Does Your Faith- Spirituality affect your Outlook on Dystonia ?
I have wondered about the impact of Faith and Spirituality as a way to help cope with Dystonia ? What are your thoughts on this ? What do you practice ? Do you believe Faith has a role in healing ? Has it changed your outlook towards life with dystonia ? If so, How ?
Share your Beliefs today.
Beka
Share your Beliefs today.
Beka
Tags: alternative, chronic, coping, dystonia, illness, life, medicine, religion, spirituality
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by RevWagner on -
In my life faith in God's will has helped me deal with the emotional aspects of dystonia. I believe that God has willed me to be affected by dystonia for His benefit. I do not believe my faith or lack of it will heal me or not. Faith is taking God's hand and walking through those dark valleys. God has not promised me a life free from pain or sickness. God has promised to walk with me every step of the way. Faith by itself is nothing. Faith must be put to the test or it means nothing. I may have faith that a chair will hold my weight, and that is well and good. If I never sit in the chair however it does me no good. I have written two small books about faith and dealing with sickness they are, "No More Room For Grace", and "Treasure in Adversity." I have five more books that I am writing on this subject. I realize that not all people are people of faith, but my target audience are those who are. I volunteer as a chaplin about once a month at the local hospital. I have found that faith is an asset to those who have it. On a personal note in my own life I struggle on a daily basis with my faith in reguards to dystonia. I have found out that it is importaint to surround yourself with people of faith to help hold you up when you can not stand on your own. I can not imagine going though all this by myself. My faith will not heal me, but it will make the journey a joy. RevWagner
-
Permalink Reply by beka on -
Rev Wagner - How did your dystonia come about ? Book and ordering information would be wonderful. You have a compassionate outlook that will help many on this Forum.
The longer I have had dystonia, now going into year 21 or so, I find myself drawn to the Spirutality sections of local bookstores- trying to find more meaning in my own personal journey with dystonia. At one point early on in the disease, I kept asking " why did God give me this disorder ? why not to my sisters ? or someone else ? " I now realize " why not me afterall ?
Your thoughts , Rev. ???
beka
-
Permalink Reply by Ellen S on -
Beka,
Your story and your wonderings remind me of one of those little forwards I received from a friend yesterday...
A rock climber was scaling the side of a mountain when she was hit in the face by her rope, knocking out her contact lens. When faced with blurry vision and a trip either up or down a huge rock mountain, what do you do? First you panic, then you pray. She prayed for calm, and to find her lens.
She continued to the top, and upon arriving there, they searched for the lens on her face and clothes to no avail. She had arrived at the top of her mountain journey only to discover she could see nothing of the sprawling landscape below.
She remembered the bible verse 'The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.'
She thought, 'Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me.'
When they got to the bottom of the mountain they were shocked to hear a voice yelling "Hey, anybody lose a contact lens?". Even more startling was the story that the man had found it, carried by an ant across a twig on the side of the mountain.
The woman's father, a cartoonist, created a picture of an ant carrying a contact lens thinking,
'Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You.'
Some days the load seems unbearably heavy, but we carry it because we've been asked. We don't know what our experience might mean to someone else. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, to be used by God to help someone else.
In everything that we do and say, we are teaching others along the way, paving the road for others that will come after us. We can teach them about strength in the face of adversity, control in the face of helplessness, and happiness and joy in the face of pain, or we can teach them about anger and bitterness, and that pain and adversity is an excuse for rudeness and disdain.
We do not always know what will be the eventual result of our actions, but that doesn't make them any less important.
For those without Dystonia, if God asked you, would you pick up the contact and carry it across the face of a mountain for no visible purpose?
-
Permalink Reply by Thorns on -
I find it very interesting when people say God gives these disorder's and diseases, I do not feel this way. I feel God is love and compassion and God gives me inner peace when I'm at my worst. And I try to be this way with other's around me, treating them with kindness and empathy. I've come across many people in my life who feel get on with your life, but they have never had a life altering illness yet and sometimes it's their own fear that makes them act the way they do. But God is always with me in darkness and in light. Another reason I don't feel this is God's work because I have a wonderful mother who I don't feel God would give her 3 childern with dystonia, sometimes biology just sucks. God Bless You All Thorns
-
Permalink Reply by Ellen S on
-
Hmmm. I hadn't quite read that into it. Perhaps I'm too foggy-brained today. To wax on the philosophical, I agree with you. We are what we are and it's what we do to deal with it that makes the difference. IMHO only.
