Category Archives: Suffering & Grief

God & Spirituality, Suffering & Grief

NAVIGATING SUFFERING AND TOUGH TIMES

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Hello again! It’s been a while since I have shared a blog post … and in fact today I am sharing a very long one!!!!

Recently I spoke in church on Navigating Tough Times and as I was preparing it, I remembered that I had always wanted to make a video and write a post on some thoughts about how we can navigate suffering. So, I decided that I would combine my research and preparation to also write this article and put a video on my channel which includes my teaching from church – with a few minor edits.

I hope and pray that my own study, research and learning over the past 11 ½ years may well help to equip someone else in the midst of suffering. Suffering always feels horrible, it can be traumatic, life changing and full of grief and pain. But… although that is true…. It’s not the WHOLE story…

There can also be immense beauty, joy and even a deeper love to be experienced too… if we can hold on and slowly allow our perspective to be shifted.

That is my experience.

That is my reality.

And my hope today is that you too might discover some treasures in the darkness – despite your pain!

With much love and empathy to you all,

Becky x

Please note: This teaching has been prepared for a distinctly Christian audience. But I hope that those of different, or no faith backgrounds, will be able to glean something from it too.

NAVIGATING SUFFERING AND TOUGH TIMES

Isaiah 43:2: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.”

“The real work, the hardest work, is to pick up the pieces and decide how to put them back together again. The new thing that emerges may not work the way it used to, but it can bend and stretch and change us in ways we come to treasure even more.” Katherine and Jay Wolf

‘Navigating Tough Times’ is such a big subject, as all the ‘Strong Foundations’ subjects are. Basically, this is a teaching about when things are tough and there are no quick fixes. It’s a teaching that is here to equip you to face and endure the hard seasons in life that sometimes come and don’t let up easily – whether you are in one now, have been through one in the past that still affects you or will go through one in the future.

But in talking about ‘tough times’ I feel like I need to give a disclaimer – that this is just a snapshot of understanding suffering and hard times and how we are best to deal with them as believers and as the Church. There are so many different types of suffering and struggle. Be it grief and bereavement, physical health and mental health issues, abuse, difficult job situations, redundancy, war and famine, persecution poverty, addiction, relational breakdown, loneliness, rejection, bullying, financial hardship and debt, infertility and challenging family dynamics. This has not an exhaustive list of course, it’s just a few things that came to my mind.

I never want to minimise anyone’s experiences of suffering or rate mine or others experiences above others.

But as with all the strong foundation preachers that we have heard over the past couple of months, this message is about trying to equip you to grow in your faith and go deeper in your foundations. We wanted to cover tough times and suffering because it can really make or break someone’s faith. Especially when those seasons last a very long time.

I feel very privileged to be speaking on the subject because I feel like it’s been a massive area of personal study, for me over the past 11 years. Even just looking through my phone notes, I came across so many great quotes from various books I’ve read over the years – so there will be many quotes in this message. Which I actually think is important because we need to hear different perspectives on suffering, because everybody’s experiences unique.

Tell you some of my story. I did tell some of it in one of my messages from last year: ‘Boasting About My Weaknesses.’ https://youtu.be/6PjU8i5AtMQ I also explained that this is why I pre-record my church messages as it’s easier for my body and brain and allows me more focus.

Most of you know something of my story – it is so long and complex I can only touch on my conditions but do have a public YouTube channel and blog if you were interested in more in depth of info and how I have navigated it over the years. Basically11 1/2 years ago I fell off a ladder and sustained two quite rare and very complex brain and spine injuries. I still have what is called ‘A Spinal CSF Leak’ in my spine which is where your spinal fluid leaks out of a hole in the protective layer that holds in your spinal fluid in your spine. This means your brain and whole nervous system can lack enough spinal fluid to function properly. It causes so much pain, a constant drunk/ foggy head, lack of mental clarity, a constant stiff neck, fatigue and many other symptoms. I also have Arachnoiditis which is midly adhesive. This is where your spinal nerves inflame and begin to stick to the edges of your spinal canal leaving very high levels of nerve dysfunction, pain, struggles to sit and stay in one position, travel and when in an inflammatory relapse – to walk, talk and think with clarity – without hospital visits and very high doses of steriods. Basically, they are both extremely painful and debilitating conditions I live with every day – even though most of the time ‘I look well’ from the outside.

My lack of healing and the trauma of facing countless doctors over the years who didn’t really understand due to my conditions being so rare and not well enough researched etc, also led to me having two very serious physical & mental breakdowns which left me despairing of life itself. So I have also experienced two or three serious mental health crisis’. Partly due to the immense strain of these conditions and major battles to get diagnosed and helped. But also due to trying to‘stay strong’ and striving hard to find ‘enough faith’ to receive my healing. Including at the end of my first year of serious illness attempting to try to live ‘like I was well’ when I was actually seriously unwell. So I ended up at the complete end of myself – not sleeping, stuck in bed in constant severe pain – in an extremely dark place of despair. And yet I still knew only God and my Christian faith could help me find a way forward whether I was healed or not. This is why – as I shared in my message ‘Boast about my weaknesses’ last year – I ultimately I had to ‘let it go’. Healing had became an idol and I had to rediscover Jesus for who he was in totally and not just ‘the healer’ & find the spiritual strength to help me endure for the long haul.

At the worst times of experiencing the deep trauma of utter darkness and despair – I found that I certainly didn’t need ‘theological answers’ – I simply needed love, gentleness, ccompassion, comfort, understanding and care. And even though God felt so distant at times and I felt like such a failure. LOVE did break through and began to bring some light in an extremely dark place. I couldn’t fathom theological thinking – It was only true, warm and gentle sacrificial love that was the thing that showed me God was truly real. I couldn’t feel God’s presence – but I could feel the fierce yet gentle love and support of my husband. Matt you showed me Jesus when I was struggling to see and feel Him directly.

REMEMBER – We can show up and reveal Jesus to those who suffer deeply – IF we are present and show gentleness, compassion, care, grace and love without judgement.

What I discovered over the next few years, was that I needed to deepen and widen my theology of suffering. Especially to help myself and others to navigate seasons of suffering that just won’t go away whatever we do. So I had to learn to listen and consider all sorts of different voices, perspectives and thinking on what the Bible says about suffering and how to approach it

One of the initial books I read which helped to open my mind was – ‘Where is God when it hurts’ by Philip Yancey (I know Yancey has recently discredited himself for moral failure – but the book was written long before this and still has so much to teach us). It starts off by talking about a young couple he knew – newly married, loved God and ready to serve him. But very early in their marriage she developed Hodgkin’s disease which is a cancer of the lymph glands. She had to stay in hospital for rounds of chemo which made her so sick that she couldn’t eat, she completely lost her radiance & outward beauty. Periodically she had radiation treatment that in those days required you to lie on a metal table completely naked. Over the weeks and months, she became a shell of herself. During this time, she contemplated God and suffering.

The interesting thing that Yancey does is to record her reports of some of the well-meaning ‘Visitors’ who came and gave their advice – from all theological perspectives:

– Firstly those who just tried to ‘avoid’ the issue of her suffering and simply bring ‘positivity’ and ignore the harsh reality of what she was facing

– those who told her she had obviously done something wrong and needed to search her life for what God wanted her to change.

– others suggested God is so impressed with you that he has chosen you to suffer and he will reward you for your endurance.

– another told her – this will only end when you have genuinely learnt to praise God for the privilege of suffering.

– yet another – who loved watching the US TV healing evangelists told her – if you just have enough faith you will be healed, so rebuke the devil, increase your faith and claim your victory!!

Philip Yancey then visited her and found her not only immensely unwell and in deep despair but also utterly confused about God and what He wanted of her. Who she should listen to? What lessons she should be learning through it? How can she keep staying positive and full of praise? And how is she supposed to ‘muster up’ enough faith for this promised healing? He thought to himself upon leaving ‘Is Christianity supposed to make a sufferer feel even worse?

Why do we often choose people’s weakest times to ‘burden’ them with all of our opinions on what they need to do to improve their situation?

Now there are of course elements of Biblical truth that have influenced ALL of those opinions, advice and teachings. It’s not ALL wrong ‘in theory’. But it did remind me of the book of of Job in the Bible and his friends opinions about his suffering.

Of course, there are lessons to be learnt in suffering, God certainly allows suffering in certain seasons, sometimes our choices and mistakes can add to our suffering, we can of course benefit from praising God and being thankful despite our pain, it is also true that our faith can play a part in our healing as we see in the gospels. But as Philip Yancey touches on – we need to learn the correct time and place for opinions, advice & simplistic theology. These things are never as simple as they look and when someone is in the depths of suffering, they often simply lack the ability and energy to work through all the different theological viewpoints and all of the nuanced questions and answers. They can then despair even more when the simplistic answers and fixes don’t seem to work. I only had capacity to consider and meditate upon all these things – when my mind was less chaotic and I started feeling slightly more well again. (Although I never actually feel well – just ‘less ill’ than my worst times.)

CAN GOD ACTUALLY BE TRUSTED IN THE MIDST OF SUFFERING?

Psalm 34:18: (NIV) “The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Psalm 22:23-24 (NLT) “Praise the LORD, all you who fear him!… 
For he has not ignored or belittled the suffering of the needy.
 He has not turned his back on them,
 but has listened to their cries for help.
”

Psalm 147:3 (NKJV) “He heals the broken hearted. And binds up their wounds.”

“You see, the message of the Bible is that the arms of God’s power, presence and grace wrap around the deepest and darkest moments of human suffering.” Paul David Tripp

Does this sound like a distant God who doesn’t care? No that is not who our God is: He is compassionate, empathetic, comforting, loving and understanding. He is not there to condemn and accuse. However, there can also be purpose in pain, redemption in suffering, the beauty of his presence, power and comfort in our deepest weakness and things we can and do learn through seasons of pain. 

SUFFERING IS INEVITABLE.

The Bible talks a lot about it. Central to our faith is the concept of a suffering saviour. The New Testament Is then full of people being persecuted for their faith, especially Paul who we will come back to later.

John 16:33 NIV “In this world you will have trouble. (Tribulations ESV) (NLT many trials and sorrows) (AMP tribulation, distress & suffering) But take heart! I have overcome the world.

JESUS THE SUFFERING SAVIOUR

John Stott whilst reflecting on suffering and the cross wrote: ‘I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross… in the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?’

Philippians 2:6-8 NIV “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!”

God doesn’t distance himself from human suffering, he sent Jesus to experience it first-hand. Our God is a God who through Jesus becoming human has personal experience of human suffering, physically, relationally, mentally, emotionally. He ‘laid aside his glory and majesty’ to become a vulnerable human who faced betrayal, rejection, misunderstanding and the limitations of a physical body which was brutally beaten and completely broken until he died. God didn’t protect him from pain and suffering – he led him to it. He deserved a throne but submitted to a cross.

Sometimes we may feel God is absent in our suffering. But so did Jesus as he lay brutally beaten, struggling to breathe and hold onto life on a Cross he shouted ‘my God my God why have you forsaken me?’ – he too felt the Fathers distance.

Elisabeth Elliot (whose young husband was killed by tribesmen they were ministering to as missionaries in Ecuador) “Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God is of a different nature altogether. It does not hate tragedy. It never denies reality. It stands in the very teeth of suffering. The love of God did not protect His own Son. The cross was the proof of His love – that He gave that Son, that He let Him go to Calvary’s cross, though “legions of angels” might have rescued Him. He will not necessarily protect us… from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiselling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process.

SUFFERING AND THE SECULAR WORLD

“Suffering causes us to scan our lives and face the fact that we control very little. – Paul David Tripp

“Suffering in its simplest form comes in the space between what we thought would be and what is.” – Katherine & Jay Wolf

One of the best books I have read on suffering is Tim Keller ‘Walking with God through Pain and Suffering’The book deals with theology, philosophy, psychology, Christian apologetics (defending the gospel) – but also interweaves many deeply moving personal and diverse stories of deep suffering and pain experienced by Christians from all sorts of human experiences of suffering – I highly recommend it!

In the early chapters of the book, he writes a lot about the diverse and different perspectives on Suffering from around the world and from different religious and spiritual perspectives. He also spends a quite a bit of time explaining how secularism in the West has caused a major cultural shift over the past century or so regarding views on suffering and how well we deal with it.

He writes about how the ‘secular assumption’ that life is just confined to this material world and lifetime means that people live their lives for what feels ‘good to them’ in this world so: ‘comfort, safety and pleasure are of the upmost importance.’ Suffering is then a BIG problem to this because it blocks you from achieving these things as you might want.

So the underlying message of our society is: AVOID SUFFERING AND PAIN AT ALL COSTS!

Interestingly, Keller references Dr Paul Brand’s book ‘The Gift Of Pain’ – (Philip Yancey does too in ‘Where is God When It Hurts?. Doctor Brand worked with leprosy patients whose bodies were ravaged because they lacked normal pain sensation’s so he argues that pain can actually be a gift to us that warns when something is wrong in our bodies, without that you injure yourself without knowing etc) Dr Brand also writes about the difference in how people viewed and dealt with suffering in India – where he worked with leprosy patients – compared to the USA. He observed in the West that mmeaning in life is often caught up in the pursuit of pleasure & personal freedom & achievement – he suggests that ‘this is why suffering is especially traumatic to Americans’. Many other cultures in the world put higher meaning on something other than individual happiness & comfort. This can be be moral virtue, gaining your way into paradise by good works, aiming for enlightenment after being stuck in karmic cycles, honour of those around you, faithfulness to the truth, putting family virtue higher than individualism or pursuing a greater meaning spiritually or philosophically. So in these cases suffering can actually been seen from the perspective of helping you to achieve those things:

Where as in the Secular world suffering rarely has much meaning or purpose: those who suffer feel that they are ‘a victim’ of something that is simply – a big distraction, an unwelcome tangent and a chaotic interruption to our comfortable, safe lives. So it should be prevented, stopped & alleviated wherever possible!

