When Life Gives You Lemons... Dayenu.

A few years ago, I was diagnosed with a corn allergy. So I started avoiding whole corn. Corn chips, popcorn, corn tortillas... I just stayed away from them. If I ate some, I would get a bit itchy. No big deal.

Except that I now react more sensitively. Avoiding visible corn is no longer enough. I now am avoiding all derivatives of corn in ingredients and packaging.

"Yeah, there's a lot of stuff with corn." You say.

No. There is not "a lot" of stuff with corn. Literally every processed food is corn. And if you think produce is safe, think again; it's processed too. So is coffee. I miss coffee. I also react to shampoo, conditioner, makeup, hand sanitizer, etc. because they have corn in it. I had an airborne reaction to crackers the other day. For goodness sake, I react to Dansani bottled water. How pitiful is that.

For awhile, I was reacting with dermatitis reactions; random patches of itchy bumps on my skin. But that's changing.

I spent my day first at the doctor, then at the ER. My face was swollen. First my eyes, then the swelling started moving down my face until my lips were puffy. I was honestly worried that I was having an anaphylactic reaction.

"Man," one guy said to me, "I mean, everyone is complaining that the struggle is real today... but you really have a reason to say it."

Two shots later, I'm home and feeling close to my normal self. I've got more doctors appointments set up and hopefully we'll be able to get to the root of the issue.

But that's not why I'm writing.

I'm writing because this isn't my plan. It's God's. As much as I feel like I complain about not being able to go get Starbucks ( :'( ) or grab fast food, I trust my Savior.

God brought to mind the word Dayenu today. "It would have been enough." The word is a part of the Passover Sader, where a song of praise is sung to God.

"You alone would have been enough, and yet you went beyond that." It says. "I would have been content with you, and yet you blessed me in abundance." (Paraphrased)

I'm counting my blessings tonight.

I'm praising God that it was not anaphylactic.
I'm praising God that I'm alive and feeling better.
I'm praising God that I had access to medical treatment.
I'm praising God for doctors who took my corn allergy seriously and actually read labels on medications before giving them to me.
I'm praising God that I have professors who tell me to skip class to go to the ER.
I'm praising God for family that cares for me.
I'm praising God for friends who pray for me.
I'm praising God for my community of believers who purposed to check on me and show me they cared in so many many ways and made me feel so loved.
I'm praising God for random music building friends who text me to let me know that they care.

And yet, if God had chose for me not to receive those blessings, Dayenu.

He is God. He is everything. He already demonstrated the depth of his love to me by saving me from certain eternal death. 

I praise him for blessing me today. But my praise is not conditional on his blessing. How can it be? He has forgiven a debt I could never pay; why would I be upset that he didn't do more?

So next time life gives you lemons, forget lemonade. Dayenu. God is enough.


Romans 14:7-9 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.