When An Affliction Becomes An Opportunity 1

"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.."

The first time I ever felt my chest tighten like it could cut off all airflow to my body was 8 years ago.  I was less than a year into a job I loved but then my boss left and I took over the entire department.  I was only 26, younger than everyone else in my department, and I felt like I was in over my head.  Who said I had the authority to lead this?

I returned from a month overseas and my husband and I were praying about moving to the Middle East while doing this job.  To top it off my grandmother, more like a second mom to me, ended up in hospice after a fall.  I would run from work to the hospice, grabbing fast food on the way, trying to juggle a million things in my head and heart.

The physicians assistant told me it was my childhood asthma that was rearing it's ugly head again and making me unable to feel like I could catch my breath. The medicine didn't help and I found myself again sitting in the doctor's office.

This time my doctor and friend didn't even have to touch me to diagnose in a moment the anxiety that was wreaking havoc on my body.  Part of me felt relieved that I wasn't also dying in the midst of all of the chaos in my life at that moment, but then there were all the doubts.

Why?  What am I doing wrong?  Is it a spiritual problem?  Can I handle this on my own or do I need to be put on medication?

I found ways to deal with the anxiety.  Yoga would help my chest to not feel so tight.  Running, praying, hot baths, journaling.  There were things I could do, so I felt in control again.  But throw in a new country within the year, another family illness when I was a world away and couldn't even be there to help, and the rug was pulled out from under me again.

This time I pleaded with God to take the anxiety away.  I knew I wasn't in control of what was happening to my body any more than I was in control of the circumstances that brought me to this place.  In time, it passed again...

[pullquote align=left]
Tomorrow I may feel a little less at home in this body, but that just means I need to relinquish control to the only one who has it anyway.
[/pullquote]

Years later there was an incidence of anxiety brought on by two impending international trips on top of a full-time job and two kids, to-do lists that had me drowning.  Take it away, Lord! Please!  I am slow at math but I finally reasoned: stress + me = meltdown.

So, I slowed down and began to say "no" to extra events. I was writing again, working out regularly, had a firm grasp on life.  But the world started to spin anyway - again.

Continue Reading