Whereas even in Western history suffering was simply part of a normal life story. For instance, in the 1800’s 40-50% of children died before their 5th birthday and the average life expectancy globally was only 30-40 years old. Suffering and death of your closest loved ones was a normal part of people’s daily lives far more than now. But people had to choose resilience and endurance, to learn & grow through their experiences. Whereas sometimes in modern times we can lack resilience and perspective.

The influence of the secular/ material world around us, can thus actually damage our view of God and can lead to a sense of ‘spiritual entitlement’ as Tim Keller calls it. The belief that ‘God owes us a comfortable and pain-free life and should ensure all of our plans for our lives go as smoothly as possible.’ We then (and I can say this affected me on my journey) struggle when things suddenly get so hard – and pain, discomfort and shifting life plans become our norm. BUT this is where I had to learn to enter back into a proper view of the gospel and the message of Jesus’ life and the cross.

In reality, being a disciple or apprentice of Jesus means ‘taking up our cross & following him’ (Matthew 16). Even though God is a loving Father who will protect and provide for us. He is not interested in giving us an easy, comfortable and pain free life. Which can then cause us to become more individualistic and self-absorbed. Following Jesus’ example of the greatest of self-sacrifice on the cross, is meant to be uncomfortable, difficult and challenging, As Jesus followers, we are to surrender our control, influence and desires to him. We are to live a life of sacrificial love towards God and others.

But this is difficult in a culture that teaches us to ‘seek out comfort and pleasure at any cost’. And even more sad, is when this all creeps into our Christian world view. The ‘prosperity gospel’ was affected by this – it made, and still does make, tempting promises of achieving a life with full health, financial abundance and spiritualising the American dream – if you can just believe enough for it. But is this who Jesus was and what he represented – money, wealth and power? No Jesus lived an incredibly humble life – he grew up a quiet town, followed his dad’s profession of being a carpenter. Then once his ministry started at age 30, he was a travelling minister with no fixed place to live. Those who followed him usually gave up their livelihoods and fixed addresses to follow him. Persecution was real to both Jesus and also in the book of Acts. The apostle Paul’s list of his sufferings and persecutions in 2 Corinthians 11 puts into perspective some of our own daily struggles. Paul was whipped, beaten, stoned with rocks, imprisoned, shipwrecked, adrift at sea, lacked essentials, was frequently exhausted and felt deep concern for the churches. But interestingly he writes in Philippians 4 that he learned the ‘secret of contentment’ despite all these immensely ‘tough times’.

WHY SUFFERING?

In the Bible book of Job we are given an insight into one man’s immense suffering and his wrestles with it. We are given a window into the spiritual realm to see some of why Job is suffering – but it is never revealed to him directly. However, interestingly when he asks God for answers – God does not directly answer his questions. He simply reminds Job of His great power, wisdom, wonder and the glorious intricacies of the nature around us which as the Bible book of Romans tells us – should reveal to us who God is.

It makes the question of why there is suffering complex with little definitive or clear answers.

Of course there are truths we can glean from the bible – The influence of Satan and his forces of evil, human Sin, selfishness and the thirst for power and control that is introduced to us in the garden of Eden. And subsequently led to death entering into the world causing it to slowly become broken and fractured! The book of Romans also gives us insight into this as do other books and passages.

However, these reasons in themselves would take a whole message or series of messages to work through and try to explain. So I recommend if you are interested- doing a deep dive into what the Bible says about suffering yourself or read a book like Tim Keller’s for an overview.

So instead of trying to answer  WHY I want us to turn back to thinking about HOW CAN WE PERSONALLY AND AS A CHURCH PRACTICALLY NAVIGATE TOUGH TIMES?

WHAT CAN WE DO?

PURPOSE & MEANING IN PAIN

Romans 5:3-5: “…We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

Any great calamity in the natural world – death, disease, bereavement – will awaken a man like nothing else could and he is never the same. We would never know the treasures of darkness, if we are always in the place of placid security.” – Oswald Chambers

VIctor Frankl was a Neurologist, psychiatrist & philosopher who wrote a book called ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’ after spending time in a Nazi concentration camp for being Jewish. His personal experiences and observations of other prisoners showed him that those who found a deeper meaning and purpose in their suffering were generally those more likely to survive. In the book he quoted another philosopher to support this point who put it: “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.” After the war went on to develop ‘this theory’ in his psychological work.

I have discovered our faith in Jesus and the truth of His gospel (which is so different to our secular world) can become our MEANING and PURPOSE. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ and His upside down kingdom, that gave me the strength, purpose and inspiration to keep on going even with all of the unknowns that continue to hang over me. Loving God and serving Him – despite our grief, pain and trauma – can be our anchor. Loving others and allowing our own pain to soften us and connect us more deeply to others can make all sorts of suffering strangely beautiful.

This is one of the greatest ‘treasures’ in the darkness.

James 1:2-4 NIV “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

So we see that we CAN praise God and even discover HIS joy in our tough times because it is not wasted time (as the secular view) or a tangent. GOD WILL USE IT. He will strengthen us, help us to grow and mature, build resilience – all whilst learning more humility and love for others (if we let him do it!) I have also found that our love for others can also become more purposeful because it takes more sacrifice to love when you are hurting, tired and in pain. But self-  sacrifice is always at the heart of true love.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

“The Bible talks of suffering and difficulty as a furnace in which many impurities of soul are “burned off” and we come to greater self-knowledge, humility, durability, faith, and love.” – Tim Keller

LAMENT

This is the scripture Jesus quoted on the cross to reflect his own despair. Even Jesus lamented.

 Psalm 22:1 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?

‘Lament is an expression of deep grief, anguish, sorrow or regret (often outward and vocal – although in Romans 8 the bible refers to this sometimes being without words and a ‘deep groaning within us)

We particularly see a lot of lament in Bible books like Psalms and Lamentations

Lament is simply the deep acknowledgement and processing of things being not how they should. The Psalms are songs and poems full of this. Through these scriptures God is giving a voice and words to human suffering and showing us that it is ok to struggle, to grieve, to be angry and frustrated at how life is. Lament should be expressed in prayer and in the midst of community. As a church we should allow people to lament without trying to get them to move past it quickly.

Lament can actually help us to wrestle through to a deeper, rawer and more real and tested faith. If it is given room to do it’s work. This is what the Psalms show us that start with very raw lament, but then often end in praise.

Even Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb – even though he was just about to raise him from the dead.

LEARN FROM OTHER CREDIBLE CHRISTIAN LEADERS & MINISTRIES WHO HAVE FACED SIMILAR TYPES OF SUFFERING – seek out their stories & teaching. Our stories are all unique but sometimes we need to hear voices that can relate to our own stories of suffering.

This was invaluable to me. I didn’t have leaders who had experienced what I had. So although they could support and comfort me – they couldn’t always understand and equip me like others who really had gone through similar challenges.

Here are some general resources:

BIBLE DEVOTIONS/ STUDIES

  • You Version Bible App A free app with devotionals / Bible reading plans about your personal challenges. Search for plans on topics such as: Suffering, grief, anger, anxiety, addiction, forgiveness, abuse etc

THEOLOGY & APOLOGETICS (WITH REAL LIFE STORIES)

  • Walking with God Through Pain & Suffering – Tim Keller. (Tim Keller died in 2023 of pancreatic cancer also his wife had long term severe Crohn’s disease. The book also includes many other diverse stories of suffering including bereavement & grief, divorce, infidelity, infertility etc)
  • Where is God in all the Suffering – Amy Orr Ewing (also on the Lead Podcast)

WRESTLING WITH GOD THROUGH HARD TIMES

  • God on Mute – Pete Grieg (When God seems to stay silent in difficult times)
  • ‘Hope heals’/ ‘Suffer strong’/ ‘The Good Hard Story Podcast’ – Katherine & Jay Wolf’ (Also watch their videos on YouTube) Katherine & Jay Wolf ‘Suffer Strong’ (Katherine had a brain stem stroke at age 26 – 6 months after the birth of their son. After life saving surgery and 2 years of rehab she is mainly wheelchair bound with many disabilities but seeks to speak up, help and advocate for those weak, hurting and disabled – especially Christians.

SUFFERING FOR THE GOSPEL

  • The Hiding Place – Corrie Ten Boom, Rescued Jews from the Nazi’s in Holland then ended up in a concentration camp.
  • Tortured For Christ – Richard Wurmbrand. A Romanian Pastor who was tortured and imprisoned for his faith by the Communists
  • Persecuted Church resources – Release International, Open doors (website, videos and podcasts) remind us of those who currently ‘suffer for the gospel’ and need our comfort and support which can also help develop a better perspective on our own struggles. (These books and resources really helped/ help my own perspective of my suffering.)

GET SUPPORT – other believers, Pastoral Care Team, Life Groups, Men’s and Women’s ministries, Arise Youth Team. Sometimes outside support is also needed such as medical support, a specific therapy or counselling or a particular agency that deals with your particular challenges. (We are developing a Pastoral Care Directory to help direct people to places we are already aware of.)

HOW CAN WE SUPPORT OTHERS SUFFERING?

 “Think too of all who suffer as if you shared their pain.” Hebrews 13:3 J.B. Phillips New Testament

Our compassion and empathy can actually really deepen when we have walked the humble path of long term suffering and have faced the depths of our own weakness. It is one of the great purposes and privileges of pain. Sharing in the suffering of others and carrying one another’s burdens without judgement.

LISTEN

ACKNOWLEGE

PRAY – IF WELCOMED

OFFER COMFORT

“Suffering invites us to be radically human with one another, perhaps doing nothing more than reaching across the table, clasping hands, and weeping together. We are afforded the chance to create a safe place for someone else to mourn…” – Jen Hatmaker

LISTEN – Stephen R. Covey states, “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” 

The Bible book of Job & his friends are again a good illustration. At first they chose the best path of silence – simply being with their friend as he suffered greatly. However. The problems then began when they opened their mouths to offer Job all their ‘opinions’ on why he was suffering.

Please remember that we don’t always have to ‘find the right words to say’ and that’s ok – you can offer your presence, a kind look, even a genuine tear, a hug, a gift, a meal.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT (of pain) is everything to someone struggling!

Rather than trying to ‘fix’ someone’s pain with advice – we firstly just need to ‘acknowledge’ it. Ie. ‘I am so sorry you are hurting – it must be very hard’… then mostly try to listen.

PRAY FOR OTHERS – But always ask for permission and enquire about what they specifically want prayer for. ie. Sometimes people who have long term illness and disability can find others assume that is what they want prayer for or even force it. However, sometimes they might be trying to get the focus off that thing and onto Jesus as a whole. So where possible – be gentle, understanding and listen before you pray.

BRING COMFORT

2 Corinthians 1:3-4: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

Comfort others with the comfort you receive. This is one of the purposes and benefits of suffering if we allow it to deepen our empathy, understanding (rather than our anger and bitterness) It enables us to  comfort, support and communicate with more understanding.  But be careful not to compare your situations – all our stories are unique so tread carefully in the language you use.

THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE: 

Revelation 21:4: “‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'”

As believers when we die, we are heading to a gloriously perfect place where our bodies will no longer be sick or feel pain or saddness. Ultimately, the bible book of Revelation tells us that there will be a New Heaven and New Earth. Can you begin to imagine this world joined with Heaven and God’s presence and love and completely perfected! I always hope then I will be able to see some of the world’s wonders made perfect again – because at the moment it is so tortuous to travel very far and I love seeing beautiful places.

CONCLUSION

Isaiah 41:10 NLT “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”

Navigating tough times and suffering is hard. Our stories and journeys are unique. Katherine wolf I spoke about earlier has a podcast called ‘THE GOOD HARD STORY PODCAST’ with a strapline ‘because the good story and the hard story can be the exact same story.’ And I relate to that so much. Suffering is awful, it always feels horrible. It can come like a sudden tornado and send your life spiralling and crashing down around you. But I am here to remind you our suffering saviour SEE’s you and He loves you. If you can reach out to Him he will wrap his perfect arms around you and hold you until you feel a bit stronger. He will send people to help, support and comfort you – if you keep that door open and don’t isolate or withdraw. And ultimately, he will use even the worst, most tragic and traumatic things that can happen in this world – for His glory and to build into your life a testimony of His goodness and grace.

And then your own story of pain might then become a treasure and anchor in the darkness for someone else stuck in the dark fog of grief or despair!

Isaiah 61:3: He can “bestow on you a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
    instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.
Then you will be called oaks of righteousness,
    a planting of the Lord
    for the display of his splendour.”

To finish with:

This poem is based on text found scrawled on a cellar wall in Cologne, Germany, in 1943. It is believed to have been written by a child hiding from the Nazis:

I believe in the sun

Even when it is not shining

And I believe in love

Even when there’s no one there

And I believe in God

Even when He is silent

I believe through any trial

There is always a way.

