Here is something I’d like to share with you. I didn’t write this, but they could’ve been my words. I’m not going to post the entire article here because it’s longer than one of my usual posts, but it’s definitely worth the read… especially if you or someone you love is touched by chronic illness/disability. If at the end you want to read more, a link to continue reading the article will be at the end of what I posted here. Thanks to my friend, Sheila, for first posting this from one of her friends!
~ A lesson worth remembering, by a wise and dear friend. Her words reflect all of my thoughts and feelings that I have not been able to put into words.
Serenity Prayer for the Chronically Ill
By Darla Isackson
I have a spirit that wants to run 100 miles an hour; it is housed in a body that can scarcely run at all. The mountains of worthy projects I would gladly require of myself must largely go undone. I know I am in good company. Chronic illness, caused by any number of conditions, is a common complaint in our society. How to best deal with it is an ongoing question.
Trusting the Lord’s foreknowledge when I was young and very sick, a person I trusted prayed for me, He felt inspired to say that the Lord promised me the health and strength I need to live to fill my life’s mission. Not the strength to win the Olympics or run marathons — but to fill MY life’s mission. The Lord knew perfectly about the genetic weaknesses and super sensitive nervous system of the body he was sending my spirit to live in. He also had foreknowledge of the accidents, illnesses, and emotional traumas that would affect that body.
What if all those things were not obstacles to me filling my mission in life, but part of it? What if each illness, limitation, and emotional challenge has given me the exact experiences I needed, to learn what I need to learn, in order to do what the Lord wants me to do?
In response to Paul’s prayer of pleading when he was imprisoned, the Lord might have told Paul that all things shall give you experience and will be for your good. In Romans 8:28 we read, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” I know that my issues are also for my good. While in jail, Paul was kept from carrying out righteous service by walls and bars and the evil of his captors. I often feel captive to the weakness of my body. At first glance, both prison bars and illness seem to be obstacles to serving the Lord.What if, instead of obstacles, limitations are part of the tutoring process, part of the humbling process, part of the refining process that make us more fit to do the work He has assigned us? Paul was a different man when he emerged from jail. Deeper, stronger, more humble, more aware of the Lord’s constant care in spite of circumstances. I am a different person when, after all I can do, I accept life on the Lord’s terms and trust the Lord’s plan for me.
One day I was talking on the phone with a wonderful woman plagued with health problems and feeling guilty and frustrated about not being able to serve as she desired. She wept as she told me about having to say no to an opportunity to work a four-hour shift cleaning the church. (She is in her 70s!) She was greatly comforted when I shared the idea that the Lord would not assign us individually a mission or a task that is impossible because of our physical limitations. Instead he wants us to share the inner strength and important lessons we learn because of them! Granted, He often gives us strength beyond our own, but He never requires more than we can possibly give.
We ought to be content with things that God has allotted to each of us. . If, indeed, the things allotted to each were divinely customized according to our ability and capacity, then for us to seek to wrench ourselves free of every schooling circumstance in this life, is to tear ourselves away from matched opportunities. It is to go against divine wisdom.
In regard to this concept, a friend said, “I think we should do all we can to improve our health, but not ‘whine’ to the Lord to remove the challenge. Ask for strength, yes; ask for relief, yes; [even ask for healing] but always end our asking with ‘Thy will be done.’”
Internalizing the Serenity Prayer
Recently I was impressed that the AA Serenity Prayer has great application to the health dilemmas of the chronically ill.
God grant me the
Serenity to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can and
Wisdom to know the difference.
The courage part requires me to persevere in efforts to learn and apply common sense health rules—good nutrition, exercise, deep breathing, focusing thoughts on gratitude and hope, taking advantage of the many tools and treatments available. My quest has been partially successful—in spite of a serious childhood burn that resulted in a fever that would have killed me without divine intervention–and numerous challenges since–I have functional hours almost every day. Yet my health goals have not always been set with spiritual insight. Sometimes I suspect I’m trying to change what cannot be changed. In all the self-help, positive thinking, positive affirmation lingo, is the danger of humanistic thinking: “you are enough; you have everything inside you to accomplish every dream; if you just try hard enough, do enough, control your thoughts enough, you can do anything.” This is not Christ’s teaching.
