Refusing to Live Under The Circumstances of Our Illness

Are you living under the circumstances of your illness? Too often we forget that we have a choice to be under–or over–the situations in our life.

WEGO Health asks for their daily writing challenge “What is the weirdest thing about your illness?” I chose to write about how we live under the circumstances of our diseases. Day #2.

Lisa Copen

“How are you?” we are asked.
“Okay,” we reply. “Under the circumstances.”

Illness places us living “under” everything. The words that describe our life can feel abnormal. Many begin with “un” and we are always under.

Illness is unidentified, unknown, uncharted, unnamed, underhanded, underestimated. We learn to live “under the weather.” We survive by realizing the name for our illness is an understatement in describing all that we will experience.

Illness brings a breakdown in the body, symptoms are able to be anonymous–unwilling to share how they are created. They grow unbeknownst, unannounced, unsuspected.

Our days of illness are unexplored, unpredictable, unmapped. We live with an undercurrent of frustration, questioning, daring to hope. We are always undergoing. We can become emotionally underfed, undernourished, and even undercut.

Our lives can feel . . unsung.

We feel underutilized, as though the pain we live with is underground, we are under-treated. And regardless of how much we fight, how desperately we live and attempt to avoid being underrated, the world tells us our absence is unexcused. That we are undervalued, an underachiever.

An undertone of hopelessness can take over.

But life is bigger!

Life is greater than all the “unders” in our life. In fact, if you are living under the circumstances, you should ask yourself, “What am I doing down here?”

Jesus tells us that our lives should be filled with abundance. We can put aside the unders and look towards the “overs” in our life.

John 10:10 says, ” A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” (The Message )

Our illness can be a thief. It will attempt to steal, kill, and destroy us. But Jesus has overcome. He has far greater plans for us when we STOP living under the circumstances.

He has overcome, His love is over-flowing, our confessed sins will be forgiven and overlooked. He will overtake our battles for us, we can live overjoyed. He will be with us into overtime, He can overthrow our fears and, when we ask Him, overtake our lives, giving it glory and purpose and give us an over abundance of joy that we could never find elsewhere.

Our illness will constantly try to place us under the circumstances–but God has overcome. Live in the promises, not as the victim of a thief, and your entire life will change. You life can be overflowing Never give your illness the power in your life it attempts to steal.