But sometimes in this suffering

And hopeless despair

My heart cries for shelter

To know someone’s there

But a voice rises within me saying “Hold on my child”

I’ll give you hope

I’ll give you strength

Just stay a little while.

Mental Health, Suffering & Grief

“A Crushed Spirit” – Finding a Way Through Dark Times

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“The human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?” ‭‭

Proverbs‬ ‭18:14‬ ‭


A few months ago I re-read this Proverb and it again spoke to my heart. Afterwards I felt a deep sense that I should make a series of videos about it. Because for me these simple words tell a profound story about sickness & suffering. They also give insight into some of my own story about the reality of enduring long term sickness.

The proverb explains that the human spirit can endure a lot of things. Throughout history, many many people have had to endure long seasons of deep suffering. In fact, things probably used to be much worse. There were less medicines, less diagnosis, less surgery, less wider help & support. So people have always – throughout history – had to endure suffering, pain, and sickness. Sometimes for their whole lives. So we know that the human spirit has shown, again and again, that it can endure a lot.

HOWEVER the proverb goes on to contrast that “a crushed spirit who can bear?”. Meaning that although humans can endure a lot – there is another state of suffering of the human spirit that can feel impossible to bear.

That is why I wanted to make these videos. To discuss what it feels like and how to endure and find a way through the seasons when our spirits feel crushed.

Another translation of this proverb says:

“A cheerful spirit gives strength even during sickness. But you can’t keep going if you have a broken spirit.””‭‭

Proverbs‬ ‭18:14‬ ‭NIRV‬‬

So here we have another meaning for crushed, which is the word broken. The same Hebrew word is also sometimes translated wounded. Basically, this tells us that a season of a ‘crushed spirit’ is characterised by feelings of:

BROKENNESS – WOUNDEDNESS – INNER PAIN – DESPAIR

If you have ever experienced a season like this, you will know exactly what I’m talking about. For some people it may be characterised as depression or extreme anxiety. For others it may well lead them into a time of suicidal ideation/ thoughts of wanting to leave – or escape – this world & all of its pain.

It is certainly a season that is very very difficult to bear and endure.

I have been there myself. I have tasted of the darkness of a season of a crushed & broken spirit. Some might call it ‘the dark night of the soul’. It’s a time when everything feels so dark and oppressive and it’s so difficult to see any light, any joy or to see a way forward. You feel stuck or lost in such a season. It can also be extremely dangerous, especially if someone is actually also feeling suicidal because there seems ‘no way out.’

This is why I made these videos and why I am writing this blog post to introduce the series. I hope that it reaches out to people who currently feel immensely lost, dark and crushed. My prayer is that it helps to bring some hope again – even if just a flicker of a flame. So that you can find a way through. I believe you can find a way through – because I did. Despite not being able to see it at the time.

In this article, I want to introduce you to a summary of each video and the main points in each one. You will discover, as I tried to explain many times, that this content has been inspired by what I have learnt on my own journey since I first started out on my journey of long-term illness (spinal CSF leak & arachnoiditis) in January 2015. Over those six years I have been through at least three intense seasons of ‘a crushed spirit’ as I write about in Breaking Through the Darkness and A Window into a Suicidal Mind.

So these are some of the ways that I have found a way through & discovered a new way of living despite the deep ongoing challenges of living with these conditions & managing them on a daily basis.

VIDEO 1 : ACKNOWLEDGMENT & VALIDATION.

In this video I talk about the importance of being honest, opening up & talking to someone about the truth of your struggles. In my experience it is vitally important to get what is locked in the darkness of your mind out into the open. When it stays stuck on the inside the chaos takes over and the mind quickly snowballs out of control. Getting our thoughts and words out of whirring around our heads can help us to bring more order to our thoughts, help us process and understand ourselves and others better.

It then helps if you can speak to someone who will validate your struggles and help support you through them.

VIDEO 2: ACCEPTANCE & LETTING GO

In this video I talk about my next step in finding more serenity: peace & calmness. That is leaning to ‘accept the things I cannot change’ but also courageously ‘changing what I can.’ This can often include going through painful season of grieving & letting go of who you once were or your dreams for the future. I also talk about learning to live more in the present. Which doesn’t mean we don’t face, process and find healing from yesterday’s trauma. But simply means that we choose not to get stuck there. I also talk about having hope for the future whilst not getting lost in its never ending what if’s.

VIDEO 3: CALMING THE MIND

I start off by honestly talking about my experiences of my mind feeling totally out of control. I remind us that we may sometimes need professional help from doctors etc before we can move out of such an intense season. I then go on to share about these main points:

  1. Getting what you are thinking out in the open. A mind where thoughts get trapped can quickly turn very dark. It’s important to share how we are feeling honestly with others.
  2. Protecting your mind – being careful with what you read/ watch/ listen to/ who to talk to. Guard what you feed your mind with.
  3. Thought replacement (not denial) filling your mind with better thoughts. For me this includes bombarding/ renewing the mind: Listening to and reading things that encourage and inspire you. Love was also something I would try and focus on and was a real anchor for me.
  4. Gratitude: Focusing on what I do have rather than on what I don’t.

VIDEO 4: FINDING NEW PURPOSE – Purpose in Pain

“As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation — either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.”

Martin Luther King, Jr
  1. Transform suffering into a creative force for good. Our own experiences put us in the privileged position of being able to feel more empathy & connection. It also puts us in a more experienced place to provide advocacy & fight for justice for others (as well as ourselves). This can include educating others about these illnesses & raising awareness about these conditions.
  2. I am not what I do: Establishing a new identity. This will include the grieving of letting go of who we once were so that we can learn to discover new purpose and achievement in the small things. I wrote a whole blog article about this a couple of years ago titled: What is my Purpose: Do Small Things with Great Love. In it I wrote about how I was inspired by God to find purpose by daily asking the question: “Who can I show love to today?”
  3. Discovering a new way of living – Finding what we can do despite all of our restrictions. This can include doing small loving things. It could include spending time with others at home, calling them, writing or sending a message. We can often find more purpose in thinking about others rather than just being consumed by ourselves.
  4. Bearing suffering as a source of achievement & setting an example to others. I read Viktor Frankl’s ‘Man’s Search for Meaning,’ a few years ago about how he and others endured the desperate suffering of the concentration camp by discovering a higher purpose.

“…the way they bore their suffering was a genuine inner achievement. It is this spiritual freedom— which cannot be taken away—that makes life meaningful and purposeful.”

Victor Frankl

This can also include a realisation that us finding a way through can be so significant for those coming behind us on these journeys. Some of those people could actually be your own children, your family or friends in the future.

My prayer for you is that these videos provide some inspiration to help you endure – and hopefully find a way through – your own season of ‘a crushed spirit’. Or perhaps instead they might help to educate you to learn how better to support loved ones who are going through immensely difficult seasons of suffering in many different ways.

We all at times need others to help us come through these darker & more desolate seasons. I truly believe that we are not meant to face these things alone.

“Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.”

Ecclesiastes‬ ‭4:9-10‬ ‭

So most of all today I want you to know that you are not alone. I have been there myself and it was the hardest and most painful thing I have ever had to face and come through. But I can tell you:

THINGS CAN GET BETTER AGAIN!

So never give up hope – clutch onto it, even if only by your fingernails – and do what you have to to make sure you can stay holding on. Because I do believe one day you will look back and be glad that you did. And maybe – just maybe – your own story of overcoming can then be a guiding light to others. To help them find their own pathway out of that crushing, broken & wounded place. Into the calmer & greener pastures of more holistic wholeness & deeper rest for your soul. Despite your challenging circumstances.

“O Lord… You know me more deeply and fully than I know myself.  You love me with a greater love than I can love myself. You even offer me more than I can desire… Take my tired body, my confused mind, and my restless soul into your arms and give me rest, simple quiet rest.”

Henri Nouwen

To understand more about my medical case & story please see my new summary video of my whole medical journey please see this video.

God & Spirituality, Suffering & Grief

Finding Peace in the COVID-19 Storm

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It feels stormy out there right?

Everything is so strange. In one moment our whole world has changed. A surreal season which we are struggling to understand. To catch up with or comprehend.

And as time goes on…

We all know people deeply affected by this world-wide tragedy. Those who got sick and recovered. Those who never did recover and so sadly lost their lives. NHS & care staff working on the frontlines dealing with new levels of stress, pressure and anxiety that those of us stuck at home can hardly fathom. Our day to day lives so completely transformed.

Will we ever return to the normality which was once known?

Can we truly find peace in this uncontrollable storm?

Our chaotic unpredictable universe is reminding us of how out of control our lives often seem. We have again recently all had to face our own mortality and brutally realise how fragile we truly are.

Is anything certain any more? What does the future hold for any of us?

It feels stormy out there for so many. But it also often feels stormy in here too – right? Within us, in our chaotic minds. In our homes, families, relationships and lives.

Chaos is not at its worst outside of us. It’s actually most dangerous when it takes over within us.

How can we find stillness in chaos? Is it even possible without escaping from, or numbing away, our anxious thoughts? Or in trying to escape or distract ourselves from the reality of the current major struggle in our world?

These are important questions. Ones that I have had to dig so much deeper into and wrestle with a lot over the past five years since I fell off a ladder in January 2015 and sustained a debilitating brain/ spinal injury that I still have today.

In that one moment my life suddenly rocketed out of my control. One day I shifted onto a new life path I was never meant to take. A place I had not planned for or envisioned to live or endure.

These current restrictions due to the Coronavirus lockdown are actually not so strange for me, because the past five years have kept me predominately at home anyway. And for many hours a day lying down to control debilitating brain and spinal pain and other symptoms which means I still spend an awful lot of time in bed or on the sofa.

So many times my life felt devastated, as the restrictions and debilitation overwhelmed me. I watched so many around me continue on with their ‘normal’ lives whilst mine remained somewhat ‘on hold’ and out of control.

…. until ‘one day’ I would hopefully get fully well.

Then things could return to ‘normal’ I could again shift back onto the path I should be on.

But I never did get well…
I never got to take back control…
My old ‘normality’ never came…

So I have had to learn how to live here. To find a haven of peace even when the storm rages. To let go of my need to try and take control of my, or others, destinies. To climb out of the box of ‘normal living’ to embrace new spaces found in the ‘abnormal’ reality here.

It’s not an easy journey.

I know that so well.

It’s painful! It’s full of grief.

But it’s full of wonder and profound new discoveries too.

The letting go of control.
Of embracing a new way of living.
Allowing old dreams to fade.
So that new ones can arise.

I have had to adapt, I have had to change so much so as to find a new way of life that can be lived in this place. To discover new hopes and dreams within all of the restrictions. Rather than constantly grieving the life I hoped to be living right now.

I have had to dig deeper. To find peace and stillness – even when life doesn’t look like how I imagined it before.

Through all of my wrestlings I have discovered a deeper peace that I know is always there to be found. If I will continue to ‘let go of the old’ and ‘embrace the new’. Settling in my heart that change must come and that life can still be lived in the midst of all the restrictions and pain.

I must look for the firm foundation amidst all of this shifting sand.

Where is this unchanging peace found?

In my experience there is only ONE true and reliable avenue to discovering lasting peace. A peace that is described and experienced as ‘passing all understanding’. It’s unfathomable because it is not based on your circumstances going well. It’s not reliant on a peaceful place being found. It’s not even discovered only when everything is quiet & still.

Because for me… true peace is not the ABSENCE of something. It’s not a place where there is no longer struggle, pain or discomfort. Instead my experience of peace is the PRESENCE of something far more beautiful.

To be exact – my peace is the PRESENCE of SOMEONE!

A person who is always there and will never leave me, because He forever lives with me. He constantly dwells within me. He is all around me and will never forsake me.

My peace is a person… yet He is also a supernatural force.

My peace is so gentle … and yet He is also known to roar.

My peace is abundantly loving… and yet He challenges me each day.

My peace upholds me… even when I can no longer feel Him there.

My peace is Jesus Christ.

The tangible stillness that guides my life’s ship through the storm.

A place where He is fully in control even when everything within me feels like a storm.

An indescribable presence, so still, so restful, so easy. Where the heavy burdens I have been carrying are lifted. And His gentle yoke of unconditional love and undeserved grace is left in its place.

He is the ONE who has won my heart with the beauty of His unending Love.

He is my ultimate calm.

So many people misunderstand my Saviour. But it doesn’t mean that He is not there. He is always standing patiently, glimmering in the shadows of our lives. Knocking at the door of our hearts. Willing us to let Him in. Desiring us to allow His Light to radiate into our dark places and shine through our broken pieces into our hurting world.

So that we can experience the supernatural power of His peaceful presence. An unimaginable Love that takes you over as He enters in. Awakening you by the grace that He plants within.

In His peaceful presence there is a realignment of His Spirit and your soul. You find that you become restored back to who you were always meant to be. You discover the purpose for which you were created. You finally discover what it really means to truly be ‘me’.

In His presence the striving will cease as His supernatural rest takes over as He does His own work in you. His peace descends as you cease resisting who He made you and who you were designed to be.

I wonder – do you know that peace yet? Have you experienced its stillness?

Do you feel it now?

I feel that peace. The deep calm of knowing Him and Him fully knowing me. It emanates through and from His Spirit who came to live within me the moment I fully surrendered. The time that I was born again into His family. The occasion that I was made fully new.

He is my peace.
My love, my life, my all.

