Articles on CBN About Illness

Thank you to our kind friends who tell us how Rest Ministries is making
a difference. We share this with you, not to toot our own horn, but because so many of YOU ARE our ministry! Your kindness to strangers in the Sunroom, your answering prayer requests, writing devotionals, or encouraging devotional writers… You are all appreciated and we want you to hear just how much God uses you ever day!

It’s always exciting to see your name in lights… but it’s
even more exciting to see chronic illness given more awareness by our much-loved ministries like
CBN.com. Here are a few articles they have on their web site.
If you happen to drop by, be sure to contact them
to say “THANK YOU for mentioning chronic illness!”

• Ministering to the Chronically Ill
• 50 Ways to Encourage a Chronically Ill Friend

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I am Phyllis in Meridian, ID and have enjoyed your ministry for years. I have not responded to any comments however today I feel I must say to all of you how very much your articles have encouraged me. I had an accident in November, 2001 and have recently fallen and broken my hip. The accident changed my life as it left me with chronic pain and other health issues. However, I thank God everyday that He has been with me and granted me MANY BLESSINGS; ONE BEING YOUR MINISTRY. May God continue to
bless you and yours. With love, Phyllis

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Sheryl Smith, Splashes of Joy Coordinator, shared some good news with us! “I wanted to tell you that I copied and sent a devotional to my friend in prison as I thought it would encourage her. It was the one by Anna Popescu that began “One of my favorite places to spend time is at the coast…” She liked it so well she submitted to their Christian newsletter in the prison, The Spirit Inside. It was published on the front page in July as a devotional
from Splashes of Joy with Anna’s bio. Just thought you would like to know just how far some of your devotionals go and who they influence.”

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Rhonda shared, “I wanted to thank you for allowing me to be a Guest Blogger for National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness week (Aug 19, How Should the Chronically Ill Respond to Well-meaning Christians? Do They Even Realize What They Said?). I’ve been blessed to read the comments not only on the Invisible Illness site, but on my blog page in the Sunroom. It’s
been encouraging to hear how people plan to share the information with their church and others, to help change the perspective of how people view people with pain and illness. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to share
my thoughts with others and help make a positive change for those living with chronic illness and pain. Thank you for allowing Guest bloggers and for offering so many different topics.”

Responses of “How do You Feel When Celebrities ‘Beat’ Their Illness?”

We had 21 people respond to our question last week, “When you read that celebrities ‘beat their illness’ how do you feel? Inspired or disheartened?” You can still respond here!

Last week’s winner for a free book is Kim R at email raleymike…. We’ll ship it right out!

We loved your honest comments! (And could relate to them too!) Here are a few (in different colors).

“When you read that celebrities ‘beat their illness’ how do you feel? Inspired or disheartened?”

I feel annoyed. What that seems to indicate to me, when folks say that, is that everyone with an illness has a ‘choice’ to beat the problem, or be beaten by it.

I can choose how I’m going to respond to the feelings I have about my illness/disability, but I probably had no choice in my body getting the illness or disability. I also probably have little choice with whether my body will ever totally overcome the problem in this lifetime.

Why someone heals and others don’t, has been and still is, beyond the knowledge of mankind. Only God knows. What I do know is I can choose how I live with what I have.

If healing comes, I’ll praise God. If it doesn’t, I hope I continue to praise God. But when I hear people say, with such ‘pride’ that they ‘beat’ an illness, it seems to insinuate others are doing something ‘wrong’ if they don’t ‘beat’ theirs. And I should ‘listen up’ to find out what secret they did, so I can get it ‘right’ and ‘beat’ my problem.

I don’t believe that for a minute anymore, though I used to.

Okay, confession time. I feel incredibly angry. Part of it is that I am sceptical that they never had the “full blown” illness and part of it is just plain anger that what worked for them has not touched my pain. I want to say “I am taking 150mg of morphine a day and still hurt so shut up” WOW I can’t believe I really said that. These commercials seem to evoke negitive emotions that I don’t usually feel. I much prefer turniing off the TV and getting on with my life.

Disheartened because every time someone else “beats” their illness, it reinforces the belief that my illnesses are really fake and if I just did whatever (whoever) did, then I would “beat” mine too. This is particularly bad with my husband, who doesn’t believe my illnesses are real to begin with. He constantly tests me, trying to see me slip up and show that I’m faking it. I’m not faking anything.

We’d love to feature some of these comments on our newsletter blog page, but need some help with posting them. Anyone want to volunteer for this? Let us know!

Have You Found a Weight Loss Secret (despite your illness?)

Have You Found a Secret to Weight Loss with Illness?

