A few weeks ago I was meeting with a group of guys for a Friday morning Bible study when I was asked a question I have never truly been asked before. "Has being diagnosed with MS changed your outlook on life?" This seems like a potentially difficult question to answer but it wasn't. I quickly responded and said, "No". As to why I responded with a no is a little more time consuming to answer so I thought I would take the time to explain why the most life changing event in my life to date didn't alter my view on life. Being diagnosed with MS didn't change my outlook on life, it actually reaffirmed my outlook on life. MS has challenged me physically, mentally, and spiritually, but it has also brought clarity and a sense of purpose.
I have always viewed the world as a broken world that wasn't functioning as God had planned for it to function. Things changed for the worst when Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree and it hasn't recovered since. Seeing people live and sleep on a dirt floor in Haiti is proof of a broken world. Seeing that despite the millions and millions of dollars rolling into Haiti after the earthquake no progress was being made due to corrupt leaders is a sign of a broken world. Seeing people living in an old dump just across the United States border into Mexico where these people can still see San Diego is a sign of a broken world. Pain, sickness, death, all signs of a broken world.
Though I saw these things and knew of the fallen world from Sunday school I was always somewhat removed from the brokenness. One of the most difficult times in my life growing up was when my dad was sick and spent a lot of time in the hospital while doctors tried to figure out what was going on. But as I think about that experience I talk from perspective of looking back on things. If I speak from the perspective of me during that time it would be very different. My parents actually did a really good job of shielding me from that situation. It wasn't util several years later and a healthy father that I fully understood that my mom had moments in time where she didn't think he would survive. Though looking back it could have been another sign of a broken world I was completely oblivious to the situation. When I was finally diagnosed with MS it was just another notch in the belt in terms of proof of a broken world. The good news is that a broken world is just the first part of the story.
The second half of the story is that this broken world is only temporary. That God sent his Son to die on the cross and be risen from the dead so that we may one day live in, not a broken world, but a perfect world. That was always my outlook. This brokenness is temporary. Eventually things will be made perfect. As some of you may be thinking it is easy to say that when you are removed from the brokenness. When you haven't really experienced it. It is completely different to sit within the brokenness and state that. Well here I am, sitting literally in brokenness as I get treatment for, essentially, my body not working how it was meant to work, and still saying that it is temporary. There is a reason I have John 16:33 tattoo'd on my body. For those of you that aren't quite sure John 16:33 goes something like this, I tell you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, for I have overcome the world.
Despite my body not working like it used to and a whole host of other symptoms I still fully believe that God is still in control. That there will come a time when I will have a new body and it will be perfect and whole again, and let me tell you, I can't wait for that day! This journey has been a whirlwind but through it all I have felt this unexplainable sense of comfort and calmness. I have always wanted to connect with those that are broken and hurting but never saw a clear connection or doubted that they would listen to me. I now have a clear and obvious connection with those people and I am excited to see where that takes me!
Hopefully one of those connections is with you, the one reading this. As I go through this journey I have come to really understand that we are all going through something that I would consider a byproduct of a broken world and it isn't always easy. But if there is one thing you take away from all of this is that we have a promise that this is only temporary. That one day there will be a world void of pain, death, corruption, MS, and everything else you can think of that isn't pleasant. So please, Take Heart.
John 16:33