Do you desire to feel deep peace today? Has anxiety taken you over and you long for even just a taste of peace again? For normality to be restored? To discover the joys of how life used to be. To go away somewhere, to retreat back to your favourite places of beauty & joy. To return to a life that was more ordered and controlled, when your plans were not put on indefinite hold.

Well He is here for you – if you will call out His name.

His name is Jesus.

Call to Him today.

He is always waiting, always willing and always longing for your call.

Jesus said, “”I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.””

– John‬ ‭16:33‬ The Bible ‭‬

We will have trouble in this life. Our broken world is full of it. If we can avoid it today – it will somehow reach us tomorrow. But Jesus transcends the trouble in our world. And with your permission that presence of peace can enter into your own personal chaos.

You simply have to…
Let go.
Surrender,
And dare to let Him in.

You cannot earn peace. You cannot muster up enough positivity to win it as your reward. You can only surrender to Him and allow Him to do His deep work within you. Until peace begins to take control of all that you say and do.

I assure you – once you start to taste and experience the glorious fruit of His peaceful presence, you will be ruined for anything else.

Because peace is not a place. It is not an absence. It is not even an escape.

Peace is a person.

Peace is a presence.

His name is Jesus.

And you can experience Him now.

IF you will surrender and let Him in!

“Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the gentle night to you.
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you.
Deep peace of Christ,
of Christ the Light of the world to you.
Deep peace of Christ to you.”

– A Gaelic Blessing
Spinal CSF Leak, Suffering & Grief

Waves of Grief in Chronic Illness

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Yesterday was a hard day. A day where the horrible constant pain and nausea nagged and taunted me the whole day. A day where grief again came as waves that wouldn’t stop washing over me.

Reminders of loss, of restriction, of the shackles of chronic illness.

Grief doesn’t just come when people die. (Although that is one of the worst kinds.) Grief comes wherever there is loss in our lives of things that were important to us.

There is often a lot of things lost with chronic illness.

Grief brings an anxiety that attacks you. An inner pain that can take your breath away. A deep sense of loss and forced change. A feeling of being somewhat out of control. Not knowing what the future will look like. Unsure that you will always find the strength you need to hold on.

The grief is real – yet unwelcome.

Grief is the uninvited visitor who barges into your life, to brutally remind you of everything that has gone. You don’t want it there – you fight, resist it and want to chase those thoughts and feelings away.

Sometimes you can: You find a way to refocus. To remember all the good things still left to enjoy. But some days the battle rages: You spend all day exhaustingly trying to dodge and jump wave after wave…

Until in one moment – it catches you unawares – and crashes over you again. You want to scream, cry and shout out all your pain. All the heartache. The weariness of the constant battles. You want the world to know that you don’t want to be like this. You don’t want to live like this. This is not how it was meant to be. You don’t have the energy to keep facing these levels of pain and suffering.

But there is absolutely nothing you can do but try to flow with it. To try and wade through the turbulent waves. In the fight to find that deeper peace again.

Sometimes you just have to grieve. Sometimes you have to allow yourself to lament as David did in the Bible Psalms. Sometimes you must take a moment to face the reality of the struggle. To say how much it all hurts. To acknowledge how unfair it feels.

To speak the REALITY, that these days you perhaps rarely share.

I honestly get so tired sometimes of the relentless battles I have no choice but to fight.

“Confessing weakness is the doorway to hope. It marks the end of self-reliance and the beginning of letting grace do in you what you could never do for yourself.”

Paul David Tripp

Grief is such a painful word. It’s even more of a painful feeling.
It takes you over from the pit of your stomach. As you remember how things used to be. How you hoped they would remain. The person you thought you were and would be. The life you always had in mind.

Which no longer exists… Like it did before.

A significant part of my life died five years ago. My health was shattered after one fall. I have honestly forgotten what good health feels like. I don’t remember how it feels to have a body and brain that works normally. To not have this constant pressure and pain in my head and spine. It’s constant screaming for my attention. Pulling me to distraction.

I want to be present… Here with you in this moment… With others. Focusing fully on the things I need to do. Focusing fully on this time with you. But this illness, the never-ending pain keeps pulling at me. Taunting me. Shouting at me. Demanding my attention. Trying to take over my thoughts. The relentless noise in the background of everything I do.

Sometimes I just need to speak it out. To get it outside of my own mind.

To tell you how it feels. To let someone else struggling know that I go through it all too.

And in this moment I feel it with you. You are not alone. I am present with you in this distressing place. I am here with you in…

The grief. The pain. The shame. The constant distraction. The doubts that you will make it. The exhaustion of the fight.

But that is not enough is it? To acknowledge such a terrible thing and then to leave it there with no hope. With no way forward. Because that place is too hard to stay long term. That place leads to darker and more deadly places where despair takes hold until all life is squeezed out from you.

We can’t deny it. But we must find a way through it.

Otherwise we might drown.

“Occasionally weep deeply over the life you hoped would be. Grieve the losses. Then wash your face. Trust God. And embrace the life you have.”

John Piper

Some days the battle is harder. Some days it is a little easier.

But when those horrible waves of grief do come, I am learning to let them BE for a moment. To acknowledge them – to voice them. Denial never helps – it only builds then bursts you open one day to levels that are unbearable. So I must learn the patient endurance again as today I attempt to rest as much as I can, and wait for the waves to still a little more. Returning to a more steady place I can again find the strength again;

To re-frame. To refocus. To SEE with new eyes the beauty that is still here.

It’s in the facing and accepting of grief that we find a new way forward. A journey of many wrestlings where we MUST learn how to accept the things we cannot change, whilst having the wisdom and courage to change the things we can.

Neither living in denial nor getting pulled into the pit of despair.

Gratitude helps that. To see, remember and focus on all the wonder still around me. My loving husband, family, a beautiful home, food on the table, amazing friends. The opportunity to write, to see others, to encourage and teach different people through church, to make a small difference in someone else’s life. To remember all the things I can do amidst all the restrictions…

… To continue to love and to be loved.

To see beyond my own pain and allow it to produce a deeper sensitivity to others pain –physical, mental and emotional. To know that learning how to deal with my own personal battles – gives me new wisdom to help others deal with theirs. The goal that in overcoming each day – I can help someone else overcome too. To stay and fight to see the wonder still around us, the hope that can still be found.

I have to again remember that my life has purpose and meaning within all its restrictions and despite its debilitation.

This is not always as easy as it sounds. The theory is good, the practice can be so hard. Because when grief comes – it not only reminds you of what is lost, it also tries to steal everything you have left. It can paralyse you as it attacks your confidence, your peace, your mental stability, your ability to know you still have purpose and worth.

“Suffering is never abstract, theoretical, or impersonal. Suffering is real, tangible, personal, and specific.”

Paul David Tripp

Grief can pull us into itself – into ourselves.

It’s suffocating. Distressing. Disconcerting. Disconnecting.

But we have to both accept it – whilst also finding a way through it. We know we can’t stay here. Without it pulling us into dark places that are full of despair.

We have to choose to wrestle our way back into brighter places. Where we can see and be thankful for what we do have. Where hope for the future can return – despite what that actually looks like. A place where we can again see that our life matters, it has purpose and can lead to new adventures, to new places.

However, to embrace the new we must first let go of the old.

That is why we grieve.

It’s in the letting go.

It’s in the feelings of loss.

But it’s also in the letting go that we discover more freedom. In accepting what has now gone – we become more open to discovering a different way of life that is still worth living. It may not look how we imagined it. It will probably still be full of a multitude of challenges. It doesn’t mean the pain will all go.

But as we again let go of the reigns, as we stop trying to stay in control. End trying to compare our lives to an idealistic fantasy that doesn’t actually exist. Whilst we learn to accept that life can be full of things that seem to go wrong. We can also learn to ‘let go’ and discover a glorious deeper surrender in the here and now. Surrendering to a new way, a new plan and new purpose that is ordered by One who is greater than we are – if we will seek Him. A way forward in hope – even in midst of the brokenness of our world and our fragile humanity.

A way that is full of love and life. Despite the pain and restrictions.

But to embrace the new we must grieve and lay down the old. Otherwise we will never see the beauty in this season. We will never witness new birth coming from dead things. The new shoots of spring, of new life, coming from the death and desolation of the winter.

So sometimes we just have to let the waves of grief come. I have to simply allow them to break over me. And even though sometimes I may rawly feel their brutality. I hope that I can keep holding on through them to discover the beautiful horizons, that although perhaps currently hidden, still remain to be explored and discovered on their other side.

“I know it’s all you’ve got to just be strong. And it’s a fight just to keep it together, together. I know you think, that you are too far gone. But hope is never lost. Hope is never lost. Hold on, don’t let go. Just take, one step, closer. Put one foot in front of the other. You’ll, get through this. Just follow the light in the darkness.”

Jenn Johnson ‘You’re Gonna be OK‘

To explore how I find a deeper strength to face the reality of living in a broken world with a debilitating chronic illness please see “Suffering Into A Deeper Spiritual Awakening.”

To read more about my 5 year journey with a spinal csf leak please click on the SPINAL CSF LEAK heading above or read this post: Living with a Spinal CSF Leak.

For more posts since my ARACHNOIDITIS diagnosis please see the arachnoiditis menu above.

Spinal CSF Leak, Suffering & Grief

Five Years Ago: A Poetic Reflection of my Spinal CSF Leak Journey

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Five Years ago this week…

I fell from a small step ladder.
Five years ago this week – my life took a dramatically different turn.
Five years ago this week – I got sick and have never fully recovered.

Five whole years…

Of enduring
Of fighting
Of grieving
Of accepting

But also five whole years…

Of learning
Of growing
Of loving
Of living

One fall. One injury.

Changed so much.

My girls were just 7 & 10 the day I fell.
They were there watching me paint.
They saw it all happen.

The fall.

The getting up again.
The dusting myself down.
The continuing to paint.

The next 48 hours where their mum got more and more ill.
The constant medical, GP, A&E visits, followed by multiple hospital stays.
Seasons of me being stuck lying down flat for months on end.
Followed by the seasons (post epidural blood patches) of being upright all, or most of, the day.

They have seen it all!

The turmoil and struggle.
The wrestlings and pain.
Their mum so different.
Our lives forever changed.

Never to return to who she once was.

Lives dictated by multiple restrictions.
The never ending storm of tragic depictions.
We have had to learn how to ‘live here’ to ‘find life’ amidst all the challenges.
To find a way to live in, and through, the never-ending seasons of chaotic pain.

Sometimes life doesn’t look like we imagined it to…

We always believed I would get well!

In days…then weeks…then months…then years…

Surely I would get well again?
Surely I wasn’t such a bad case?
Surely ‘normality’ could and would be restored?
Surely the longed-for redemption would come?
Surely this, or that, treatment would work?
Surely time would bring the full healing that I need?

But ‘normality’ never came.
It remained elusive.
At times tantalisingly near.
But always on shifting horizons.
Never to fully appear.

The start of last year was another journey towards that goal.
Following a year of healing with a good trajectory. Feeling better, things improving.

Until that haunting plateau returned.

I again stubbornly kicked and pushed against it.
Determined – this time – to fully overcome.
As I tried to win the never ending bid for freedom…
I brutally whacked right into that figurative brick wall.
Running at full speed.
Determined to this time to make it fall.

It didn’t fall.

I did.

Shocked and dazed I crumpled into the mud – yet again…

Completely spent
Totally wrecked
Utterly broken

I dramatically relapsed in the Spring – physically and mentally.
I shouted and screamed internally – again.
I fell into the pitch blackness of total despair.
And I grieved like never before.

‘How am I supposed to keep living like this?
I cannot do this any more!’

Four and a half years of pain and struggle had taken their toll.
Four and a half years of fighting to be heard, and get well, had left its open wounds.

I had nothing left to fight with.

It was tough to come back from that figurative fall.

But we did find a way again.
In God we discovered a resilience that can only be found in Him.
His Words provided a way forward – an indescribable peace within.

There is always a way forward if we don’t give in.
There is always beauty to be found – even amongst the mess.
Always a light shining somewhere – even in dark places.
Always a deeper love to be discovered – even amidst intense pain.

IF we can keep following the light.
IF we can keep focusing on its radiating beauty.
IF we can allow ourselves to be guided into new horizons.

New mindsets.
Hidden joys.
Intense loves.

IF we choose to never give up…

Only then…

Can we find a new life.
Can we find a new depth of love.
Can we find new purpose.
Can we find pathways to new adventures.

If we will simply stay the course.

Who knows what tomorrow might bring?
Five years ago this week…

I fell off a small step ladder whilst painting.
Five years ago this week I tasted of the devastating debilitation of a spinal CSF leak.

I wouldn’t want to relive these past five years.
I wouldn’t want anyone else to experience those depths of struggle.
So I will fight and keep speaking out until our stories are heard.

Until change comes.

But I also know…

That I wouldn’t want to go back to who I was before that week either.
I am changed forever.
But the change is not all bad.

There has been something deeply beautiful about this impossible journey.

A profound way where excruciating pain teaches you what ‘living’ truly means.
A hard and winding path that brought many wonderful and inspiring people – whom I never would have known.
A wandering that has at times felt aimless – but has also led to glorious discoveries.
A stormy voyage that has shown me stunning new spiritual landscapes and revelations previously uncovered.

Five years ago this week I fell from a ladder.
Five years ago this week I got a life-destroying spinal fluid leak.
Five years have passed of leaking (& at times somewhat recovering).

