely lost his sense of balance, to the point where he asked God to take his life (1 Kings 19:4-8). But when Elijah reach Mt Horeb, this is what happened in verses 9-11:

"And the word of the LORD came to him: 'What are you doing here, Elijah?' He replied, 'I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.' The LORD said, 'Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by'..."

What happened after that? What great earth-shaking event would God pull off in front of Elijah? What was God going to do to cure Elijah's spiritual vertigo? 1 Kings 19:11-13 tells us:

"...Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?'"

On Mt Horeb, God did some minor surgery in Elijah's spiritual ears. He didn't use great pyrotechnics to do it. Just the "gentle whisper" of His voice -- what the King James Version calls "the still small voice" (1 Kings 19:12, KJV) of God's Spirit.

What is the "gentle whisper" of God's Spirit saying to your inner ear? Maybe it's something like Psalm 46:10, where the Lord says:

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

For me, it's Psalm 91:14-16, which I'll read this time from The Holman Christian Standard Bible:

"Because he is lovingly devoted to Me, I will deliver him; I will exalt him because he knows My name. When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and give him honor. I will satisfy him with a long life and show him My salvation."