just normalcy

Apparently my previous posts have left questions unanswered, and some of my adoring fans have quietly given advice on how to find those answers I just can't seem to find.

Everyday someone gives me a piece of advice, either needed and heeded or completely out of line. I don't deserve to be treated like a child who has no control over her physical and emotional well-being. I choose when and if to take my medicine. I decide where and when I go to the doctor. And no, this disease is not "all in my head."

No matter how much my parents and I want to believe this is true, positive thoughts will not cure me. And the comment "just thinking bright thoughts will make you feel better" is a big, stinky bag of bologna.

So, just don't do it. If someone in your life is going through a rough patch, just listen. Don't give advice. I promise they probably don't want to hear it... if they do, they will ask you.

And, for heaven's sake, do not tell someone who has just been diagnosed with cancer or some other form of disease that they "are being punished for unconfessed sin" in their lives. Unless it is a venereal disease, then maybe.

While we are on the topic of suffering... Jesus never promised believers that life would be easy and happy. The form of Christianity being sold today, at least out here in LBK, is that once you accept Christ, your life will alter completely and all the bad stuff will disappear. Partly true. Life does change completely. But bad stuff doesn't just become invisible.

And where, exactly, in the Bible does it say that unconfessed sin will bring about an incurable, painful disease? And where does it say that Christians have the right to judge others, fellow believers or nonbelievers, according to their unconfessed sins and previous life experiences? Anyone know? Care to enlighten me?

STRANGE: I find that my closest moments with God are when I can't move my legs to get out of bed in the morning, or when my stomach hurts so badly I can barely breathe. I've begun to notice that when I think my walk is the strongest it has ever been, a newer, tougher trial comes and knocks me back down to the ground.

Life just does not make sense sometimes, and you have to learn to roll with the punches.

I guess I'm rolling all over the place.

Moral: think before you speak to someone suffering.