But never getting fully well.

But regardless of the pain, the suffering, the seeming wrecking of so many many dreams.

I have lived.
I have loved.
I have learnt.
I have grown.
I have spoken out.
I have used my writing.

In the hope that one day things will be different.
Perhaps other families will be saved our pain.
Maybe one day someone’s similar journey will be easier.

Simply because,

I ran the relentless marathon first.
Refused to give up.
And told my never-ending story – despite all of it’s indescribable pain.

“I abandon my addiction to the certainty of life
And my need to know everything
This illusion cannot speak, it cannot walk with me at night
As I taste life’s fragility…
I can’t pretend to know
The beginning from the end
But there’s beauty in the life that’s given
We may bless or we may curse
Every twist and every turn
Will we learn to know the joy of living?”

(Looking For a Saviour – United Pursuits)

UPDATE: Please note that in August 2020 I was also diagnosed with arachnoiditis as well as a spinal CSF Leak – I now have radiological evidence to support both those diagnosis. To read more about the new diagnosis please see this link.

Here is my new summary video of my whole medical journey as well as footage of my January/ February 2021 adhesive arachnoiditis relapse/ flare and treatment with IV Steroids. To see my daily video diaries from this time please see my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ZkCy9B_IpeaGrXd0CEgow

For more posts about my story of living with a spinal CSF Leak please look at the subject heading on the menu bar above.

Here is a brilliant 2 min animation about Spinal CSF leaks.

For more information about spinal CSF leaks please see the UK charity website at www.csfleak.info or the US charity website at www.spinalcsfleak.org.

Please see this  May 2018 medical paper about the 10 most common myths and misperceptions about spinal CSF leaks. It is by some of the top world experts in treating this condition. I was told so many of these myths by various neurologists, anaesthetists, radiologists and many other doctors during my lengthy and traumatic 5 year battle with a spinal CSF leak. This kind of misinformation caused many delays, misunderstanding and great distress on my already immensely long winded and difficult medical journey.

Spinal CSF Leak, Suffering & Grief

Dear Doctor, From Your Naked Patient

10 Comments

Dear Doctor,

Perhaps we once met, perhaps we never will.

Regardless of which it is – today I just want us to try and understand one another better. Because if we can TRY to understand one another more, then perhaps we can work together to help your patients find more holistic healing and hopefully make your job a little easier too.

I decided to try and connect with your heart today, because I know that under all those important professional masks, doctor degrees, awards, uniforms, stethoscopes, sometimes fancy clothes and endless medical guidelines….

You are simply human like me.

Today, you might be my doctor and I might be your patient.

But perhaps yesterday, today or tomorrow we will equally face the same or similar challenges in our lives. The kind of personal difficulties and traumas every human faces at times. The types of trials and wrestlings that are simply common to our humanity, and a normal part of our broken world.

Maybe tomorrow you may even face the horrible illness I am facing today. Or perhaps one day you will find that one of your loved ones is in my ‘patient shoes’ – and someone else is in your own ‘doctor shoes’.

So please could we connect as equals – as human to human.

Rather than my inferior condition to your superior position. Or my entitled demanding to your service providing.

Please would you take a moment to humbly listen, as I attempt to open my heart to you today?

First, I need you to know some of my own story for you to understand me better. To know that I have been very unwell for nearly five years now. In January 2015 I fell off a small step ladder and that one moment changed my whole life. And from that moment I was catapulted into a life of constantly being someone’s patient.

… Maybe being your patient.

During that time I have met some wonderful doctors who were able to connect with me, listen, and who tried to help me as much as they could. I appreciate them more than they will ever know.

They were bright lights in immensely dark places.

But most of the time I have met doctors who didn’t really understand. And some who didn’t seem to even want to try. I met many doctors who treated me as another inconvenience in their very busy day. Another form to fill and box to tick. The nameless, faceless puzzle to try and solve that day.

You see dear doctor…

I have a condition that you may not know much about. And even if you think you do know a lot about it, if you spent a couple of hours in my home listening to me and my family you would probably find that you don’t know as much as you think you do about my complex case. Even many ‘top neurology specialists’ don’t truly understand my condition – even though many of them think they do.

And because of that, some of you have unknowingly added to my pain, giving me wound after wound that I am still healing from today.

You see, for the past five years I have been battling a spinal CSF leak. Perhaps you have heard a bit about them. Patients can get them after lumbar punctures, epidural anaesthetic injections or spinal surgery. Recently more doctors are realising that spinal fluid leaks resulting from these procedures are probably more common than previously recognised. The truth about their devastation seems, in the past, to have been hidden – mainly because many doctors only knew of the classic acute PDPH (post dural puncture headache) symptoms; they didn’t know that you can be leaking spinal fluid and not be stuck flat 24/7. It’s possible that you can be upright a lot of the day, but still be very, very ill. Experiencing all sorts of other horrible, debilitating, distressing, rarely recognised and widely misunderstood neurological symptoms.

I acquired my leak from that step ladder fall in January 2015. More of that original story is here if you want to learn. All my scans – until recently – failed to show IH (intracranial hypotension) or evidence of a leak in my spine.

And yet….

Every single day since that ladder fall I have felt exceedingly unwell. I have not had one fully pain free day. I have not experienced a single day when my mind was clear and my brain worked like it used to.

I need you to know – dear doctor – that every day is a struggle for me. I have fluctuated between being bed ridden for months on end, to months of being upright all day.

And everything in between that as well.

But never well. Never normal. Never knowing the health I used to know.

I could never fully explain to you how impossible it has sometimes felt to live like this.

Recently – after more than four years – my UK NHS specialist team think they have located my CSF Leak in my cervical spine, a ventral leak, hidden at the back my dura on new MRIs. We are currently waiting for new scans to be read and reported to confirm and categorise the leak and work out a better way forward.

I was diagnosed with a suspected spinal CSF leak two months after my original fall. For a while they thought it was post-concussion syndrome – until I was finally admitted to hospital after my third trip to A&E. An understanding neurologist finally picked up on the fact my symptoms only went away lying down. Since then I have had 8 separate MRIs, a radionuclide cisternogram and a CT myelogram of my brain and spine. Until recently, they ALL failed to show any evidence of a spinal CSF leak at all.

Can you imagine how hard it is to be so very, very ill, but lack the vital evidence that definitively PROVES to you that I am leaking CSF from my spine?

I know I am as ill, and sometimes even much worse, than some of those who have the scan evidence you want to see. And yet I know that some of you still doubt me, and I know that some of you still don’t think it’s all quite true.

Even though…

  • Research shows that at least 25% of spinal CSF leak patients don’t show classic signs on their brain MRI. *
  • Medical papers show that around 50% of patients don’t show the leak on spinal MRIs.*

And yet I still often feel that I have to ‘prove’ to you how ill I really am.

That my lack of evidence is my own curse.

My own fault maybe?

I have been there with you. Lying flat in a hospital bed as you have towered over me, asking question after question, requiring me to prove myself to you. Feeling like I am a criminal standing in your ‘doctors court’.

With you as the ‘appointed judge’ over my medical destiny.

Do you know how deeply you have wounded me?

To be unbelievably and traumatically ill with a ‘apparently rare’ brain condition, and then find I also have to summon up energy (I don’t have) to ‘fight my case’ in your ‘doctors court’.

Challenging me to PROVE how ill I really am.

Do you know what damage that has done to me?

You probably have no idea how much it has affected me these past five years. How much it wears me down. How much it has infected my mental and emotional stability. How much shame I have had to carry.

Simply because in your busy, overwhelming, important – and often under-valued – job, some of you seem to have forgotten that your patients are simply human.

Just like you!

We share a fragile humanity.

I know that to some of you we are simply different diagnoses that come and go. Some more complex than others. Some that don’t quite fit the ‘diagnosis box’ you are trying to force us into. Simply ‘medical cases’ – charts, scans and notes – that walk into your busy world one day…

… never to be seen again.

Do you realise how much it messes with our heads?

The reason I am writing to you today is in the hope that somehow, I can re-connect with your human heart. Maybe – just maybe – we could get better at understanding one another again. So that we don’t have to end up with all of these painful misunderstandings and confrontations, which can sap your energy just as much as mine.

I know as patients we also need to realise that you are only human too.

That you are not ‘miraculous supernatural healers’ that can defy the laws of medicine, physics and nature. You are simply humans, trying your best to help other sick humans heal up and get well. Many of you wish you could do more for us – not less. You are bound up by the ‘system’ that controls you, by ‘modern medicine’ with all its exhausting bureaucracy, targets and restrictions. We know that there are those of you with equally broken hearts who wish you could offer us more than you do.

I am sorry that we sometimes forget that you are human as well. When we get lost in our own vulnerability, shame, pain and confusion and lash out at, and blame, you unfairly. I am sorry when we also fail to treat you with the kindness, compassion and gratitude that you deserve, as you work with systems that often overwhelm you and bring you crashing to your own exhausted knees.

But today, I can only speak from what I know. I can only try and share from the heart of a very broken patient, who knows that things really do need to change.

You are all overworked and overwhelmed in many ways. And yet some of you seem to be more connected to your own humanity than others. Some of you seem to know how to connect with your patients heart to heart. Some of you achieve this despite all the many challenges of your role.

So I want to say thank you. I know that you are the ones listening to me more openly today.

Recently I have been thinking more deeply about what ‘being a patient’ can feel like for us and how to try and help you understand more – dear doctor. Especially for those of us stuck lying completely flat in a hospital bed due to a spinal CSF leak.

But also as A VOICE for your many other patients as I try to explain what it feels like for us to enter your normal vocational world.

You see, for you, the hospital is your workplace. For us, it’s often an immensely distressing place.

We are not normally there by choice, but because we know that there is no other way to get well than to come to you. So when we enter your ‘hospital work place’, we often feel so vulnerable, so confused, so distressed, so exposed, and often in so much pain.

One way to describe it to you is that we feel like we are metaphorically simply naked and exposed for you all to see.

You may not have ever been a deeply vulnerable and distressed patient yourself – so we know it’s hard for you to fully empathise and understand – but if you want to try and understand us better when you come to see us…

Can you take a moment to imagine and picture what it would feel like if it were you lying on that hospital bed, fully naked – so exposed, vulnerable and ashamed – with absolutely nothing to cover you up?

Our own masks, worldly titles, fancy clothes, make up, hairstyles and badges of honour have ALL been snatched or stolen away. So we are subsequently feeling so cold, so messy, so vulnerable, so distressed, so confused and so naked – whilst you are simply getting on with your daily grind in your normal place of work.

Please be kind to us. Please be patient with us. Please listen carefully to us. Please TRY to understand us.

Don’t stand at the foot of the bed and tower over your patient – she feels small already – take a minute, sit down, listen…Try to understand. Realise you will never understand. Try anyway.”

– C. Sebastian*

Dear doctor, we feel small already… please don’t make us feel even smaller.

In our smallness you can often appear so big, so important and so intimidating. You are covered in all your doctor masks, doctor clothes, doctors badges and medals of honour, and talk with your important-sounding ‘doctor speak’.

Sometimes we don’t even understand what you are saying.

Because you are not talking to other doctors; you are talking to your naked patient who already feels so very small and so very stupid lying down in that hospital bed.

Please listen carefully to us before you attack and accuse us of not feeling as ill as we say. Please open your minds to the fact that just because we don’t fit your boxes, it doesn’t mean we are not truly very, very sick.

You are meant to be our healers – not our accusers.

Dear doctor, you should know that after leaving your hospital or doctors office and perhaps never seeing you again, over the past five years I have experienced two intensely excruciating complete mental health collapses. I have also found myself close to those places again and again.

And in those places – normally when I completely relapse physically, I stop sleeping and have no energy to fight anymore – in those places, all of my traumatic memories of encounters with intimidating and insensitive doctors return to me. I picture you as scary ‘doctor-judges in the medical court’, and I don’t have the energy to try and ‘prove myself’ to you again, and face getting my case thrown out with the lack of suitable evidence.

So I want to just give up.

Dear doctor, did you know that in those dark and distressing places my broken and exhausted mind decides that death might be my only way out. The only escape from the constant battles. The only way to end the never-ending fight. The only way to stop having to defend and prove myself again and again to another intimidating ‘doctor-judge.’

Did you know that your insensitive words and actions one day could indirectly contribute to my death?

Do you realise how serious that is?

You see, when my impossible medical journey pushes me to places beyond what I can endure, when my mind packs in and my body breaks down due to the immense stress and strain of daily battling a debilitating and distressing misunderstood neurological illness year after year…

I end up feeling more broken, more vulnerable, more distressed, more naked and smaller and smaller than ever before.

I feel like a worthless and insignificant judged ‘chronically-ill’ nobody. Who just cannot get well. However hard I try.

Dear doctor, I then need you to know that I need you to see me as…
Just another naked and vulnerable human patient…

…. looking for someone to help cover me up. Someone who can put a blanket of compassion, kindness and hope over me so that I won’t feel so very very cold, ashamed and completely overwhelmed from the fight.

You see…

I am your naked patient.

So please understand that in my nakedness, all I can see is all your importance, all your knowledge, all your intimidation, all your doubts about me and my case, all your intelligence and words I don’t always understand.

So you scare me!!!

I can no longer see your equal humanity; I can only see my naked inferiority beside your beautifully adorned superiority.

So dear doctor, please be gentle with me. I am not as strong as you think. My heart has been broken and wounded again and again. Some days I just think I will sink.

