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| God and Disease
Posted: 12/23/2007 1:12:19 PM | OP, now that you have clarified your position--that you have asked us to put ourselves in the position of facing an illness and explain how we would get out of it--maybe I can give my response.
I have some health problems and am in the process of being diagnosed with a hyper aldosteronism on top of everything else. In addition my only child has been chronically ill for the last six years with dysautonomia.
I am not preaching at you. I am merely stating what comfort my Christian faith is to ME.
As a Calvinist, I believe that God ordained all things from the foundation of the world. I do not believe in fate, chance, or luck. I believe that the illnesses I face and the illness my daughter faces were foreordained for us by God's perfect and everlasting love. I believe that God is good to His People and that all things work together for their salvation.
I believe that God uses disease as a mechanism to teach us many things in life. I believe it teaches us compassion, mercy, gentleness, maturity, etc. I believe that someone who has never suffered in his/her own body is a very selfish and immature person. Illness is like a refiners fire that refines the dross out of gold or silver. It is a painful process, but the results are very precious.
The hardest part was that I was ill for 20 years with common migraines before I knew what I had. Now that I know it is a recognized illness that is very debilitating, I can take comfort and not blame myself. It is also very hard when a lot of the symptoms are "self-reported" rather than something that shows up on a lab test, an EKG, or other diagnostic test. Doctors can be quick to label people as just looking for medication or school avoidant as happened to my daughter.
The other thing I have learned is that you have to fight for your rights in the healthcare system.
My primary illness is a genetic illness that I am not going to "get out of." The hyper aldosteronism may be something that can be cured surgically if it is caused by a tumor. If it is not caused by a tumor, it will probably require life-long medication. As far as getting out of them goes, I accept the fact that I have to treat my conditions. I don't "blame" God in an accusatory fashion even though I accept intellectually that He is the One who brought these diseases into my life for my eventual good. I accept them as something I have to deal with.
I am thankful to God that He has provided The University of New Mexico Health Science Center in Albuquerque because it is an excellent hospital with many fine specialists. They are associated with the UNM School of Medicine so they are up-to-date on the latest research. | |
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| God and Disease
Posted: 12/23/2007 1:42:48 PM | | I would meditate when feeling strong enough, and accept that my body is a mortal body. Capable of sickness and pain as well as health and joy. | |
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| God and Disease
Posted: 12/28/2007 6:25:07 AM | I'm a Strong Atheist, and there's nothing to "rationalize". God is not at "fault". Spend time trying to understand "why" God thinks and acts as He does, you may go Mad - He appears Random.
He is - 'cause, He ain't.
But instead of becoming Mad, you might end up Atheist, from which vantage point it all makes perfect sense. Yup - Random. Statistics, Stoichiometry make perfect, perfect sense of that.
I've faced death several times, at the barrel of a gun, at the end of a rope, at the bottom of the sea, and more - and remained calm. Since I yet live, I suggest that this is the adaptive response. It worked for me.
Don't waste time trying to figger why God would do this or that - spend all your time figgurin' how to Fix It.
And I have absolutely no fear of death per se - there is no point to it. I fear leaving Jobs Undone, that's all.
And the Meaning of Life is - Creativity.
Beat it if you can, Poor Bible-Biters! | |
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| God and Disease
Posted: 12/28/2007 3:37:48 PM | | Hey, trip. You need tochill down and stop trying to control what people say. It's not YOUR thread. It's a PUBLIC forum. It's OUR thread. And the Mods will sort out what is or isn't valid. If you don't like the answers, then stop asking. If the answers are not within the ever-tightening confines you create, then make the question clearer. | |
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| God and Disease
Posted: 12/30/2007 3:55:55 AM |
Hey, trip. You need tochill down and stop trying to control what people say. It's not YOUR thread. It's a PUBLIC forum. It's OUR thread. And the Mods will sort out what is or isn't valid.
I asked a specific question. A lot of people have answered the question. A lot of people gave answers to some other question that I never asked.
I'm aware it is a public forum. And just as I don't expect to walk into a real-life forum and bring up discussion of cheese and have people try to talk to me about lava, I expect that if discussion is opened on how a person would utilize their faith to cope with near-aversion of mortality, that people actually talk about it, rather than preach at me for not being christian (or in the case of one memorable troll, for "being too christian"), which as you and I both know is completely irrelevant.
If you don't like the answers, then stop asking.
No. If the answers don't actually answer anything, they are off-topic spam: and since the mods have already stepped in multiple times to clean it up, I would prefer they not have to do so again, in the hopes of avoiding have yet another promising thread get deleted.
If the answers are not within the ever-tightening confines you create, then make the question clearer.
I did: in the second post I made in this thread, in response to a post by nevercanezzer which illustrated to me that I needed to clarify. I have since clarified several times, and it is getting tiresome. Perhaps, instead of making a completely off-topic post to complain, you could add something of merit? That, to me, seems like a better use of one's time.
Thanks to And Can It Be, Fish-argh, interorl7, lolalakes, and southernlass for actually staying on-topic. See? It happens: even from people whose points of view I have openly expressed disagreement with.
So. Anything relevant to say? | |
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