The Disheartening Burden of Chronic Illness

DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor, nor am I a medical professional of any kind.

Nothing that I say can be considered medical advice. The content of this article has not been evaluated by the FDA. Nothing herein is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Government minions, you can go back into hiding behind your trees now...

Have you ever been sick?

When we're young, sickness comes and goes. We get sick; we feel miserable for a few hours or days, longing to feel well again, and then we recover.

Chronic illness is another animal entirely.

When we experience an ailment from which we seem unable to recover, discouragement sets in. We may cast around for solutions, but eventually, we begin to lose hope.

The Burden of Chronic Illness
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Chronic illness drags on our soul.

In addition to the physical, we now begin to struggle mentally. We see a specialist, have tests done, talk to all our friends.

With each remedy tried, each avenue explored, and ultimately each failure to recover, our spirits slump a little further. As the weeks and months drag on, we begin to despair of ever being well again.

Imagine being ill for 38 years?

In Jesus' day, an invalid had lain near the pool called Bethesda for most of his life. Miracles were reputed to occur there when the water stirred. Due to his illness, this man was never able to be the first to reach the pool.

He hadn't given up, however. Somehow, over a span of almost four decades, he maintained hope. Was he by the pool all those years? Or was this simply his latest attempt to find healing? From his response to Jesus, we know he had been there at least long enough to "miss the window" of opportunity, others getting to the pool before him.

"While I am going another steps down before me."
- John 5

Jesus had compassion on the man and healed him. This set off a storm of controversy in the region, and ultimately lead to Jesus' own execution.

Doctors don't have all the answers.

Perhaps you've seen them all, and are still struggling with your illness. Perhaps, like Joe, your doctor may have given up all hope for you and sent you home to die. Don't abandon hope! The doctor is not God. There may be an answer elsewhere.

Cures, or Bandaids?
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Years ago,

Daniel Z., a friend of mine, put things rather succinctly when he had this to say:

"If I am ever ill, I'm not going to see a doctor. Doctors are nothing more than technicians. They've spent many years learning to recognize a set of symptoms and map it to a specific protocol that someone else worked out."

When asked what was wrong with that, Daniel would reply:

"The doctor doesn't look for or care about underlying causes. He just goes through the rote motions, observing signs and prescribing a treatment that he didn't devise and rarely truly understands. If I'm ill, that's not what I'm looking for."

What was Daniel's preferred solution?

"I'll see an engineer. At least the engineer will look for and try to understand what's actually causing my illness. He won't give me a "one size fits all" prescription for some highly profitable drug that will only mask my symptoms. The engineer will figure out how to correct the root cause of whatever ails me."

"When all is said and done, we'll both know what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future."

Dale Carnegie
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I'm not a fan of conventional medicine.

I've observed in others and had much greater personal success appealing to "the wisdom of the crowd." There are natural cures and folk remedies available, disdained by the Medical/Industrial complex, that often are much less invasive and far more effective than anything your doctor or hospital has to offer.

Because they are not highly profitable, they have often been suppressed by "the powers that be." This may make some of them hard to find. Thank God, in the age of the internet, it has become much easier to locate time-tested, reliable cures.

When faced with illness,

I have at times learned of cures rapidly. I've delayed treatment just long enough to discover or be told of an authentic cure. One day soon I hope to write about the cure for gallstones that my wife and I were once blessed with.

At other times I have literally struggled for years fighting some illness. Repeated sinus infections. Skin cancer. You can read about one of my recent successes here:

But such protracted struggles can be discouraging.

If you're in one now, I urge you not to give up. Keep searching. Ask, seek, knock on every door. While there is life, there is hope.

Keep on seeking...
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Do I believe in miraculous cures?

Not so much in the present day. Perhaps it is a lack of faith on my part, but I've never personally experienced what I would consider to be a supernatural healing. I won't deny that perhaps God has so favored others, and I'll be happy and thankful with and for them.

However, God works in mysterious ways. He has been kind enough in a number of cases to, sooner or later, hook me up with an appropriate treatment. He has also been kind enough to help me develop some tools that have saved or greatly improved the lives of others.

If you're struggling with a chronic illness,

don't give up hope. Continue to pray. Read. Study. Experiment.
Ask Jesus/God to help you as you live with your ailment, but never abandon also asking for a cure.

Remember the man by the pool of Bethesda.