Some Thoughts on a Serious Affliction

Regular readers of this journal may remember my post from October 11 of last year (is it really 2008 already?) in which I described my experience with some symptoms of a heart attack. Since then, I’ve had several tests done by a cardiologist in Maple Ridge and am still waiting to hear back but I think if there was anything seriously wrong, I’d have heard about by now (I learned a long time ago that no news is indeed good news.)

However, even before this episode I had been noticing that I was getting stiffer and stiffer in my major muscle groups and in my major joints and that there was increasing pain as well. I thought this was the inevitable outcome of a fairly sedentary lifestyle, promised myself to do more walking in the future and then paid no more attention to it.

Unfortunately, my symptoms steadily worsened so that by the time Christmas rolled around, I was on prescription pain killers and using a cane more and more often. My symptoms were always worse in the morning upon rising (which some mornings was almost impossible because of the pain and weakness) and gradually subsided as the day wore on. This condition, at first just a minor annoyance, was becoming a real problem as I could barely get around in the mornings, could no longer do any real housework or other maintenance activities around the house (which we were trying to remodel) and was resorting more and more to pre-packaged and convenience foods as I could not stand up long enough to prepare a proper dinner for my wife and me (she also is very sick with a long-term bacterial infection and is only able to work part time; she is semi-disabled).

I finally was able to see the doctor my wife has been seeing and am now under his care. On my first visit (day before yesterday) Dr. Blaney took my medical history, gave me a thorough physical examination and confidently diagnosed my condition as polymyalgia rheumatica, (PMR) which is a condition caused by inflammation. PRM is similar—in some symptomatic respects—to diseases like rheumatism and arthritis but very different in other respects. It’s normally treated with prednisone which can only be considered as a treatment of absolute last resort since it causes a whole raft of other serious problems. Dr. Blaney was not eager to prescribe this drug and after I did my research, I heartily concur. I’ve just started a course of treatment and don’t yet know how it will work out for me but I remain confident.

But I really want to look briefly at a couple of other angles to the circumstances in which I find myself.

First, I want to state my firm belief that nothing that happens, happens outside of God’s sovereign control. (This is only fitting for a Calvinist!) This belief means that I did not get this condition or disease by “accident” since there are no accidents in a universe controlled by an omniscient and omnipotent God: “What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). And if I did not get the disease by chance, I did not get to see Dr. Blaney by chance, nor was it simply by my own choosing: “A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps” (Pr. 16:9). So my situation is one in which Almighty God is working out His own will for His own inscrutable reasons. And since I know that God is not merely all-powerful but all-loving as well, I can take some comfort there. Dr. Blaney may or may not be the instrument that God uses to cure me. Indeed, God, in His infinite wisdom may have decided that I shall not recover. But this does not cause me alarm since I believe and confess that the Lord Jesus is my Saviour and King and that in Him, I have nothing to fear. Dr. Blaney was given to me as I was given to Dr. Blaney, by a loving and compassionate God, and if I am fortunate enough to be released from this affliction it will be because God has, in His good and perfect will, released me and just so that God could receive the glory of it. So I consider myself blessed by God that He has given me a doctor of great knowledge and skill but I must always remember to put my trust first in God: “And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians” (2 Chron. 16:12). If I do that, then the outcome is no longer mine or good Dr. Blaney’s, but God’s and if I am in God’s hands, I can be in none better.

Second, as a Christian it is obvious that having received this affliction I would ask myself the inevitable question: “Did God visit this sickness upon me because of my sin?” That was the question Jesus’ disciples asked Him after the occasion of the healing of the blind man, “And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). And indeed, I can tell you that I am a great sinner; none greater. But what was Christ’s answer to His disciples? “Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9:3). And while the OT seems to dwell on sin and illness, positing a causative relationship, it is equally true that both the OT and the NT recognize many causal factors for all kinds of affliction not least of which is original sin. We remember the words of Christ in Luke 13:1-5 concerning the relationship between calamity and original sin or the fall of man, “There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

As well as being the result of the original and catastrophic fall of the human race in Adam, there are other causes, not all bad. For instance, one cause of disease is what appears on the surface as chance, but as we’ve seen, chance or randomness is something controlled by an all-knowing and all-powerful God who is rich in mercy (Eph 2:4-7) and “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim. 1:9, emphasis added).

Another cause is judgment as we must be willing to admit: “Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted” (Psalm 107:17). But even then, if the afflicted—because of judgment—but turn in repentance and faith and call upon God in truth and sincerity of heart they would be made whole, “Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing” (Psalm 107:19:22).

A third reason or cause for affliction is testing. That was certainly the case with Job. It was also the case of David the psalmist: “Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart” (Psalm 26:2). David and Job both understood the nature of God’s testing or trying. God tests us to purify us and to guide our hearts and minds to Him as their right and proper and only object and upon whom we are to lean even as a sturdy and trusty cane or as a strong post in the ground.

So how then shall we respond, as born-again believers, to affliction and illness? Well, I believe that our response first must be grounded in the knowledge that it is an omnipotent as well as compassionate and loving God with whom we have to do. “But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies” (Lam.3:32); “The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness” (Psalm 41:3); “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28). This last testimony will give the Christian comfort in the midst of pain and suffering because he can put all his hope and trust in a faithful God who works all things according to the good pleasure of His will, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Php. 2:13). But this should cause the unbeliever even greater fear and apprehension than his illness is causing, since for him there is no assurance of God’s good pleasure. Since the unbeliever is not promised any more than common (not saving) grace, there can never be any hope or assurance of a final relief from suffering. I cannot imagine going through a serious illness knowing that God has not chosen me in Himself and that therefore there is no hope for me. To be seriously ill or afflicted and not be a Christian must be a frightful thing!

And I believe that we must also approach our suffering with humble submission to the will of God, which we are enabled to do through our faith in a faithful Saviour, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15a). This was the attitude of Paul in response to the “thorn in the flesh” which was given him, “And lest I should be exalted above measure … there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me…. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:7-9).

Finally, we must pray. “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord” (James 5:14); “So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children” (Gen. 20:17). We must pray not only for our own welfare, that Christ Jesus the “Great Physician” would release us from our infirmities, but that we may use our present affliction and infirmity to offer up to God the Glory that is due Him and Him alone.

Soli Deo Gloria.