It was hard for me to accept the doctor’s diagnosis. I came back from Lanzhou. I had a sharp pain at the joint of my large toe on my right foot. It looked inflamed and sensitive to the touch. It was so bad I struggled to walk to the clinic. My wife had to support me.  

I was puzzled. I had been travelling. No sports, no tennis. Where did this injury come from? I shared my bafflement with the doctor. The doctor asked pertinent questions, looked at the inflammation and with a deadpan face, said, “You have gout”. I was stunned. Wasn’t this a rich man’s disease? I wasn’t.

I tried to recall what I ate during the trip. I remembered that during our goodbye meal with friends in Lanzhou we were in a Hui Muslim restaurant and we had their lamb. It was so good that we ordered an additional large serving. I had never tasted such delicious lamb and walloped. It was the most memorable dish of the trip! Later when I checked on foods that caused gout, red meat like lamb was one of them.

This was my first episode of gout. Attack is a better word. First attack of gout. It would not be the last because over the past decade or more I have been having gout attacks, usually at the end of Christmas or Chinese New Year.

This week I had been confined to an office chair to move around the house or walking with a hiking pole. I have been praying for healing, and testing the limits a few times this and last year. The result is I broke the average number of annual attacks in 2024.

Gout attacks is like a shadow. It follows me and appears when the sunlight is strong. I have reflected on this and begin to think that this is God saying “No, I want you to live with this because it is good for you!” God saying No to healing is nonsense to most Pentecostals. Am I giving up on praying for healing? Maybe I should be praying for self-control instead?

Jacob struggled with an angel and ended up with a permanent limp. He needed a staff to help him walk. Perhaps the Lord knows something I do not know. Perhaps I needed more self-control in my diet. He may be protecting me from careless eating in order to answer my prayer for divine health. Real health. He may be teaching me to fish instead of continually going to him for fish.

What do you think?