Continuing this theme of being candid about what it is like to live with MS. It seems to target the nerve or nerves most critical to your lifestyle. It's weird like that, unique in some ways to the individual and some things the same across the board. Fatigue, for instance. Every MS patient I have met has to fight this. Not everyone loses their vision or their balance. It hit my optic nerve; hit it hard. For a teacher that is a death knell, a career stopper.
Image courtesy of Microsoft
And
depth perception? Well there is little to none. I feel for the curb with my toe. It all
looks flat to me but the curb is often clearly marked so I know it is there. The
first step is a hard one! The pain memory from a couple times of stepping off
as if it were flat helps you remember to check! You only do it once or twice.
And the Lord calls me to be a writer knowing all about these difficulties! I
have taken the stance that I want to learn everything I can learn from this
disease--milk it for all it's worth! I believe that God only gives good gifts
and even things that don't look like gifts to me might contain some gold so I
didn't fold up and sit in a pity party (not for long anyway). I will not judge
God or His Word by my experience; rather I will judge my experience by His
word. He is good. I figured if He asked me to do this then I either already had
the resources, needed to use the resources I have differently, or He would
supply what was yet needed. The computer is a great resource. I enlarged my
fonts and made the lines at 1.5--viola the lines no longer run into each other.Image courtesy of Microsoft
Just talking or thinking about the difficulties makes me tired. I have much
more energy if I keep my thoughts joy filled or if I dialogue with God as I am
doing a task. It is as if I can draw energy from Him whereas when I focus on a
difficulty it is like letting go of my energy source. Consequently, I don’t
talk about it much. And this is about enough for today…I need to get back into
joy or I will lose the rest of the day! I hope this gives you a bit of insight
into what my life is like with a chronic condition.
St. Paul said that he gloried in his infirmities. I look at that and
shake my head, confiding in God that I am not there yet and don't know if I
ever will be. One day in the kitchen sweeping, the thought flew through my
head that I wondered how God saw all of the derailments and hard things in my
life. About two hours later I gasped because I was looking at all those events
from His point of view. I don’t know how He does that—must be like a Vulcan
mind meld! All I could do was say, “Thank you, Lord! Thank you!”
From His point of view each place that I had felt would “be my home” and I
would stay there for the rest of my life—each place was a temporary assignment.
I assumed it was a place to put my roots down deep. Erroneously I thought I had
come into my destiny, so when the assignment came to an end and I had to move
on I was hurt and confused. It was a temporary assignment to gain a skill set
or hone a skill and gain expertise that I would need in the next assignment.
The final derailment was this MS attack. From God’s point of view it works
perfectly to give me the time to write the things that are on His heart, and
that truly is my destiny: to be His friend and scribe, to stay just one step
behind Jesus so I won't get lost and am close enough to hear what He says and write it down
without the distractions of a teaching career, papers to grade, committee meetings and assignments...politics
(ugh). I am closer to glorying in my infirmity than I have ever been before. At
least I am grateful, and I have found my way back to joy.
How about you? How are you dealing with the “hard thing” in your life? What
helps you keep your faith and perspective? I would love for you to share your story of how the enemy meant for your destruction but God turned things around for you. It would be a big encouragement to us all!
Blessings, Carol…making it plain
Author of The Mystery of Spiritual
Sensitivity and Highly Sensitive
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