“The proper treatment of a chronic illness often requires recognizing the body’s existing momentum towards illness and incomplete recovery, and then gradually redirecting it to wellness.”
The quote above comes from a paper that A Midwestern Doctor (AMD for short) wrote and that Mercola recently shared. The thought contained in the above quote doesn’t merely apply to the body’s own propensity toward illness, but to a person’s mindset toward it.
Most people alive today in anything resembling Western culture, or Modern culture in Asian, African or Middle Eastern countries, have been taught from the womb, that what happens to them is largely a case of happenstance and a) they can’t do much to thwart it, and b) they should resign themselves to some state of ill health and accept what mainstream medical tells them to do about it.
First off, a retraining is necessary to encourage taking life by the horns and making life happen as opposed to aimlessly letting life happen. As believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we are not to slide by. God has given us a task to do, and we are to actively seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance in both discovering, growing into, and carrying out that task. As we go through life, the task we are called to may even change, morph, and become completely different. If we are following the Holy Spirit’s leading, it won’t matter to change from one task to another, because He leads the way and we follow, actively doing what He has called us to do. We are not to simply let life happen.
Secondly, we have a choice as to whether how we began life will negatively or positively impact life going forward. As a child, we may not be aware that we have this choice available, but when we realize that our past doesn’t have to define our future, it is then up to us to take charge of daily life and take appropriate steps to halt any slide into poor health and functioning. There are things we can do and things we can stop doing, to facilitate a change of direction from ill health to full health, regardless of what area of life the illness is in, from relationships to physical health to mental health to spiritual health to emotional health, etc. We need to tell ourselves and tell each other, particularly the children among us, that we have a choice how our lives will be lived, we don’t have to lay down and let life roll over us.
Which brings me to my third point. We don’t have to accept the bandaid patch methods of mainstream medical that not only treat symptoms on the surface, but exacerbate conditions or even create conditions underneath, as if mainstream medical is the expert and we are the ignoramus. We can return to how God intended for us to address ill health as given in the Scriptures. God has given us various examples for treating various conditions, and it’s up to us to take those examples, take the principals they offer, and apply those to our daily lives today. God looks at the heart of the matter, at the heart of the human, and at the heart of the condition, identifies the root cause and deals with it. We need to do this. Mainstream medical rarely gets to the heart of the matter, condition or cause, and is more concerned with keeping you reasonably comfortable in your illness. Getting you well won’t earn them any money, and they are trained to keep the money flowing. While God says the worker is worthy of their hire, and not to muzzle the ox that treads the corn, God is against extortion, fraud, lying, cheating, and ill-gotten gain. If you go to a doctor to get well and get sent home to feel comfortable, how would you say that makes you feel? Do you feel lied to? Cheated? Like you paid a sharleton or a fraudster?
It is time to tell ourselves that we don’t have to accept the state of illness that has come to define who we are. For many out there, the idea that they could get well again is frightening. It means they will lose leverage in their circle of influence. It means they might have to do for themselves again instead of sitting back and letting others do for them. It can be scary thinking about how life will look when one becomes truly well! But we need to get over that fear and stop the casual travel toward ill health. We don’t have to accept being ill. We just have to get proactive and find the answers to get well, and when we find those answers, act on them with a long enough timeline to let those answers do their job. Some have said if you’ve been ill for a year, it could take 3 to get well, and the time frame gets exponentially longer, the longer you’ve been ill.
Sometimes illness is as much about how we view the illness, as the physiological changes that have taken place to become ill in the first place. Do we believe that God has provided all we need to regain our health? If so, we need to talk and act like it. That talk may initially be just questions while we search for answers, but then we need to act on the answers we find and change our talk to hope rather than resignation or despair. As we see benefits and improvements from our actions, each small step toward wellness should be noted and celebrated. This helps the subconscious mind shift gears as well, from tending toward illness to moving toward wellness. We need to focus on what worked and be consistent with what worked. As we can tolerate more of what worked, we do more of what worked, shifting our talk from hope to celebration that we are making progress and doing better as a result. When consistent action results in wellness again, we change our talk again to reflect that we overcame that challenge! We did it! But don’t forget to praise God for that change as well! When we celebrate conquering the illness, we tell ourselves and our bodies that we can tackle the next challenge because of having had success with this last one.
It is possible to stay ill because we’ve talked ourselves into staying ill, having resigned ourselves that there is no hope of ever getting better or improving our lot in life. Let’s not succumb to that anymore! Ask God for the wisdom, insight, understanding and foresight, to learn what to do, how to do it, when to do it and how often to do it, and ask for discernment to know when others are selling a lie and when God has led us to the truth.
Our bodies respond to how we think, feel, and interact with the world around us. Tell your body that you are determined to move from illness to wellness. Tell your body to use the tools you are giving it from food to beverages to medicines to exercise to rest, for the purpose of healing and regaining proper function. The sinful nature wants to slide into ill health, so you will feel like you are arguing with your body at times. This is normal and Paul writes about this struggle on occasion in his letters to the Churches. This body is going to die if it isn’t raptured and transformed to meet Christ in the air. It is sometimes referred to as a house in Scripture, and we are responsible for looking after that house. Scripture refers to our bodies as the Temple of the Holy Ghost. You, as the driver of the cockpit known as your brain, are to take charge of your body and make it mind. God only gives you one body. At the Rapture you will get a glorified version of it, one that is free of the shackles of sin and death, but until that day comes, tell yourself to stop accepting the concept of “fate” (a false religious concept coming out of greek pantheistic theology) and to seek what God has for you!
This doesn’t mean you are to expect nothing but full functionality in all areas of life. Scripture does not show God’s children in a perpetual state of full functionality. God is more concerned with your spiritual state than your physical state. God says in His Word that He gives to those who can handle the blessing and refrains from those who cannot handle the blessing. So some will be wealthy, some will be famous, some will be leaders, but some will be poor, some will have a condition God does not remove from them, but whereever God places a person on the wellness meter, they are expected to be proactive and about their Father’s business. You will not know the state God has called you to until you get up and move toward it and away from the ravages of sin. When you have reached the state of wellness God has designed for you, there will be a peace about it, even if it is less than the state of wellness someone else is at. God gives each of us our own road to travel, but the one none of us should travel, is the road to apathetic, resigned, despairing ill health. The body will go that route if we let it, and our own mindset toward that route will hasten the journey if we don’t shift it.
Let us pray: Lord I pray for whoever is reading this right now. I ask that You would show them the path they can take toward the state of wellness You have designed for them. Lord where there is despair, as I ask for guidance and encouragement. Where there is apathy, I ask Lord that You would show them purpose. Where there is exhaustion, I ask that You would grant them times of refreshing. Lord I ask that You would show them the path You want them to walk, and that You would reveal to them the tools, ways and means to begin that journey. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