“Extraordinary Health” is a new television show featuring the ministry of Jordan Rubin, the popular Christian health and wellness expert and author of The Maker’s Diet. It began airing on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) March 24. Hosted by America’s Biblical Health Coach Jordan Rubin, the series will focus on his successful weight management program Perfect Weight America (also a book) as well as highlights of his bus tour to more than 200 cities. Extraordinary Health with Jordan Rubin features interviews with guests who have succeeded with Rubin’s Perfect Weight America weight-management program. Guests share tips about how they overcame common weight control dilemmas and learned how to eat more organic, living foods to nourish their bodies. The show is called Extraordinaory Health: Change Your Diet, Change Your Life, Change Your World

PS: Although we usually avoid books that claim “Bible cures” we’ve found Jordan’s material to be helpful and it acknowledges that we can all live “as healthy as possible despite illness.” After trying more than 70 alternative nutritional therapies to treat “the worst case of Crohn’s disease his doctor had ever seen” he changed his diet to whole foods consumed in Biblical times. We’ve found his books to be more “health-oriented” not “cure-guaranteed.”

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Have you found a weight loss program that has worked for you despite having a chronic illness and perhaps being on “weight-gaining” medications? Will you share your story and tips with us?

> Answer

Do You Dream of Life Before Illness?

“When I was first diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 1998, I would dream at night that I was running. Then morning would approach and somewhere between sleep and awake I would realize that my stiff muscles could hardly allow me to rise from my bed. It wouldn’t be a day for running–that was for sure. I don’t dream of moving like my former self much anymore. Perhaps where ever dreams may start, they have caught up to the reality of the frame they are carried in. But I have often told my family that when I get to heaven I am going to run. And one of my favorite images is of running to meet my loved ones who have arrived in heaven before me, and later running to greet my loved ones who arrive in heaven after me.”
- Jo Anderson, living with fibromyalgia, Chiari Malformation, and Sjogren’s in Minnesota

Take our poll and you’ll be entered to win a book!

Do you have dreams of running or doing things you did before your illness? Answer here

Little Do We Know What God Has Planned

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,” (Jeremiah 29:11) 

One of my favorite movie lines is from a John Wayne movie. Naturally, being a guy, it would be.) In “The Alamo” Wayne quotes a parson when he says “Little do we mortals know.”  When we suffer from chronic illness and pain, we often feel as if our lives no longer have any value.  In that fear and pain distorted “wisdom,” we think we can see our future so clearly.

And, for me, that is the way it was in January of 2007.  My days were spent lying on the floor of my bedroom, in my parent’s house.  I had lost my job, my life, and now had to deal with the results of several surgeries for a severe back injury. I asked myself, “How can God use me in the shape I am in?” But, God was moving in my life in ways that, even now, are hard to comprehend.

My mother was diagnosed with lymphoma in late February of 2007.  Not only was I laid up, but my mother was ill as well.  One day in late March, she could no longer hold food on her stomach. We had to rush her to the hospital.  But, what could I do?  I had been flat on my back for months. Every time I tried to get up, I was in agony.  All the way, driving to the hospital that night, I kept praying, “God, give me strength to do this.”  All during this period, I had been exercising to strengthen my back.  But, most of time, I had little success in controlling the pain.

But, as March moved into April and my mother was still hospitalized, my back became stronger.  I could stand for longer periods without pain.  I still could not walk long distances.  But, all I had to do was make it up to my mother’s hospital room.  I stayed up with her from 7PM to 7AM, every night.  My dad took the day shift.

After numerous stays in the hospital, my mother came home about mid-June.  But, she still could not eat. She had to be fed intravenously, and needed care around the clock.  So, there I was, all last summer, doing a twelve-hour shift taking care of my mother at night.  Just three months earlier, I could barely get up off the floor.  In between taking care of her, I was able to do laundry and dishes. My father worked on the hospital bills, and watched her by day.

We lost my mother on October 7th.  Through all of the stress, all the pain of watching her in pain, and countless hours on my feet, God worked a miracle in three lives.  He took this battered and broken body, and raised me off the floor to live again.  In the process, he blessed my parents by giving them support that they desperately needed in one of their darkest hours.

God also used my mother’s incredible strength of faith to strengthen my faith.  In all of those terrible months that she was ill, she was never cross, never complained, and was always gracious to the nurses and doctors!  Watching the way this woman of God bore up under that terrible, devastating disease made me ashamed of the way I had dealt with my own illness.

These days, I take care of my father and the house in general.  I still have some pain.  But, God has given me a strength, a peace, and a purpose for living that I have not had in 44 years!  Recently, my dad broke his shoulder tripping over some chairs.  I “picked” him up off of the floor, and put him in one of the chairs.  At the hospital, they put him in a sling and sent him home with me.  How little did I know.

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Bill Shamblin suffers from degenerative disc disease, and severe neuropathy from three back surgeries. He lives with his parents in East Tennessee and has been out of work for three years. Sometimes, the greatest test of faith is waiting on God’s timing, not our own.

College for Those with Illness

Could You Go Back to School?
May 22, 2008 is The Fourth Annual Chronic Illness and Postsecondary Educational Symposium on “Linking Clinical and Educational Perspectives in Service of Students who have Chronic Illness.” This is sponsored by DePaul University’s Chronic Illness Initiative. There will be sessions dedicated to students with chronic illness who are currently attending or aspiring to attend college, and a next day orientation event for those who are interested in learning more about the campus. Visit their web site for more information and watch HopeKeepers Magazine for an article on going back to school.