by Christine Odell.
At the Pool of Bethesda, among the great number of sick people, ‘One person who was there had been disabled for 38 years. Jesus saw him lying there. He knew that the man had been in that condition for a long time. So he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”’ (Jn 5:5,6 NrIV). The man reacted by making an excuse for his inability to get into the healing waters. Perhaps, rather than being accusatory, Jesus’s question was seeking consent to touch, agreement to be healed. But this story speaks of the marginalisation and disabling of those who are ill, as well as raising questions about the search for, and nature of, health.
Our daughter, now in her early thirties, is disabled by three chronic illnesses and also has to spend most of her time lying down. The relatively recent rise of the incidence of chronic illness in younger people is little understood. My mother suffered from a disabling chronic illness for the last 23 years of her life. In the United Kingdom almost half of the population is recorded as having chronic illness – of varying degrees of intensity, and often age related. Most families will be touched by this. The wholeness of health, mobility, ability to ‘do’ is perceived as ‘normal life’ but, because it is so often experienced as fleeting, this is a perception to be challenged, ‘…any difference is simply between disabled and temporarily able bodied.’[1]
So what can ‘life in all its fullness’ (Jn 10;10b) mean for the Christian with chronic illness? How can they live the life of faith when much that society (and church) sees as ‘normal’, essential and desirable is denied them? Are they heard when they say ‘I am not trying to be recovered, I am claiming my self-worth’.[2]
In their helpful book, Your Companion through Chronic Illness,[3] Shadbolt and Long set out the myths about chronic illness that Christians should dispel:
- ‘It’s a sign of God’s displeasure.’ – Suffering is a fact of nature (Matt 5:45).
- ‘Illness is your fault.’ ‘Who sinned, this man or his parents?’ (Jn 9:2).
- ‘It is all in your head.’ But it’s your mind and body, you know them best. Accusations like this have been made against those with ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but sufferers know better and medical science is slowly catching up.
- ‘There’s a simple solution that you’re missing.’ (!)
- ‘Life will never be good again.’
- ‘Nobody will want to be with you now.’
All of these myths are destructive of a sense of self-worth, of experiencing the life in all its fullness that Jesus offers.
Modern society worships ‘doing’ and success, health, and self-fulfilment, living ‘our best lives’. But the lifestyle this society prizes is beyond the reach of those with chronic illness. Even within the church there is a tendency to expect that Christians will be busy and happy. ‘Keep busy, Jesus is coming!’ ‘Smile, Jesus loves you!’ The question ‘How can one suffering from chronic illness be a ‘real’ Christian, if the effort required just to live precludes worship and service?’ gets ignored.
Luan Huska writes ‘While there is much about your disease you cannot control, you can control your attitude and approach to it.’[4] Those with chronic illness are forced to find a new way of living and thinking that incorporates and values who they are now. God coming to us in Christ encourages us to ‘be’ in our bodies, however broken and disloyal. This is who we are and this is how we experience God with us, and whatever we can offer in return, in loving faith, is acceptable to God. Jesus said ‘Come to me, all who are weary and whose load is heavy; I will give you rest… for my yoke is easy to wear, my load is light.’ (Matt 11:26, 30)- a challenge to our Christian life/work or being/doing balance!
The values of society and our own weakness in bearing one another’s burdens have made the church community a difficult place for some Christians with chronic illness. There is a perceived need to hide suffering, both physical and spiritual, to wear a ‘shining Sunday’ face. But in churches where we see the Suffering Christ on the Cross, we are reminded that God is with us in suffering, that this is the place to come, to lament as well as to praise. God does not ‘turn His face away’ (MP 988). The crucifix foreshadows the empty Cross of the Resurrection that gives us hope in the victory of love, the promise of New Life.
And the gift of life in all its fullness, the gift of wholeness is offered freely to all, is to be experienced even in the brokenness, the limitations and the frustrations of our own incarnate lives.
How the church community can help those with chronic illness experience that gift is for another article!
[1] Deborah Beth Creamer, Disability and Christian Theology – Embodied Limits and Constructive Possibilities (New York: OUP, 2008) quoted by Liuan Huska in Hurting Yet Whole (see fn 4)
[2] Alice Hattrick, Ill Feelings, (Fitzcarraldo, 2021)
[3] Elaine Shadbolt and Nancy Long Your Companion through Chronic Illness (Abingdon Press, 2019)
[4] Liuan Huska, Hurting Yet Whole (IVP, 2020)
Theology Everywhere 
Thank you so much for this thoughtful post, I have several family members, including children who live with chronic illnesses, the pressure on them from church can be huge, and I recognise all of the difficulties you describe. I remember being asked by one particular church ( not Methodist) to search my life for sin so that my son could be healed. Wholeness, and fullness of life are so much more than the limitations we have, and the expectations placed upon those who suffer.
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I too have a family member with multiple chronic illnesses. You are not alone.
And I know about learning to live with limitations. Perhaps the hardest thing is learning to receive help – and to do so graciously and if necessary to ask – after a long lifetime of being able-bodied. Being treated as fragile does not come naturally!!
I think of it as the New Normal.
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Very good article. Busy churches and their workers may not be fully aware!
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