Is There Joy in Sickness

Dear Trekker,

It’s been quite a month. I am writing later than usual. To be blunt, I’ve been physically sick most of June. What we thought was a stomach virus was found to be more serious. Frankly, I’ve been one sick puppy! My dear wife said she had never seen me so sick in 50 years! Not a ‘sickness unto death’, but thank God for antibiotics, CAT scan and other modern medicines and practices. I’m on the mend. Nuff detail!

But I have a confession for you trekkers. I have thought about the departure of ‘raw happiness’ these last few weeks, which is where this ‘happy camper’ normally lives his life. There isn’t much to cheer about in sickness, or is there? Could there be such a thing as ‘joy in sickness’? That is what I have wrestled with these last few weeks, similarly as when they told me I had cancer almost six years ago. And I want to share some of my conclusions.

Make no mistake, Trekker, faith in the Lifegiver is all about joy. We have found the pearl of great price! The Christian faith has been the religion of Joy since its beginnings: joyful announcements, miracles, adventure and wonder, spectacular pregnancies, empty tombs, etc. The Gospel is ‘good news of great joy that will be for all people’ is the way Luke quotes the birth angel’s announcement to the shepherds. Joy is one of those eternal blessings known as ‘fruit of the Spirit’ within one who has invited Christ into his or her life.

Good, but one might ask, “How can you be joyful when you are ‘sicker than a dog’?” Well, it isn’t easy. Feelings of pain, frustration, impatience, and extreme fatigue do a hatchet job on us all during bouts of illness. But it is possible. On June 14, from “Reflections for Ragamuffins”, Brennan Manning, Catholic priest and esteemed retreat speaker and prolific devotional writer, states: “I can touch the life of Jesus who faced the same things and can will myself to respond as He did. (Frankly, trekker, I think Jesus got physically ill from time to time, just as we do. Remember, he was 100% human as well as 100% divine.) The power of His Spirit passes into my spirit, and the purpose of Pentecost is fulfilled: Christ is formed within me not just in peak moments of transcendental experience, but in the nitty-gritty of daily life. (Surely this would include sickness.) I am confined to bed, sick, nauseous, racked with pain, utterly incapable of prayer. (Yes, I was!) I have only to whisper, “It’s yours, my Friend”, and it is no longer I who lie there, it is Jesus Christ. (And I would say, “with skin on my body.”) And so it goes, Jesus slept. I can unite my sleep with His.” These words of Manning, read to me by my wife Barbara, were ever so meaningful when I was at my lowest.

One caution, trekker… don’t confuse happiness and joy. Happiness is brought about by circumstance. Something makes us happy. Think of ‘happiness’ as tied into what ‘happens’. If happenings are good, we are happy. If happenings are bad, we are not happy. Happiness depends on the external; joy wells up within and is internal. Happiness depends upon what happens; joy depends upon who lives within you. Happiness is pure chance; joy is based on our choice and God’s faithfulness to live His life in and through us. Every day is the day the Lord has made; we may rejoice and be glad/joyful in it. Or as I have said over the years, “The Holy Spirit does not have bad days; we shouldn’t either.”

We can be living in joy, and experience joy continuously. If we hang out with God, we will be joyful trekkers, upbeat, expectant, positive in sickness or in health, because “in His presence there is fullness of joy”, as the Psalmist said. Nehemiah said it well too, “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” Very apropos when there is little strength in one’s body. (I might add parenthetically, I did ‘enjoy’ losing quite a few excess pounds this month.)

Joy in sickness? Yes, rightly understood, I think it is possible and I can honestly say I learned more obedience (as Jesus did) through the things I suffered these last few weeks. The writer of Hebrews was right; as Jesus learned obedience through suffering so must we… granted, at a much less significant level. Suffering is a great teacher.

Some practical matters also attend ‘joy in sickness.’ A relative of mine is reluctant to go to the doctor for fear of what he will be told. Trekker, don’t be stupid. So often, there is a well of healing right around the corner. Go to your doctor! Get help! Heed his or her directions. Recognize his authority. Clear the deck of your schedule. The divinely implanted mechanisms for healing our human bodies are truly amazing. I will attest once again, as when I became a cancer survivor, that good medical practices of the day and divine aid through “casting all your cares on Him” in prayer, are a pretty formidable combination. I asked my doctor, my friend, “what happened to people in my condition before the age of antibiotics and CAT scans?” He remarked matter-of-factly, “They died.”

I so respect C. S. Lewis, who experienced incredible confluence of joy and sickness in his own life and in the life of his wife Joy. Lewis said, “Joy is the serious business of heaven.” Amen to that! (I would heartily recommend his monumental work of the subject: “Surprised by Joy.” Add it to your Trekker library. It will give you a new perspective on life and joy, sickness and death.)

Good luck Trekker, as you amble on through life! When you get sick and suffer and say “why me, Lord?” don’t curse God and die, even figuratively if not literally. The cup may not pass easily from you, but nonetheless, you will never be alone. Drink deeply from the healing well of His divine presence. He will be faithful in sickness and in health so long as you live. He loves you! So hang tough, trekker, in good times and bad, and don’t doubt in the dark of your sickest night, what God has promised in the light.

Your fellow trekker, on the mend,

Jim Meredith