Fighting the lies

"Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." 1 John 4:7  NRSV

"Wherever we see brokenness it is the opportunity for us to spread light."  I was surprised to hear myself say this in the grocery store this morning. Now, I know I talk like this on this blog, and would talk like this in my preaching, but I don't usually talk like this in most of the rest of my life.  Believe me, I'm not usually this poetic in my daily life...especially grocery shopping! 

Here's what happened:  I had dropped my son off to school, and decided to swing by the store. Upon checking out, I started talking to a cashier I've known for a while.  We were talking about some changes taking place in our community, and this usually up-beat, positive woman was sounding like she was giving up on our community.  I encouraged her that those of us who have a higher hope for our town could make a difference, and she didn't believe it.  Her attitude was surprisingly defeatist and fatalistic.  Things were changing and it was going to just be bad.

Perhaps she'd had a bad morning or a bad weekend, but her words really sparked something inside of me that couldn't accept her vision for the future.  Her words touched on something that I've wrestled with during long-term illness...a sense of helplessness, and a sense that there is nothing we can do.

Leaving the grocery store, my head started to spin-- from ideas, not from the POTS this time!  Helplessness, hopelessness, giving up, worthlessness...they are all lies that illness can speak to us.  Obviously, we're not the only ones who face feelings like these, but it strikes me that people who live with and battle chronic illnesses have a greater familiarity with these thoughts and feelings.  Some of us battle them on a daily basis, and we have some very good weapons in place to fight them off.  We fight them because society often speaks these lies to us, well-meaning friends or family might echo some of these fears and lies to us without meaning to, and often (at least for myself) we can speak these lies to ourselves: "There's nothing we can do.  We're not worth anything anymore.  What's the point?  What does it matter?" Any of these sound familiar? 

They do to me.  On my toughest days these questions and others like them come pouring in.  I've learned, over time, that there are some effective things to battle these negative lies that want us to believe the worst about ourselves, and anticipate the least from our potential.  In fact, I want to boldly assert that people with Chronic illnesses have important things to teach others about fighting these negative lies.  Many of us have had a great deal of experience with warding off these mental predators, and we are stronger warriors than we know. 

This week I want to focus not just on the lies that Chronic illness can spread, but upon the tools and gifts that you and I have learned and are learning through our experience, and how in fact, we can be teachers and mentors to others as they face difficult territory in their lives.  As we fight the lies, and as we encourage others, we also live in and spread the love of God in important and powerful ways as God's love flows through us.

To encourage you today and inspire you to perhaps take a different look at yourself-- as one who is particularly and powerfully gifted by your experiences-- I share with you this song below by the group Avalon.  It reminds me of my friend's comment that her pastor has hold her that breathing in and out is another form of prayer.  Living and being are powerful witnesses to God's Love.




Lord God, today help me see my experiences as powerful resources that can help strengthen and train others. Help me not to believe the lies, but to look to you for understanding my real value and strength, and remind me that my strength is grounded in you...and is grounded in love.  Amen.