Over the last few weeks, my mood has gotten increasingly dark. Hope has proven itself to be scarce, and deep despair has sprung up like unwelcome weeds in my mind and heart. I’ve grown bitter, grumpy, antagonistic, and jaded.
Part of the cause of my dark season has been pure exhaustion. No one in our house is sleeping well. Part of the cause of my soul-darkness is medication mishaps. Prednisone, psychologically speaking, is clearly not my friend. In addition, my treatment team has been having conversations about their own fear of the potential fatality of my conditions and what long-term prognosis looks like. With all of these factors at play, my typical resilient ability to reframe my daily suffering has been less than stellar.
I find myself tired of fighting what feels like a losing battle for my body, I feel tired of desperately trying to maintain my tenuous grip on hope in a situation that appears hopeless, and I am tired of living this life of passing out, unexpected and unexplained reactivity, chronic pain, and total dependency. I am tired of playing wack-a-mole with 15 symptoms at once, wielding faulty mallets. I am bone-exhausted.
I wrestle with God over healing, and I read of the “severe mercies” of God: when God withholds something good because He possibly knows something that we don’t (St. Augustine, Confessions XI, 25).
But really, God? I’m too tired to see good in this. I’m too sick to feel hope. And, if I’m really honest, I’m almost offended by this “severe mercy” concept right now. It seems a little bit like mockery. And yet I know that God is good, that He is for me, not against me, that He loves me.
I know that I will continue to pray for healing, and I know that for reasons that can’t always be grasped by my measly human brain, He doesn’t always heal. And I have my toddler-style tantrums when the medical tests yeild no clear-cut answers, when treatment is a continual crap-shoot because no one seems to know what to do with me. I sit and pout, looking longingly at the sky for that one rain cloud that will bring the much-needed refreshment for my body and soul. And I have snarky, angry comments for God when not even a single measly cloud floats in to give me a sign of possible rain.
My humble honesty of the past when I approached God in grief on my knees is precariously teetering on the edge of a cliff called cynicism. I am entering into the danger-zone of hostile, accusing, finger-pointing. The result of humble, grief-stricken, heart-wide-open brokenness is communion with God in suffering. When we come to God with fist-throwing, accusation-hurling fury, we run the risk of walking away in entitled bitterness, estranged from our life-source.
In this season, I am tempted to choose to be offended by God and interpret lack of healing as abandonment. I am inclined to curl in a ball and believe that it is God who continues to hit me when I am down. Worse yet, I start to believe that He has walked away, apathetic to my agony.
But this is my opportunity to employ some sound DBT strategies. I can choose to engage in the opposite-to-emotion tool that I know has carried me through difficult times. God has a host of promises that are unchanging. These are the promises that I can count on:
Never will He leave me or forsake me. ( Hebrews 13:5)
Because of His great love we are not consumed. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses never cease. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness. ( Lamentations 3:22)
Neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor demons, nor anything else in all creation is able to separate me from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)
We are hard pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. ( 2 Corinthians 4:8)
My heart has grown uncomfortably hard, and I am ready for some softening. God’s promises knead my heart and soften it just enough for the fog of disillusionment to lift and for me to rememember the Father’s deep, deep love for me.
Don’t get me wrong, God can handle our anger and accusations. He will not turn from us when we bring whatever broken mess we carry to Him, even when we are furious with Him. He also wants to show us how deeply and unbelievably loved we are. And when we cling to the anger, resentment, and offense like they are our best friends, we tend to build walls up against the loving God of the universe (from our side).
It is time for me to lay down my God-thrashing weapons and come to Him on my knees once again, open to whatever healing may look like. It’s time to drop the cold, bitter cynicism. God wants to wash my offense away with His love.
What if I’m not physically healed? I will not fear, because I will still have Jesus, and He is more than enough.
The Beautiful Broken 
Beautifully written, soul searching. HAve you tried just telling God that you cannot handle anymore and that you are giving all your burdens to him? It is an cathartic experience that seems to bring peace. I will keep you in my prayers, Love and hugs
I try to do that daily. But thank you for the reminder!
“But now, this is what the Lord says – He who formed you Israel: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.” Isaiah 43:1-3
Oh yeah! This is a wonderful promise.
I’m so sorry Megan…I look upon you as “the modern day Job”. My heart hurts for you as I cry out unto the Lord to heal you. Our merciful Father finally blessed Job after years of suffering-I will stand on that promise for you. I love you.
Aunt Joyce
Thank you, Joyce.
Oh my, this resonates so strongly. I’ve been in this place many times. A few months back, it led me to study the book of Job and I had lots of questions. I found a book by Harold Kushner called: ‘The Book of Job: Why Bad Things Happen to Good People’ and found it exceptionally useful, enlightening and interesting. A promise I am now holding onto is Job 42:12 – ‘The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first’ – cf. Joel 2:25 ‘I will repay you the years the locust has eaten…’ You’ve inspired me to share more of this study and I will endeavour to ‘tag’ this post when I’ve published.
In the meantime, if I may, will just say one more thing about Augustine… It’s only my two cents’, but my reading of him indicates he is a damaged man desperately clinging onto grace, much like Paul or heck, any of us!! As such, I don’t think he is necessarily always to be relied upon regarding the character of God, especially in his Confessions, which are so much a mixture of zeal and thinking aloud that they end up a product of desire and longing for God more than revelation per se *in my opinion*. I think that makes them beautiful in their own way and very worthy as an expression of human confusion and anguish though.
Anyway, please forgive my rambling tone – this post has pushed so many interesting buttons for me, being someone who suffers with chronic pain, struggles with her faith, and studied Theology for my university degree! Sending you gentle hugs and praying for warm light to stream into your soul from the Almighty xxx
Thank you for such a thoughtful reply! It has been years since I studied Augustine. I may revisit some of his works. And yes, I think about Job pretty often these days. It is wonderful to hear from you!! May the Lord bless you and keep you.