Life is a gift - Duh, right? This is common sense to most people and I'll admit to having the head knowledge, but not the right perspective. However, everything changes when you wake up (after hardly sleeping) and know that you'll struggle almost every minute of the day. Life is an active verb. I value every second of living now... especially the pain free ones!
Pain is everywhere - Before, I'd fly through my days with relative ease checking off things to do from my daily list. Now, I don't "fly." I step gingerly - oh so gingerly, through my daily tasks and my payoff is noticing. I notice that the cashier at Walmart isn't just cranky, she's grimacing. She goes about her tasks painfully too. I notice the old man, hunched over and shuffling down the long walk to his mailbox. I notice the tears threatening to burst from the nurse's eyes, and I know if I ask her how she's doing she'll say, "I'm just fine honey."
Life is too short for BS - This speaks for itself. I don't have energy for much BS, I have enough people shoveling it into my own life. Now I just throw it back and move on.
God is still wonderful - Every day I wake up and thank him for this awesome life and unwanted lesson. Jesus was the master of enduring pain. He mastered it. No one was more filled with grace through suffering. Every day I fail at mastering this, but he remains my teacher and most importantly, he won't give up on me.
Each day is fresh! - I used to be a futurist and a planner. I always looked at the next day, week or year and often had them planned out. I can't do this now. It's a hard habit to unlearn, but I'm working on it. It's a fresh way of thinking for me - this living as each moment unfolds. Each day brings us opportunities and trouble, but I know I can count on tomorrow to be fresh.
So what about you? What has your disease/syndrome/affliction taught you? I'd love to know!
Not enough time to put into words all God taught me through my years of being disabled from fybro/Lupus? ; depression ; chronic yeast ; IBS . I have moved through 20 years of various diagnosis that were labeled from life robbing symptoms. The lessons? Physically being drained is one place most of the world does not want to be a part of. This lonely place has provided a deepness with God being my very present help in time of need. I learned that the very thing I needed most often didn't look like I thought it would. It truly is one moment at a time, one day at a time. Learning to rest in Him, knowing he is directing me. Writing down the few bam moments where I know He revealed something so significant. I look back and see how amazing the journey has been". How what I thought was truth so often was not. Getting out from under oppressive thinking is the biggest milestone he is making in my heart, soul, and mind. Learning to live move and have my being IN HIM, is the current place I am meeting Him in. It is bringing mental freedom that I didn't even know I needed, yet it is what I have longed for. (Not sure that really makes sense, but some things I can't seem to put in words.) As I am learning what comes natural in my thought process, even with His word, is often woven with toxic beliefs from wounds from the past. With 'my few' I am experiencing God being bigger than any of my problems. This brings healing. Chemical release is different when new parts of the brain are accessed. Is God intricate or what? Working on "Soul Detox" by Craig Groeschel.
ReplyDeleteI ask for prayer, and will be praying for you all. Pain takes so much energy from us. Praying we may grow in an arena far above our pain. Eph 1:17-23 .............that he has called you.....and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and seated him at his right .........far above all rule and authority............