The Joy of Resilience in the Face of Disease
Many of you may already know that I’m a stickler for word art. I love manipulating words and phrases to create new meaning, and to make someone encouraged, inspired, or provoked emotionally by my artwork. It’s really encouraging even to me, to create, and to open up a whole other world that was previously inaccessible to both myself and others appreciating my work.
With that said, I wanted to engage with the idea of disease today. I realize this is a difficult topic for some, and one that could provoke pain for many. I’m sorry, but I’m hopeful my words will bring deep encouragement.
As soon as I saw the word “disease,” I also saw the phrase, “dis-ease.” Dis. Ease. Having a disease may provoke uneasiness. It may cause us to feel unsettled, discouraged, perhaps even disheveled by its mere presence in our lives. It doesn’t make sense, nor is it something we asked for or arguably desire to have around. It doesn’t seem welcomed or wanted.
The worst part of a disease is not only that it affects that person, or even their loved ones, but that it threatens to destroy, shattering hope, tearing down happiness, and keeping its recipients evermore discouraged and downtrodden.
And yet, perhaps, what we deem to be the worse part of a disease, may actually be what makes it breathtaking, and beautiful.
Disease may pave the way for discouragement, but it certainly provides then the choice to continue being encouraged even in its wake. When faced with disease, we’re also faced with a choice; we can choose discouragement, or, we can choose a greater and deeper encouragement than we ever knew before its existence in our lives.
Disease then, brings our lives dis-ease. And yet, in that uneasiness, deep foundations are built and shallow thinking and wayward living are completely eradicated. When we’re presented with our mortality, or our frailties, or even our inabilities, there is no room left for a fake or fleeting foundation to our lives. We must be real.
And when we suffer because of our diseases, we are also strengthened in and because of their presence. Resilience is not just for those who tend to the weaknesses and wounds of the diseased, but it is also given to those who wait patiently for healing and restoration of their own frailties. What threatens to destroy anyone, can actually be used to strengthen both the one afflicted, and those who love the diseased.
Resilience is a powerful virtue then, and one that comes about only by the means of suffering. Who needs to build up resilience if there’s nothing standing in their way to make them discouraged or depleted? Why would someone need to endure if there’s nothing that causes them to need it? We press on in hope, gaining resilience along the way, and that strength comes only through suffering.
And those means, of suffering, are actually and ultimately means for incredible grace.
Grace reminds us that we are but a mist. Our lives come and go quickly, and the defining moments in them are often the hardest ones. They bring us the most pain, and I guess because of that, are the ones that become amongst the most memorable.
And yet, grace still abounds through suffering, because the pain produces deep wells of resilience in and through us. Resilience for our own pains and woes, and resilience to endure with others in their wounds and weaknesses.
Therefore, there is amazing joy to be found as we endure disease. Any suffering is painful, and yet, what comes out on the other side of that suffering is what ultimately stands.
Hence the title for this post: the joy of resilience in the face of disease. What threatens to disarm us, to make us off balance, and to keep us from being at ease, is exactly what can be the avenue through which we learn how to be armed, encouraged, strengthened, and able to stand. It’s difficult to know how to protect ourselves if we’re never put under attack. It’s difficult to know just how to endure without having the need for it. And if ever there’s something to be joyful about, it is this: disease may threaten to destroy us, but it simply is, at the end of the day, the means through which we all learn resilience, patience, and gratitude. Grace abounds. How else would we all be able to smile, if it weren’t for those times that threatened to take our smiles away for good?
Be encouraged: disease unsettles, yet resilience brings the ease we need, thanks to our diseases. Praise Jesus.
