Recently I wrote of the dark days of feeling awful for month after month with no hope of a clear diagnosis and no possibility of treatment. Then I received a diagnosis: Fibromyalgia.
Though this is an often misunderstood disorder and is a rest-of-my-life sort of thing, it makes an enormous difference simply having a name to call it. I now have encouraging and supportive doctors, resources to educate and inform, and hope of treatment that could possibly make it more bearable.
When there was no hope of any good news, it was a dark place.
Part of the emotional pain was lack of understanding or comprehension by the people who should have been able to help. The judgment of others who didn’t understand what I was experiencing made it worse.
Spiritually, this is analogous to where we are before we place our faith in Christ. There’s no cure for our brokenness, and we don’t even know what’s wrong with us. The people who should be able to help often have no idea what we’re going through.
They point. They judge. No matter what we do, nothing works.
Month after month, year after year, we struggle against dark barriers, feeling alone and forgotten. The condition is terminal.
This is why Christ was born into this world of darkness. “Sacrifices and offerings you did not desire,” he said to the Father, “but a body you prepared for me. Behold, I have come to do your will” (Hebrews 10:5b, 7b).
Thus, God became a man: Christ with us. He brought the hope of Good News.
We are terminal, and he knows it. To free us, he came to be broken, so he could die for our sins – the clearest way to show God’s love. This is the best news ever! God passionately loves us and intimately understands our brokenness. He has experienced it and has mercy and compassion for our weakness.
Waiting For The Word via Compfight
Nothing dark tempers this good news or renders it “too good to be true.” Jesus came to apply the medicine of himself to our terminal condition.
When we believe and trust him, our sins are forgotten and wiped out. Christ’s blood paid for them all, freeing us from our disease of sin, taking all our brokenness, enabling us to live like him, and giving us the promise of eternal life, beginning right now.
His arms are open. He wants us to come to him, believe, and be healed.
In this Christmas season, embrace this hope of good news in the darkness.
Christ is with us.
Melinda, I’m thankful that God allowed us to cross paths. You are a blessing! More than any other cure this world can offer we have the hope in knowing who the Cure is.
Like most Christian writers, I preach truth to myself. I haven’t been able to be in corporate worship for a couple of weeks. Sitting in a darkened sanctuary last night with about 500 college kids singing praise to Jesus in Christmas songs with all their might was exactly what my heart needed. During the service, Jesus gently reminded me that He loves me just the way I am now, even if I’m not a dynamo marketer or savvy media chick or have slow sales. I don’t have to be a workaholic, the go-to girl, or an energizer bunny for the Lord to cherish me. He is answering my prayers that he teach me to rely only on himself. He’s just doing it in a way I hoped he wouldn’t choose, but since he does all things well and knows me better than I know myself, he had to do it this way. It’s the only way I would learn this lesson. The brokenness demonstrates his great love for me. He wants me to grow ever closer to him. That is way more important than a cure!
Melinda, I understand exactly what you’re talking about. The most important thing is growing closer to Him through sanctification. I’m so thankful that you were able to worship last night! I was praying for you all day yesterday.
Thank you so much! I’m so grateful for our connection, too! It’s a blessing to be on this writing road with you, dear sister.
What a great analogy! It is so very true that we have an incurable disease until we accept Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. And a great time to tell the Good News! Oh my!! So glad to hear more about your getting to be at the Christmas program last night! So thankful that you have the diagnosis and realize that God is doing a work in you through your suffering. My choice would be that He would not do it this way, but I have to submit you into His hands and not pray against His will! I love you dearly!
I agree! He really knows the best way to refine me! Christlikeness is the goal!