All I see is my broken humanity. All I see is my naked vulnerability.

So dear doctor, today I wanted to connect with your heart. I wanted to try and reach you, human to human.

As your equal.

To please ask you…

When I feel that naked, the best way to help me is to remember that underneath all of your adorned and celebrated doctor-robes, you are just a naked human too. You may not feel it so much today… or even tomorrow. You may not really ever understand what I am actually trying to say.

But please try and imagine yourself as that naked patient, lying in that hospital bed. And think about how you can move a little closer to our inflicted lowered level and status; to sit down, to listen, to try and understand…

Whilst realising you can never fully understand.

But please do TRY anyway.

Because one day…

That naked patient…

Might be you!

And then you will want to meet a kind and gentle doctor, who can also relate and connect to your vulnerable and exposed naked humanity.

And I hope that they will try to bring you more holistic healing….
Rather than inflicting wound after wound after wound... that can sometimes be even harder to heal from than the original condition over which you met.

Sent, with heartfelt tears, gratitude and deep respect for your willingness to listen and learn,

From,

Your naked patient

“Don’t stand at the foot of the bed and tower over your patient – she feels small already – take a minute, sit down, listen…Try to understand. Realise you will never understand. Try anyway.” – C. Sebastian

*Quote from this beautifully insightful TED talk on encouraging ‘Narrative Humility’ in the medical profession.
Narrative Humility: Sayantani DasGupta at TEDxSLC youtu.be/gZ3ucjmcZwY

UPDATE: Please note that in August 2020 I was also diagnosed with arachnoiditis as well as a spinal CSF Leak – I now have radiological evidence to support both those diagnosis. To read more about the new diagnosis please see this link.

Here is my new summary video of my whole medical journey as well as footage of my January/ February 2021 adhesive arachnoiditis relapse/ flare and treatment with IV Steroids. To see my daily video diaries from this time please see my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ZkCy9B_IpeaGrXd0CEgow

For more posts about my story of living with a spinal CSF Leak please look at the subject heading on the menu bar above.

Here is a brilliant 2 min animation about Spinal CSF leaks.

For more information about spinal CSF leaks please see the UK charity website at www.csfleak.info or the US charity website at www.spinalcsfleak.org.

*Please see this new May 2018 medical paper about the 10 most common myths and misperceptions about spinal CSF leaks. It is by some of the top world experts in treating this condition. I was told so many of these myths by various neurologists, anaesthetists, radiologists and many other doctors during my lengthy and traumatic nearly 5 year battle with a spinal CSF leak. This kind of misinformation caused many delays, misunderstanding and great distress on my already immensely long winded and difficult medical journey.

*Please also see this other in depth 2018 medical paper about both low and high intracranial pressure syndromes and their similar and different symptoms. It also mentions cross overs with other headache types. When a patient suffers with a spinal CSF leak long term it can cause massive fluctuations in their whole pressure system both whilst suffering from a spinal CSF leak and following treatment. This is why lumbar puncture pressure readings and ICP pressure monitoring can prove an inaccurate disgnostic tool for SIH as this paper refers to as does the 10 myths paper. My initial LP reading was a 7 which was considered ‘evidence’ of low pressure by some doctors and normal by others.

Identity, Mental Health, Perspective

What is My Purpose? Do Small things with Great Love

3 Comments

“Do ordinary things with extraordinary love.”

Mother Teresa

A few months ago, I was again immersed in the intense and dark storm of a traumatic spinal CSF leak symptom relapse – which also triggered the major mental health crisis I wrote about here. Part of my turmoil included the sense of feeling completely worthless.

Being perpetually stuck in bed with very distressing neurological symptoms often means you feel like your life has so little worth, value or purpose. Especially when you see most other people around you getting on with their seemingly important, full and valuable lives.

Feeling ‘purposeless’ amidst suffering and chronic pain really negatively impacts your mental health. Because when you feel like your life has no purpose, you simply feel burdensome to those having to care for you, and to the world in general.

In that crushing darkness I was immersed in, I just couldn’t see how my life could bless and help others. I just felt like I was, and would always be, a negative influence and drain on others. I even felt like deleting this whole blog, and my all of my public writing, because I decided that stories without happy endings are just depressing. If I cannot offer hope to those suffering then my writing may just discourage those already unwell and spread negativity rather than positivity. I thought to myself: what’s the point of me telling my sad story when the world is just full of sad stories?

In the end, I compromised and managed to just privatise this blog for a few weeks – until my perspective began to get a bit more healthy and balanced again.

However, as time went on – and the sun slowly began to break through the dark clouds – I realised that my mind had again got lost in the LIE often peddled in this world that ….

What you DO is far more important than who you ARE!

The lie that subtly tells us each day that if I can’t actually DO anything then my life is surely worthless?! I am just a chronically (and at times mentally ill) ‘insignificant nobody’ who is struggling to find the energy to live and breath, let alone have the energy or capacity to make a difference in the lives of my immediate loved ones – or the world in general.

“Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you. Don’t waste your pain; use it to help others.”

Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life

Why do we so often fall for that ageless deception – that we only truly ARE what we DO?!

“What do you do?” everyone asks you when you first meet. “What do you do?” the doctors ask when they first see you – as if knowing such things means that they can now interpret your ‘medical story’ through the bias of what title the world has given you.

Those few ‘what do you do’ words often unknowingly heap shame on those of us in Western society now unable to DO as we used to.

The fact that we don’t, or can no longer, wear societies ‘badges of honour’ (its job and career titles) – perhaps because of immensely difficult seasons of debilitating illness or disability or other challenging seasons in our life – suddenly means that we become insignificant second rate citizens of the world.

When I get lost in such lies, it cripples me. Shame consumes me. I lose track of my identity. I feel completely lost and not sure where to anchor myself so as to move forward.

But as my perspective begins to improve one of the first things I begin to SEE is that I have again got deceived into believing a lie.

Slowly I can SEE again that I instead need to connect with the deeper truth of this universe, that is…

I am not what I DO!

I am still Becky Hill – whether I can be busy DOing a certain job or task, or if I can only lie in bed and look for ways to find purpose in the midst of all my pain and restrictions.

It was at that time and in that place of deep wrestling that one day I was sharing what I like to describe as a ‘Psalms type prayer of lament’ to God. I was crying out to Him, overwhelmed by the feeling that I didn’t have a purpose anymore. I was just so restricted by my physical condition that I was questioning what the point of me being alive was. If my life is simply about existing and enduring the pain, then is it really worth living??

And in that moment I felt God reply to me so clearly through the peaceful gentle whisper of His Spirit to mine…

“Precious child – your purpose is to daily ask yourself, “who can I show LOVE to today?”

It immediately EXPLODED in my heart!

It was so simple – yet the revelation so profound…

God wanted me to get the focus off of me and ask Him for creative ideas to show love to others – DESPITE my pain and limitations. He was telling me that even though, at that point, I was stuck in bed most of the day … I could still choose to love others from that place.

Those words from God that day resonated with and reminded me more deeply of the truth I already knew and lived by – that LOVE is only love when it is given and offered sacrificially. In the same way Jesus gave His life to love mankind by dying for our brokenness, we also need to be inspired by his example – by daily looking for ways to love others sacrificially too.

However, the key thing God continued to show me in that moment which has powerfully stayed with me ever since… is that the acts of love didn’t have to be BIG things. I just had to love as much as I could through the small things I could do. It was at this point the sign in the photo that we have hanging in our hall became a deeper revelation which has become my fundamental purpose for living…

DO SMALL THINGS WITH GREAT LOVE!

It’s so very simple and yet so deeply profound.

DO ORDINARY THINGS WITH EXTRAORDINARY LOVE!

It doesn’t matter how small or how ordinary what you have to offer is.

What matters is the amount of love you offer it with.

So …

It doesn’t actually really matter how BIG or extraordinary your job title is! What matters is how much love you do all the small and ordinary things in that job and the rest of your life with.

In that way the standard is equalised for all.

Our purpose is always the same.

No one has a more significant purpose than others.

So if today I can only hang some washing on the line, send a couple of empathetic messages to other people struggling and order some shopping for my family online – I can do it all with as much love as I can. I can serve others with a sacrificial heart. Which means the pain invested in the small things causes the love shown to be even greater.

So those words “who can I show love to today” have become the habitual daily question of my heart. Those few words – “do small things with great love” – have helped me immensely in walking through what seemed like an impossible time I couldn’t endure.

When I would wake up in the morning on those days and the dark reality of the struggle ahead would hit me like a ton of bricks, I would try to accept where I was – grieve my limitations – and then change my focus to ask God – ‘please show me who I can love with small acts of love and kindness today.’ In that place I tried to be mindful of others who were finding life challenging and think of how I could encourage them. I would look for very small jobs that I could do at home and try and pour my love for my family out through them. If I was shopping online – or later could go to the shops – I would try and think of who I could buy a special gift or card for.

And slowly…but surely…that sense of PURPOSE – EVEN AMIDST PAIN – was restored to me.

Because I again discovered that being alive meant that someone else could be loved, served, encouraged and blessed today.

It took the focus off me and my problems…

And shifted my gaze and contemplation onto His sacrificial LOVE flowing through me.

And the more I loved.

The more I felt His love.

So the more love I then had to give.

“The greatest thing about helping other people is for the moment you forget about yourself.”

Matthew Barnett

I again discovered that the giving and receiving of true love is probably one of the best medicines to help sooth the pain. It is certainly the highest and most significant calling of our lives.

So today I decided to share my story with you again – to tell you with great love to never forget…

That despite your chronic pain, despite all of the debilitation, despite your current disabilities and limitations, despite all of the restrictions you seem to be facing…

There is still a much greater purpose for you.

Please don’t lose sight of that like I did. The truth is – there is still so much to live for. There are things that only you can do. There are words and tasks that only you will be able to see need doing, or saying, that may be able to connect with and encourage someone else really struggling.

So choose to love daily.

Choose love as the highest purpose of your life.

And whoever you are – whatever worldly title you do or don’t have – whether you feel important or insignificant – try to simply do…

Small things with great love.

That way, the world will shine a little bit brighter because you are still in it. Which is so important to both us, and others, who seem to be constantly stuck in a cycle of – at times – overwhelming darkness, brokenness and pain.

As I write these words today and try to infuse them with as much love as I can, I hope that you will today truly SEE how extraordinary you can be – IF you will just do and say ordinary things with extraordinary love.

Whilst knowing how much greater that love is – when it is given with the deep sacrifice of your ongoing pain.

“I was broken so that I may understand the broken, so that I may reach out to the hurting, and comfort the wounded. I have the capacity to bring hope and love and healing. A once fractured mirror finding new purpose, because I am no longer reflecting myself, I’m reflecting Him. This is my reason for living. This is why I was created.”

Sam Re

To read more about my recent mental health crisis please try this post; A Window into a Suicidal Mind  To read more about my beginning to understand how crippling shame had become in my life please see; ‘The Shame of Chronic Illness and Pain.’ For an article on a similar theme to this one please try: Is Busyness a Choice?

For more posts about my story of living with a spinal CSF Leak please look at the subject heading on the menu bar above.

For more information about spinal CSF leaks please see the UK charity website at www.csfleak.info or the US charity website at www.spinalcsfleak.org.

Mental Health, Perspective

A Window into a Suicidal Mind

16 Comments

“I remember the wild agony of no way out and how the stars looked, endless and forever, and your mind can feel like it’s burning up at all the edges and there’s never going to be any way to stop the flame.”

Ann Voskamp

Only those who have experienced the trauma of a suicidal mind can truly understand how agonisingly dangerous it is.

We usually do the upmost in our lives to avoid things that might kill or harm us. But when it is your mind trying to kill and harm itself – it can feel impossible to get away from. It takes you hostage, binding you up with all its lies and accusations, torturing you inside your own head, home and life.

Refusing to let you go.

If only I could explain to you what it feels like…

I recently read the beautiful article on suicide that the above quote is from. And straight away I connected with the author whom I instantly knew understood.

You see I never used to understand.

I used to assume that I would never think that way. That life couldn’t get that bad for me. That I couldn’t be that selfish. I assumed that my ‘superior’ coping mechanisms could surely carry me through any storm that came my way.

Until life took me through seasons when I truly felt …. “the wild agony of no way out…”

At the end of April this year I dramatically relapsed in my spinal CSF leak and arachnoiditis symptoms…AGAIN!! After eighteen months of clear improvement since my last epidural blood patch. Everything came crashing down again physically and mentally.

And I found I had absolutely NOTHING left to fight with.

I had completely burnt myself out physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually from fighting this horrible condition and all the misunderstanding’s surrounding it – for so long.

I ended up stuck in bed nearly all – day and night – in almost perpetual intense, agonising pain. Everything simply exploded symptom wise and it felt like I was getting every type of headache and nerve pain in my spine you can get on top of the ‘low pressure’ issues. It was non-stop, non-positional pain, and made worse by the fact I was hardly sleeping at all.

I am only now beginning to feel more ready to talk about what happened back then more openly. Rather than just wanting to hide from the world and not speak up.

It’s only crippling shame that tries to keep me silent.

But as I get increasingly well, I know that part of my healing and restoration comes in being able to talk more openly about how bad things were. I know that the only way to deal with shame is to speak it out. So as to process my own journey and also to connect with others’ suffering and struggling, as well as to help others to understand more.

