One Thing at a Time

I’ve battled headaches for over a decade. They started a couple years into our marriage (it wasn’t the wife’s fault, promise). That said, I didn’t know their trigger, and it would be a long time before any improvements.

Why was that?

First, I didn’t want to take a pill. Two times the doctors suggested certain medications. I wouldn’t have to change anything about my lifestyle! I could just do everything I was doing at the time, add this pill, then my headaches would go away. I was very hesitant to go on medication for the rest of my life. Why wouldn’t I try to get rid of them naturally first? Some people do need lifelong medication; how was I supposed to know if I was one of those people without trying something else first?

Also, I was desperate. The issue with being desperate is that you are willing to do anything. When you’ve had multiple debilitating headaches a week, and only taking Excedrin seems to get rid of them, you’re ripe for too many lifestyle changes at once.

So, I tried it all. AT ONCE. I changed my diet, lack of exercise, sleeping habits, vitamin D deficiency, and water intake. Five things all at once.

Hey! I started feeling better. The headaches went away, but there was one very large problem – I didn’t know what caused them in the first place. Which of the five was the culprit for my headaches?

“Who cares Mr. Klunick? They were gone!” Yes, I see your point. But I’m only human, and it’s very hard to keep up with all the changes that I made at once.

A few cookies on special occasions (that seemed to crop up weekly), a forgotten water bottle, having children who interrupt the sleep and exercise schedules on the regular. Things crop up and routines diminish.

It’s humbling to write all this because I’m a science teacher. I was refusing to do what I was preaching to my students: change one thing at a time! You can only study the effect of one change at a time. Hence the desperation.

Over time, the Lord used this trial in my life. I am (mostly) headache free. When I do get one, I almost always know the cause.

More importantly, the headaches were a warning signal (put there by my Creator) to my body – something’s not right! A pill would have shut off the signal, and I would still be eating like a three-year-old. The Lord used it to mold me into a much more disciplined, healthy, and happy person. Without the decade plus of headaches, I would be a completely different man.

I thank God for the headaches.

“And all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful, but to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Hebrews 12:11