Stop Thinking Sick

I could quote science after psychology study and report showing how our thoughts effect our actions and physical self. But I don’t want to bore you with statistics and facts. I just want to speak truth.

Your thoughts affect everything.

Your thoughts affect the friends you choose, the boy/girlfriend you are with, the person you marry, the person you divorce, the food you crave, the food you buy at the store, the job you have, the money you spend, the words you speak, the trajectory of your future, …

and HOW YOU FEEL.

Dwelling on hardship, hurt, pain, and things going wrong does not help. It only fuels the pity party, which is not much of a fun party to attend after all. In fact the pity party is the kind of party that eventually runs off all your friends, the people who care about you and sometimes your spouse or kids.

This is the last call, pity party is over. Call it quits. But I digress, let’s talk about words.

Just stop. Stop thinking about being sick. Stop making it your identity. You are not Lyme, you are not a sick person forever doomed. I am forever tied to Lyme because it changed me for the better. It altered my course, changed my heart, my priorities, my attitude. But it is not who I am.

I was in the middle of a huge just-made-for-one pity party one terrible in-the-pits-Lyme day. I had a good solid cry going that had me gasping and moaning. I had fallen prostrate on my face on the floor. I cried out to God saying I just wanted to be “that normal person again”. I just couldn’t understand why I was still suffering and longed to be who I was before Lyme.

All of sudden I “heard” a still small voice in my gut say to me, “that person was selfish, that person was ungrateful”.

Ouch. Double Ouch.

But, guess what. That ended my pity party and most after that point. It was true. Without the perspective shift of Lyme, I would have never been so grateful for health and healing. I had taken it all for granted. How dare I not be grateful for each day with my kids, my family, my loved ones – no matter how it was spent or how I suffered.

So, I had to change my thoughts. Thoughts couldn’t be about me anymore, or my poor old illness or disease. I had to find a way to live better even after I healed. Now, don’t get me wrong, I never stopped praying for it to be over and for healing to fully come. But I didn’t dwell there. I didn’t compare myself to others anymore. I started praying for others. I started being thankful.

I changed my thoughts.

Don’t take my word for it. There are many who speak words more elloquently than mine.

“Contentment … has an internal quietness of heart that gladly submits to God in all circumstances. He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer His embrace.”  –Joni Eareckson Tada 

“A lot of people say they want to get out of pain, and I’m sure that’s true, but they aren’t willing to make healing a high priority. They aren’t willing to look inside to see the source of their pain in order to deal with it.” —Lindsay Wagner, Actress (TV’s The Bionic Woman)

“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” —Louisa May Alcott

“Never, never, never give up.” —Winston Churchill

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” —Dale Carnegie

“God delights to increase the faith [or condition the faith-muscle] of His children. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God’s hand as a means. I say – and say it deliberately – trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith.”  –George Mueller

I found myself reading uplifting biographies of people who overcame hardship with great faith. George Mueller’s is my personal favorite. You can’t focus on yourself or your Lyme after reading the story of his life. Perspective change.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Blessings and healing – and here’s to thinking “UP”,

Janice Fairbairn

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