Theresa’s Story:
I was born with a very large hole in my heart, which wasn’t corrected until the technology was developed to repair it. At age 7, as I lay curled up in my hospital bed, I overheard the doctor and nurse talking outside my room about the surgery to repair my heart. They said I had a 50-50 chance of living through it. I was terrified. But after I began talking with God, His peace came over me, and I went to sleep.
Though the surgery was successful, my childhood was full of health problems. Every year I stayed home for months with pneumonia or bronchitis, and I learned through tutors until age 17. I became an avid reader, especially enjoying biographies of Christians, stories of King Arthur, and the Bible. While my childhood illnesses were difficult, I felt God was sitting on my bed, keeping me company.
Doctors told my parents I would never get better, but by my junior year of high school, I proved them wrong.
After an abnormal childhood, I longed to be a normal teenager. For the next two years, I found drinking buddies and pursued a party lifestyle. But God helped me realize how stupidly I was behaving, and I asked for His forgiveness in Jesus. Although God forgave me immediately, it took more time for me to forgive myself. I learned to focus on my complete forgiveness in Christ.
As a young woman in my 30s, I began struggling again with health issues, such as thyroid disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Unfortunately, one of my illnesses was especially dangerous. When my doctor told me and my husband that I was worse off than he had initially thought, I was admitted to the hospital for a dangerous experimental treatment.
While my sister held my baby daughter in the waiting room, I prayed for God’s help and strength in my frightening situation as well as comfort for my husband. He had read all about my disease, so he quickly noticed that one of the machines I was hooked up to was reading at a level inconsistent with my condition. When he pointed this out to the nurse, she said the machine was probably malfunctioning—a normal level was impossible. When he became upset with her reasoning, I asked the nurse to bring in a new machine.
The second machine also revealed a normal level. The doctors and nurses were stumped. And since I refused to do the dangerous experimental treatment that day, they decided to run a full test again the next day. We found that all my outcomes were completely normal. With God, anything is possible!
I slowly regained my strength for a number of years as my children grew older. I continued building a friendship with God over time and trust, even when my health problems returned.
When my two kids were in high school and middle school, I was diagnosed with heart failure. One morning, while preparing breakfast, I fainted. When I came to, I felt a great resolve that I believe was from God—a resolve to get up and enjoy the day ahead with my family at the beach. Though my family objected, wanting me to rest, we went anyway. They helped me get down to the water’s edge. I still remember that beautiful afternoon—how the sun danced on the water as we enjoyed God’s creation. I wanted my family to see that we can truly appreciate and enjoy God’s gifts, even when life is hard.
Today I have several diseases, one of which is terminal called MSA (multiple system atrophy). My doctors say I will live for a while, and I don’t count God out! He is the One who has “all the days ordained for me … written in [his] book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16).
Illness in my life has turned out to be a great blessing, giving me so much time to pray! Oddly, I am one of the happiest people I know. There have been some very hard days, but every day, God has given me something to rejoice about.
I believe my greatest lesson during years of illness has been to accept God’s will, imitating Jesus, who prayed, “Not my will but yours be done,” before his death (Luke 22:42). When I surrender to His will, I have the heart posture to also receive His help.
Sometimes that help has come when I was worried about one of my children and knelt down in prayer. And the worry vanished, and the child was fine. Sometimes I just didn’t feel well enough to go somewhere I knew God wanted me to go, but when I got in the car, I felt better. At other times, I have had to rest at home, trusting God’s plan and using that time for prayer.
A life characterized by illness is not something anyone would ask for. One day, He will “wipe every tear from their eyes … there will be no more death … or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4). And no more sickness, either. Jesus will make everything new. Meanwhile, I have on this earth a Savior who sits beside me on my bed and listens to my prayers.
Photo by Alexey Demidov on Unsplash
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