3. Vibrant Immune Systems

There is a side effect to living close to two state colleges like we do here in Moscow, and that is that the natives here have had to develop robust immune systems. That often means that when people first move here, their first couple of years they get sick more often than they ever have. There isn’t anything to be done about it—all the thousands of students go somewhere else for spring break, pick up whatever passing illnesses are going around wherever they went and then everyone comes back here to go to the same grocery store and touch the same gas pumps. We keep fanning out to collect sickness and then funneling back into this small town, and we get to check if we are already immune to that one.

Now, I bring this up because discouragement is not unlike a virus. It is tricky! Often, you are experiencing symptoms before you know anything is wrong. Also, like a virus, if you fight it off effectively, you are much better prepared for it the next time around. Your immune system is no longer the fool about it. You see it for the enemy it is and fight it earlier and more effectively. 

I bring this up because anytime you move into new territory, there will be new viruses to fight off. New things tempt you—things that you never imagined being a problem for you. When I found myself surprisingly busy as a young mother, I did not yet have the immune system to go with that territory—it is a thing that you have to develop. The same thing happened when I was first a mother of teens. 

Every time the landscape of your life changes (and it changes all the time!), you are going to experience this. Exposure to temptations that were, up until this time, unknown to you. I can still remember being surprised that worrying was an actual temptation for me, and not just something other people talk about.

Also, like my small town example, the more people you have coming and going in your life, the more variety and surprise there will be. You can check-in on your resistance to the seasonal colds from Canada and Phoenix at the same time.

Now, maybe the idea of getting sick so much doesn’t exactly encourage you—I can see that. 

But the idea of getting wiser and stronger should. It should also encourage you that you are doing normal and natural and right work if you are fighting off the routine spiritual colds and coughs and many-faceted illnesses of the territory you are in. Nothing is wrong with that work—it is the right thing to be doing. 

We all too often forget the goal and start assuming that anything that is hard or difficult has been wrongly given to us. Something bad must be happening if life is hard and uphill and difficult and you have a runny nose too. We need to reframe this for ourselves. If our goal is a painless life, every little sniffle and sign of struggle is a bad sign. If our goal is a vibrant immune system, we can see this kind of work differently. 

Normal Christian living is fraught with difficulty. And when you learn and grow in wisdom by pursuing Christ through that difficulty, you will be stronger. Not so you can switch over to vacation mode, but so you can switch over to the next more difficult, more fruitful, more glorious work. 

It is good and right to want to be done fighting what feels like little temptations and little troubles—but the way to do that is to go straight through them to Christ. Joyfully gather wisdom, build an immune system to your deceitful thoughts and weaknesses. Build the kind of immune system that sees and rejects pride and self-pity and any other silly sin a long way away.

When you have come down with a garden-variety virus, the solution is simple.

Thank the Lord for the chance to learn wisdom here—to learn more of Him in this new situation and through this new challenge. Look for the sin to confess, and do so gladly. This is God’s work.

Of course, there are also wonderful ways to boost your immune system in advance. There is no vitamin c booster or fire cider in the world that compares to the Word of God. Be in the Word. Read it, listen to it, breathe it, eat it, rest in it. You need to be strongly rooted in that healthy soil. You need to be watered by it. You need to be pruned by it. If you do nothing else about your health, be doing this. One way or another, fight for a normal and regular intake of the Word of God—all of it. Listen to it, read it, talk about it. Join the Bible Reading Challenge if you haven't already!

But beyond that, do not be discouraged that the Lord has you on a path with tremendous character-growth opportunities. This is a gift—a beautiful thing. We will have a much better time of it if we accept it gladly and frame this work in the context of the bigger picture. It is not an insult to you that the Lord has shown you a weakness of yours—it is an opportunity for wisdom. And fighting for that wisdom through whatever sniffling difficulty you are going through is all to the praise of His glory. 

Heavenly Father, this week we come before You asking for the wisdom to see what ails us clearly, that we might fight it off more quickly. Give us wisdom both to fight the sin and see the glory beyond it. It is only by Your strength that this will be possible, and so we ask You, Lord, to pour out Your strength on us this week. In Your Son's name, amen.

Rachel Jankovic, August 2026