For me, it's a choice. Be miserable, or make it purposeful.
I choose to make it purposeful.
-
Permalink Reply by RevWagner on
-
I do not mean to be argumentitive with you. There are several cases in scripture were bad things did happen to good people. One of these is Lazarus whom was greatly loved. John 11:1-4 "Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." If God did not allow times of sickness and need would we really understand how much He cares? It is not that God takes pleasure in our adversity. He does however allow great disaster in order to show great love. Take the case of Job who lost all his possessions, and even his own kids. God allowed all of this things to happen as a test of Job's loyalty to Him. In passing the test God granted him twice the wealth that he had before.
-
Permalink Reply by BDrake on -
I think the key word is "allowed". I can agree with pretty much what everyone here has said. There have been other tradgedies in my life ( I won't go into here) that I haven't dealt with as well as others and the sad thing is...there is no difference...it's my own weakness. In somethings I am more willing to give it to God than others and that is to my own misfortune. I am glad I have a forgiving and Gracefilled God and am greatful for this thread. It is a wonderful reminder to me how gracious God is.
~Becky
-
Permalink Reply by robert on -
God can heal us but not everyone gets healed, the negative side is that those who are not healed sometimes think it is because they do not have enough faith. That is not true, God has his own agenda. I would suggest Google Todd Bentley and watch him on the God Channel.
I went to Florida and felt nothing, my friend was touched by the Holy Spirit and his muscles went into a sort of cramp, he couldn't stand up for about 30 minutes. He tells me that he is not usually susceptible to this sort of experience.
Whilst I am a Christian I believe that there is a scientific explanation to some of the healings, brains get rewired in some sort of way. This is in line with science where our brains can get confused as in musicians dystonia. Our brains are Plastic, that is they can be changed.
-
Permalink Reply by beka on
-
Isn't there a fairly well known book by a Rabbi " Why Bad Things happen to Good People "? Sometimes there are no explanations for why things occur in our lives.
I have always tried to make the best of things , even when ridiculed because of my gait, fallen on the streets of Manhattan, looked intoxicated, had no voice ( that seems to attract men ..! ) and used walls as darn sensory tricks. There is a verse in the Bible that refers to God only giving as much as we can handle. ( He must think I can handle an awful lot ...Sometimes though I wonder how much more must I handle...? )
beka
-
Permalink Reply by TWISTEDJAM on -
Beka,
The book you are making reference to " Why Bad Things Happen to Good People" is written by Rabbi Harold S Kushner. This is an excellent book for anyone going through any adversity in their life, be it health related or otherwise.
-
Permalink Reply by Barbara Brooks on -
Rev. Wagner, I totally agree with you. There is too much evidence in the scriptures that tells me that God will allow pain and sickness to befall people as a test of their faith and loyalty to Him. We live in a fallen world of sin and everyone at one time or another I believe will endure a crisis of some kind. I never thought I would be stricken with cervical dystonia but I have had this for the past 10 yrs. now and knowing there is no cure hurts and it has now spread into the muscles near my esophagus so I have anterocollis now. I had a denervation surgery 4 1/2 yrs. ago which straightened my head as it was being pulled to my right shoulder but now this has turned into another nightmare. I am due to take Botox injections again this month as I have not had them since before the surgery. My neurologist's at Mayo want me to undergo them again as a trial to see if they will loosen up the muscles. Otherwise they are talking another surgery to take another muscle out (they already took the splenius). They say I could wind up worse off than I am now though. Above all this I am a strong person as I know all my strength comes from the Lord. I will not let this get me down and I will fight this as long as I live. Dystonia will not win ! I feel I am an example and living proof that I can handle whatever comes with the Lord with me through this, and I hope I am an inspiration to others and that they can see my strength. I cannot raise my head up as it is being pulled downward . I always feel more comfortable when people know what is wrong with me but it's the strangers who wonder why I can't look up at them. Holding my head down is a sign (body language) that I am shy, not able to confront people (which is not true), but I just cannot get my head up as it is rock solid hard in the muscles. I keep my focus on God who strengthens me. I take comfort in your messages and am glad to meet you, Barbara Brooks in Missouri
© 2009 Created by Marie