So here’s some more of the brutal and raw truth about the traumatic wrestlings of a suicidal mind. At the time, I wrote some poetry in my iPhone notes. I guess to try and process my thoughts and explain to others how it felt. I did show these to my husband at the time which he appreciated – even though they were often painful for him to read.

This Pain in My Head

I am going mad
This pain in my head
Persists and won’t go away
It’s killing me slowly
Polluting my life
Stealing everything away

What do you do When you are Drowning?

I am drowning – can you see?
My head keeps sinking below the surface.
My legs furiously attempting to keep my head above the waves.
I have no strength left to fight.
My legs are growing so tired.
My mind just won’t stop whirring.
The pain won’t let me go.

I am suffocating – can’t you see?
Where life is being squeezed out of me.
My energy leaving me, my endurance gone.
My life just a shadow of what it once was.

I am in inner & outer torment – can you see?
The pain and debilitation slowly taking over all I am.
Like gangrene it eats away at me.
Stealing my life, my strength, my hope

I love you all so much – can you see?
I am devastated by just what may be.
To think of your tears, your cries, your heartbreak and pain.
To think of destruction eating away at your hearts.
To think of the backlash and the battle.
To think of all the awful desolation left behind.

How could I?
How can I?

What am I supposed to do?
Do I keep existing or allow the waves to take me where they will.

So the battle rages and I sink yet deeper still into the darkness.
The pit of despair – a place that won’t let you go.
Destruction all around me.
Devastation following.
Despair keeps on calling my name.

I am stuck in the pain and anguish of living here.
Trying to love here…
Trying to suffer well…
Trying to hold on…
Trying to clutch on to life…
Trying to not let go…

But losing…
I am losing…
I am losing…

I don’t want to be lost
But devastation is calling my name.

The Torment of Pain

Pain torments you it pulls, pushes & wrestles with your mind
Persistent pain consumes you until nothing else is left
It eats you alive leaving your flesh exposed
Infection after infection ravages your thinking
Mind constantly infected
Tormented
Trying to hold on
Trying
Trying
Trying to hold on
Gasping
Reaching
Clutching
By my finger nails
Trying to hold on

How Long am I Supposed to Endure?

How long am I supposed to endure?
She asked, writhing around in pain
How long do I need to exist in this for
She asked, living as if death was life

They tried to understand
but still couldn’t see
the pain
that never went away.
The torture of not knowing how long to endure
Was stealing her whole life away

The problem was
she could no longer see
a future any better than this
She tried and she tried to hold on for love
But the pain was pulling her to defeat

Many would question the size of her love
The fact she could not endure or remain
But that is because they never lived in her body
And never kept on feeling her pain

Somehow reading them as separate poems doesn’t quite do justice to the intensity of the trauma that takes over your mind when you are backed into the ‘corner of dark shadows’ that is suicidal ideation.

Your mind is completely out of control.

You can no longer think rationally. It’s just a massive ball of dark, oppressive and negative thoughts crippling your perspective and adding to your intense internal and external agony.

I still felt so much love and love was actually my only anchor and light. But love was often even painful to feel, because you think that if you really loved others – that much – you should be able to endure and remain.

Right?

But you don’t have any energy to remain anymore.

It’s relentless.

Completely overwhelming.

All consuming.

Utterly unbearable.

And as dark as dark can be.

….And I was hardly sleeping at all. So there was no relief.

That’s why it’s called ‘mental illness’ – because you are extremely unwell.

And you just can’t ‘snap out of it’. Or just ‘think positive thoughts’. Or ‘reign in your thoughts’. Or simply ‘change your perspective’.

You no longer have that ability.

Your mind is no longer your own.

Without the love, compassion, support and care of my amazing husband, family, church family, friends and doctors, I am not sure I would have made it through.

It still scares me to know first hand what a vulnerable and dangerously over stretched mind can end up like.

But I do know talking openly about it shows how far I have come since then. To know that I was simply very very sick – both physically and mentally. It breaks my heart to know that others are facing this same battle – in similar and very different ways – each and every day.

Unless we can try to listen and understand more what goes on the the mind of someone feeling suicidal, we won’t be able to help them overcome the immense stigma, shame, misunderstandings and trauma of that experience. We need to know how to best try and help ourselves when we find ourselves there. As well as helping those stuck in the oppressive prison of a mind on the edge of suicide.

So that’s why I am opening up my own immensely humbling experience again. To let another struggling soul know today that you are not alone. I have been there and I want you to know…

It can get better again.

I know you can’t see it – yet.

I couldn’t either.

I only felt the ‘agony of no way out.’

But one day the sun did again begin to break through the clouds.
And I began to walk out.

Albeit bruised, battered, burned, startled and scared from the fight. But I made it through again. So please just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Just hold on a little bit longer.

Allow someone else to walk through it with you.

And then get strong enough to share your story. Because it might help to reach and save another struggling soul too.

“I wanted the brave to speak up, to speak the Truth and Love:
Shame is a bully and Grace is a shield.  You are safe here.
To write it on walls and on arms and right across wounds:
“No Shame.
No Fear.
No Hiding.
Always safe for the suffering here...”
If we only knew what fire every person is facing — there isn’t one person we wouldn’t help fight their fire with the heat of a greater love.”

Ann Voskamp

To read more about my first mental health crisis please try this post; ‘Breaking Through the Darkness .’ To read more about my beginning to understand how crippling shame had become in my life please see; ‘The Shame of Chronic Illness and Pain.’

UPDATE: Please note that in August 2020 I was also diagnosed with arachnoiditis as well as a spinal CSF Leak – I now have radiological evidence to support both those diagnosis. To read more about the new diagnosis please see this link.

For more posts about my story of living with a spinal CSF Leak please look at the subject heading on the menu bar above.

Here is a brilliant 2 min animation about Spinal CSF leaks.

For more information about spinal CSF leaks please see the UK charity website at www.csfleak.info or the US charity website at www.spinalcsfleak.org.

Perspective, Suffering & Grief

Compassion Starts with Embracing our own Pain

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“Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.” – Henri Nouwen

The meaning of the word compassion is literally ‘co-suffering’ or ‘to suffer together’. Compassion is not simply a feeling that comes and then passes like sympathy or pity. Having compassion is being so deeply moved in your heart with the pain of another that you are compelled to act to somehow alleviate that suffering.

We are literally ‘joining together’ with the one suffering to help and support them.

It’s actually a deeply painful emotion. But the intense feeling is not focused on ourselves – it focuses on ‘the other’ who is suffering in some way. This means, although painful, it is a deeply beautiful and even freeing emotion. Because it takes the focus off our own challenges, trials and pain and focuses our attention on supporting and helping someone else.

However, the irony of compassion is that we only truly feel it, and are moved by it, once we have first embraced our own life struggles and pain. Until we recognise the pain that suffering brings to us, we cannot truly begin to understand the pain it brings to others.

This is why some of the most compassionate people you will come across are those who have felt a similar pain to yours. It may not have been exactly the same, but they at least experienced it enough to see it and feel it in you.

Suffering together copy

Compassion is linked to empathy. Empathy enables us to understand and relate to what someone else is feeling. Compassion then takes empathy a step further, in that those empathetic feelings are intensified into a passion that leads to action. We are deeply moved to act! To do something to alleviate the person’s suffering. That act might be seemingly big or small, but it will be something that we actually do practically to help them. Motivated by the hope that it will help alleviate that persons suffering – even if only a little.

I really do love the quote at the top by Henri Nouwen. I believe the last sentence is particularly poignant:

“Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.”

What does he mean by this, what is the ‘condition of being human’? 

To me one of the most striking characteristics of our humanity is our brokenness. It’s the fact that we are all born as vulnerable, weak and dependant babies. And we will also all die vulnerable and weak from sickness, an accident or old age. Our human body has a fragility and mortality about it which means that we are plagued by weakness in different ways. We have many vulnerabilities; physically, mentally and emotionally. We are all prone to seasons of suffering and struggle. We are also all imperfect, we all make mistakes.

There are no humans who truly make it through their whole lives feeling perpetually strong, having it ‘all together’ the whole time, without any obvious weakness, vulnerability or struggle. Some people might like to project that mirage to others but the reality is we are all imperfect and fragile in similar and different ways. The fact is, our common humanity dictates that – if we do live to old age – all this will become more than evident, as eventually our body and mind fade and stop working altogether. If we do not live that long then death perhaps will ‘take us out’ early, again brutally revealing our weakness and mortality.

It’s this understanding of our ‘common humanity’ that helps us to become more loving, empathetic and compassionate people. This is why it is actually in times of trial and suffering that our deepest bonds with other humans can be formed – through mutual understanding, love and compassion. This is because it’s often only as we come brutally face to face with our own personal weakness and vulnerability that we can potentially connect more wholeheartedly with others because of it.

“The strongest relationships are formed in the heat of difficulty and the confession of weakness… honesty breads more honesty… it’s about sharing our common humanity.”– Patrick Regan

Those we can share our whole lives with – our struggles, pain, vulnerabilities, weaknesses, shame and guilt – are those who we generally form the strongest bonds with. Relational safety comes in someone knowing our weakness and failings – but loving and staying loyal to us anyway. This is always when our connection with others becomes more deeply profound.

This is when love is most beautiful and its bonds become most powerful.

It is only when someone sees the depths of your own ‘darkness’ – but chooses to love you regardless – that the true beauty of deep relational connection blossoms. There is perhaps nothing more deeply moving in life than this. This is where true unconditional love abounds.

This is also the place that our sense of compassion is potentially deepened, because we have arrived at a place where we know what it is to be faced with our own darkness, vulnerability, suffering and shame. Our hearts can potentially become softer and more malleable towards others. We have been humbled by the distressing awareness of our weakness, which can make us kinder and more understanding to other’s weaknesses.

However, you will see that I used the word ‘potentially’ in that last paragraph twice! The truth is, not everyone who suffers will show increasing compassion to others. This is because suffering can go two ways: it can cause us to become more self consumed, hardhearted, angry and bitter OR it can help us become more tender, understanding, compassionate and loving.

Ironically, embracing our own weakness and pain in seasons of suffering – but then turning those feelings outward to focus it on having compassion for others – can actually help alleviate the suffering of both of us. Suffering always grows darker the more it pulls us back into ourselves. Compassion, instead, provides a light for the both the giver and receiver – as the giver directs their own pain into helping alleviate the pain of someone else.

Acting to alleviate another’s suffering helps bring more meaning and purpose to our own.

Compassion

In reality though: in what ways can we practically act compassionately? Especially when in so many situations what we can actually do is so restricted?

The thing is, compassion doesn’t demand that we fully fix another’s difficult situation. For instance, when I was immensely suffering from an acute spinal fluid leak in recent years – I couldn’t reach out to another, who was also leaking, and fix their main physical problem. As much as I would have liked to have done so, we were both somewhat at the mercy of a debilitating and misunderstood condition. We couldn’t actually ‘fix’ it ourselves – we needed compassionate doctors to help. However, there are so many ways I could respond to and share another’s pain and act with compassion to their suffering.

Just telling another that we ‘get it’ and understand their pain can be an act of compassion. Which is one of the reasons I decided to write so honestly in this blog. If we can humbly ‘get over’ our own fears and insecurities of ‘getting real’ about our struggles, we can then choose to act compassionately by connecting and reaching out to another honestly – amidst our own, and their, pain. We can’t just think about it – that is sympathy or empathy. Compassion calls us to act on those feelings and practically connect to encourage, support and hopefully help alleviate some of the potential loneliness of suffering. Simply hearing ‘I get it’ means a lot to someone really struggling. This is often the first step in acting compassionately.

Giving your time to support someone struggling through spending time with them in person, over the phone or digitally can be an important act of compassion. Often patiently listening to them process their struggle and trying to understand their pain can help them immensely. Or simply looking for ways to encourage or uplift them in an empathetic way by sending some kind words, a card or gift. Practically, if we do live near by we might show compassion by cooking a meal, taking their kids to school or on a day out, or offering to drive them to a hospital appointment.

Little acts of compassion can speak the loudest when someone is struggling to make it through the next hour, let alone the next day. It was often the things above that spoke the loudest to me at the darkest moments of my own journey with a debilitating long term illness.

“Do small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa

Compassion doesn’t always require us to do something BIG! In fact, normally we can’t do something big – even if we had more time and resources. Many situations cannot be changed overnight with one action. There is a long and arduous process involved in acceptance, change and potential recovery. Compassion is often most profoundly shared in the little acts. The little things that shows someone in pain that you understand (or are trying to) and that you care.

However…

We need to keep in mind that the first step to being ‘moved with compassion’ – in choosing to ‘co-suffer’ with another – is that genuine compassion requires us to SEE and feel that person’s pain and struggle first. Before we do or say anything! That way, our words and actions will pour out from that heartfelt overflow of empathy. They will then be more obviously genuine and tender. You can’t fake compassion – it is easy to see in someone’s eyes, words and body language whether their supposedly compassionate words and actions are truly real or simply forced. In my own experience this can often be a problem for members of the medical profession, especially those who have lost that connection with their and their patients ‘common humanity’. 

Genuine compassion will only flow out of our true hearts, when we have first seen, felt and embraced our own pain, vulnerability and weakness. If we have not done that effectively, if we insist on denying and attempting to cover over our own human brokenness, we will simply become increasingly self focused and self absorbed human beings who spend their time pridefully keeping up their mirage of strength and pretension at other’s expense. This will inevitably end up with those people getting increasingly frustrated with others or even despising other’s suffering – rather than being moved with compassion by it.

