"A man's spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit, who can bear?" Proverbs 18:14
More than once I have
heard that high spirits and good disposition alone can’t cure an illness. It is
true. Sometimes it is frustrating for people who are going through a situation
to have to deal with the glass half full club who will come and cheer when they
have never gone through a similar situation.
However, when it comes
to staying positive and in good spirits, other people’s input is not as
important as our own intention and will.
Lots of people see
optimism and that need to cheer is something we need to receive from other
people- and reject when we are not feeling up to par- but in order for it to
work, it has to be borne from ourselves.
The book of Proverbs
tells us that in order to overcome; the real strength will have to come from
the inside. More than people cheering us on, it is fundamental for us to find
that spark within ourselves.
I’m by no means criticizing peoples who are
harbingers of joy. After all, I am all for a network of support when it comes
to illness. The worst would be, for us to have a wonderful outlook in life and
be surrounded by people who will not support us. However, we will never fully
appreciate what other people do for us, until we start working on it by
ourselves. Most patients help their prognosis just by showing a positive
attitude towards their illness.
If a patient sees
things on a positive light, it is a lot easier to battle through what life
throws at us.
I know a young woman
who was diagnosed with cancer. She was a junior in High School at the time. I
will always remember the initial shock and the tears. As much as I remember her
pain, I will also be impressed with that relative “elasticity of feeling” that
is characteristic to the very young. Once she discovered that crying won’t help
but momentarily, she wiped the tears and quickly replaced them with a smile.
Even facing the uncertainty of a treatment with a 50% chance of success, she
didn’t give it a second thought. She asked for pictures. Yes pictures; of the
activities she was missing out on. She had pictures of family and friend carrying
on with their daily lives. She would look at them and visualize herself inside
them.
Instead of looking at
pictures that told her about a past without illness, she took these new ones
and gave herself perspective. It kept her up, it made her smile.
Her journey lasted almost a year and a half,
but her attitude and good spirits never failed and were key to her success. She
kept her eyes on Christ and today she is enjoying good health and can add
cancer free to an ever growing list of personal achievements.
As far as Lupus, we need to keep thinking that
in spite of our chronic condition, we have to be grateful of alternatives of
treatment that will allow us to live a normal life. Even those whose Lupus is
severe, have found an alternative to improve their quality of life while
searching for remission.
So, let’s keep those spirits up, keep God as
our guide and carry on!