Is it not time to see more compassion in our world? Whether it’s loving the poverty stricken orphan in Ethiopia through child sponsorship, or simply actively listening to or taking a meal round for a friend or neighbour who is struggling. Can you imagine if our neighbourhoods, schools, hospitals and workplaces were full of truly compassionate people who knew personal pain, but could look past it, to recognise it in another. We could then support one another through the ups and downs of life without judgment, misunderstanding or ignorance.

Perhaps, if we embraced our own pain more, tried to understand it, then turned it outward to connect with another equal human – then we would all suffer a little less throughout our own unique life journeys. Compassion rarely makes all the pain go away. But all of our collective small acts of compassion can become another necessary cog in the bigger wheel of changing our world for the better – person, by person.

“Love your neighbour as yourself.” – The Bible (Mark 12:31)

So let us not forget that we are ALL the same. We all share a common humanity. We must try to love as we would want to be loved. Try to care, as we would like to be cared for. Try to understand, as we would want to be understood. Try to show the compassion that we would like to receive.

In the hope that little by little, kind word by kind word, small act by small act, we might help alleviate some more of the suffering and pain in this world – TOGETHER!

“Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.” – Henri Nouwen

God & Spirituality, Suffering & Grief

Falling Into Grace

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“Grace can’t be explained; it has to be experienced … grace always has a story.” – Kyle Idleman

Grace is a word that we are all familiar with. We might think of it as a quick prayer at the start of a formal dinner. Or maybe a popular baby girls name. Perhaps you might think of a ballet dancer or figure skater moving gracefully around the room. You may of even heard it talked about in church.

But as the quote above says – grace is so much more than all that. It is not simply a word, a short prayer or even a religious concept…

Grace is an experience!

Falling into grace copy (2)

Over the past few years God has really deepened my experience, understanding and revelation of grace. Grace has become such a powerful reality in my life that even just hearing or thinking the word can often bring tears to my eyes, or tangibly move my heart very deeply, as I hear and ponder it.

To me, the concept of divine grace is one of the most beautiful things in the world!

This is mainly because I believe, know and have profoundly experienced – that divine grace truly is the ultimate foundational building block of unconditional love.

You cannot separate grace from love. They are fully dependant on one another. Unconditional love is only possible because of undeserved grace.

Of course, we are talking about a specific definition of the word grace. I am referring to the word as a Biblical concept, a spiritual experience. So before I move on, let me first attempt to describe to you what I SEE when I read, or hear, the word grace in this context.

In the Bible’s New Testament, grace is translated from the Greek word ‘charis’ which can be translated as God’s unmerited or undeserved favour and ability. To favour someone or something is to prioritise, show preference to, demonstrate a special kindness towards and basically give approval to that person or thing.

Normally in our day to day world we would show ‘favour’ to someone that we love more than others, ie. a spouse, child, family member, best friend, someone who has helped or shown us more kindness than others. We would rarely show ‘favour’ to someone who had been unkind, treated us badly or someone that we dislike.

Therefore we usually show favour (or grace) to people conditionally. We repay love for love, kindness for kindness, generosity for generosity, dislike for dislike, rudeness for rudeness, hate for hate. The way someone behaves or acts towards us dictates how we react, treat and respond to them in the vast majority of cases.

This is where ‘charis’ blows normal human behaviour and convention out of the water.

The whole point of the New Testament concept of charis is that it is wholly undeserved. There is no initial assessment about whether someone’s behaviour merits us favouring them. We decide to favour them – before we know how they will treat or respond to us. AND we choose to favour and show kindness to them DESPITE wrong, hurtful or negative treatment or attitude towards us.

Do you see how undeserved grace is the foundational building block of unconditional love?

Can you SEE how outrageously beautiful it is as a concept to me? However, the stunning nature of undeserved charis can never be fully explained in words. It has to be SEEN & EXPERIENCED. For us to truly get a life changing revelation of its glorious divine nature and intention you have to have lived through, and from, its awesome perspective. As the lyrics to this song show is so beautifully…

“And nothing ever LOOKED like this
The wonder of a world I missed
The clarity I find in GRACE
Never thought I’d SEE this way.
You’ve been there every time I fall
Been there through it all
All this time to SHOW me
The VIEW from here.”
– Stu Garrard (The View From Here)

Those words help to describe the profound transforming metamorphosis that occurs from the day, or season, that we truly begin to SEE via divine grace.

It revolutionises the way that we SEE the world. It completely changes our own perspective of God and humanity. We start viewing everything from the eyes of our hearts – rather than with our limited heads and minds. It is a wholly new ‘view from here’. And today I want to try and describe something of the view from the vantage point of divine undeserved grace.

“The view from here
So beautiful
It’s so beautiful…
… can you SEE it now?”
(Stu Garrard ‘The View From Here’)

The view from the outlook of grace is truly stunning. It is simply indescribably beautiful. As you look out at the world, you begin to increasingly see the beauty in each and every person you meet. Even when they are in a bad mood, even if they treat you terribly, despite their good or bad behaviour. You see hidden beauty within them and you long to reach, connect with it and draw it out from them. You feel a profound depth of love for them before you even meet or know them.

Undeserved grace is truly THAT radical!

Isn’t it beautiful?!

Can you imagine a world where everyone could see and treat others from that viewpoint?

Falling into grace experience copy (2)

But I can also hear the cynics among you mumbling: “Well that’s simply unattainable idealistic ‘world peace’ rubbish – who on earth can love to that depth? How can you love someone you don’t know or have never even met ... if you don’t know them – how do you know if that person really deserves your love?”

And all true Jesus followers should quickly reply with a resounding…

“We don’t! – But that’s the whole point of grace.”

How deserving someone is of love is taken right out of the equation.

There is nothing they could do to make us love them more. There is nothing they can do to make us love them less. We simply love them because we just love them. Full stop!

Isn’t it beautiful?

But…you might say… is it really possible to live like that? With that radical view of the world? Seeing every person you meet as uniquely, but distinctly, beautiful?

It is ONLY possible if you have ‘experienced’ that undeserved grace and unconditional love yourself first personally. You can’t view the world like that until you truly see and experience that level of divine love from the source of perfect, infinite, Divine Love Himself – Jesus Christ! When people have truly experienced divine undeserved grace and love. It will naturally flow out of them like streams of living water – to increasing measure, to everyone they meet. You can’t make it, will it or force it to happen. It should just increasingly become as natural as breathing, for those people who have truly surrendered to God’s unconditional love and grace.

However, unmerited grace is not a one-off experience alone. That is where it begins. But it’s real beauty is seen when people experience an ongoing deeper and deeper revelation personally. Day by day. Month by month. Season by season. And as they do it will just naturally transform the way they think, feel and behave until they increasingly drip and bleed undeserved grace and unconditional love to everyone they meet.

That metamorphosis has to be one of the most stunningly beautiful processes to watch happening in both yourself and others. Once you have seen and tasted what grace can do in your own and other people’s lives. Once you have experienced the restful ease of it’s transforming power. When you begin to rise up and view the worlds valleys and humanities brokenness from the lush green hills of grace.

You are never the same again!

However, the hidden glory of that transformation is that you will only truly experience it mesmerising depths, IF you begin from a place of witnessing the true extent to which it is undeserved. In your own life first… then in others second.

The truth is you will only experience grace in proportion to how much you acknowledge the depths of your own brokenness and weakness.

The divine key – given freely via Jesus Christ – to unlocking this view of undeserved grace and unconditional love in your own heart… Is surrendering to and receiving it’s ultimate core revelation…

That you have done nothing and can do nothing now, or in the future, to deserve miraculous divine perfect love.

The moment you believe you have done something that helps make you worthy of unconditional love and undeserved grace, you have voided the whole revelation and experience. You cannot experience grace by earning it – you can only receive as the ultimate gift.

You can only experience grace when you see how absolutely undeserved it really is!

And that is also humanity’s biggest hurdle to receiving the life transforming experience. Because humans like to justify how good and deserving they are; of respect, life and love. They have believed the lie that has completely corrupted people’s understanding and experience of love in our world – that love is something you give and receive because of how much you have earned and deserved it. This is why human convention dictates that you love those who love you, show kindness to those who are kind to you, and dislike and even hate those who dislike and hate you. Which makes the most sense to our human minds.

However…

People can’t see that it’s just that corruption of love that has polluted and destroyed our world, it’s inhabitants and all our relationships. The world is falling apart because it doesn’t truly understand and hasn’t truly experienced perfect unconditional love.

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All this is because the truth is ‘weakness is the ONLY way’ to receiving that love. And unfortunately humanity hates feeling weak. We spend our lives trying to cover over and whitewash the cracks and crevices we ALL have. We will do anything we can to show off our strengths and sometimes go to any extreme to hide and cover over our weaknesses.

This results in our own ‘view from here’ being totally corrupted, polluted and full of both:

Pride AND shame.
Superiority AND inferiority.
Self-promoting AND self-hiding.
Self-prioritising AND self-loathing.
Arrogance AND false humility.

All of which will pollute and destroy perfect love.

Paul said in the Bible; “But he (God) said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” – 2 Corinthians‬ ‭12:9‬

Anyone who has followed any part of my painful three year journey through a debilitating and devastating chronic illness will have heard and seen how it’s relentless waves have completely wrecked me again and again. I cannot begin to describe to you what has happened in my life over the past three and a half years. But perhaps I would say that, at times, it felt like a mixture of a devastating typhoon that ravaged its way through my life and attempted to destroy everything in its path. Whilst I sailed through its unrelenting storm in an exposed wooden rowing boat trying to not be completely sunk by the untamable wind and waves that seemed to strip me naked and constantly flood over me. On and off, I thought I was physically, mentally and spiritually drowning. Unable to cope or see a way through.

I can’t tell you how weak and vulnerable you feel when you are quite literally mostly bed bound and debilitated by a ‘life wrecking’, widely misunderstood, illness.

But as the never-ending storm raged and ripped through my life, stripping me of so many parts of my identity, dreams for the future and so much of what I could do, it revealed a deeper and deeper vulnerability. It exposed more and more of the real, naked, hidden and weak me. Until at moments I wasn’t totally sure what was left behind amidst the tatters of my old life.

Its destructive path at times completely overwhelmed me... but through it all... that still small voice of the Holy Spirit whispered…

“Weakness is the way”
“You can’t – but I AM can”
“Let yourself fall into My undeserved grace”
“Immerse yourself in My unconditional love”

And over time I began to SEE more and more of the depths of my Creator’s unconditional love – that could only be experienced through falling into and being completely immersed in His undeserved grace.

The old me who wanted to look, and be, so strong, the old me who struggled with pride and shame as the depth of her weakness was exposed, the old me who wanted to cover her nakedness with various worldly ‘fig leaves’ as Adam and Eve did after the fall…. Had to let herself be brutally killed off more and more –  so that I could experience His ever increasing grace.

All of my heroic self-attempts to keep striving to be strong, all of my ugly self-reliance that tried to fight the battle on my own, all of my projected ‘able, high-achieving, pretentious’ self-identity had to be brutally crushed and wounded.

… until I could again see that we can do absolutely NOTHING to earn or deserve God’s divine favour. We cannot add – even a morsel – to His unmerited ability or His unearned strength at work within us. 

“It would be so much more comfortable if God would keep us in our “strengths zone” wouldn’t it? But God keeps thrusting us into our “weakness zone” because it is only in our weakness that he is made strong”. – Christine Cane.

My Father, Lover and Friend… in His incomprehensible wisdom, allowed me to walk through the relentless ‘valley of the shadow of death and destruction’. So that I would learn to fall more deeply into Him. So that He could keep leading me like a Shepherd leads his scared lost sheep, up the greener, more peaceful, lusher mountainside. Up towards the higher ground where ‘the view from here’ would look even more stunningly beautiful than ever before.

My view of undeserved grace and unconditional love could only be widened and deepened when I truly realised that…

“It’s NONE of me… it’s ALL of Him.”

And that is what characterised His constant whispers to my soul throughout the storm…

“You can only do this through I AM’s undeserved grace. It’s My strength in your weakness. I didn’t build or design you to try and scale this mountain by your own human striving, strength and perseverance. I have allowed you to feel and see the depth of your weakness – so that you will see how much you need My grace. So FALL into My grace My precious, dependant, child and allow my SHALOM peace and completeness to STILL your heart again. And watch as you are saturated by My unconditional Love – so that when you look into the eyes of every person you meet, you will truly SEE with My eyes of pure unadulterated love.”

That is my ‘view from here’ which grows clearer and clearer each and every day.

That is why the word grace can cause me to catch my breath, bring tears to my eyes and deeply move my burning heart once again.

That is my story of undeserved grace.

That is what I need you to hear as you listen to my tragically beautiful tale.

Weakness is the only way to truly experience God. His grace can only be received as a mind-blowingly generous undeserved gift. His unconditional love is given despite our faults and failures. So that when we receive it – it will overflow to everyone we meet. In the stunning form of unconditional love for ALL people – regardless of how they feel about us in return. 

The view from here is so very beautiful. It’s so beautiful… can you SEE it now? 

“Christianity is not primarily a moral code but a grace-laden mystery; it is not essentially a philosophy of love but a love affair; it is not keeping rules with clenched fists but receiving a gift with open hands”. – Brennan Manning