In Sickness and in Health

On a day work was pretty dead, I decided to take off a little early in the afternoon and check out a movie from the library (I COULD check out a book I know, but film remains my medium of choice when I want to veg). The movie of choice on the said afternoon was “Warm Springs”, an HBO film about Franklin Roosevelt’s struggle with Polio and his attempt to find treatment at the Warm Springs spa in Georgia. Although it was later believed that FDR suffered from a disease called Guillain-Barré syndrome and not Polio, history usually credits FDR’s illness with an increased attitude of compassion towards disabled people. The movie deals with him coming to grips with his illness and also finding hope to face the future.
The topic of health is one that is prominent in the Bible and in most other religious traditions. Rev. Rita preached a sermon once on the significance of Jesus’ healing in the New Testament given that even a minor cut or injury could spell disaster for someone before the time of clean water, Neosporin, and urgent care clinics. Beyond that, I think disease can be seen as a “great equalizer” in that there are many diseases that know no race, gender, or economic lines. After all, Ronald Reagan’s political accomplishments didn’t spare him from Alzheimer’s and Bob Marley’s talent as a musician didn’t prevent him from getting cancer.
Many people at Spirit of Peace have training in Medicine and Biology and I think they can agree disease in its myriad shapes and manifestations in an inescapable part of the human condition. Although the advancements in medical sciences towards understanding and curing disease is enough to make my head spin, at some point we must remind ourselves that we will probably never rid the human race of disease all together and, in truth, doing so would almost be against nature since part of being a living thing is being vulnerable to injury, disease, and death. I am reminded of my Maternal Grandmother, a woman who was always accomplished at maintaining her health, who went for her physical and her doctor detailed out a list of problems he had noted with her body chemistry, liver function, and circulation. Her response was (paraphrasing) “I’m in my late 70s, what did you expect?”
We focus a lot on God’s ability to heal, but we could also argue God can use disease as a way to direct people to do things they otherwise wouldn‘t. After all, if FDR was not stricken with his illness, would his wife Eleanor be thrust into public life and become the force for women’s rights that she was? Likewise, if not for Howard Hughes persistent (and, arguably, pathological) fear of illness, would his wealth have been used to begin the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a organization known for funding cutting edge research in the biomedical sciences? That is not to say God paralyzed FDR or gave Howard Hughes an irrational fear of getting sick. However, such things can be part of the human condition and, out of them, individuals have to dig deep to access the gifts God has given them.
Overall, I see life as a “package deal” from God, just as we experience joy, love, and pleasure we also have to experience pain, sickness, and loss for the good things God has given us to be more meaningful. Unfortunately, we cannot pick and choose what parts of God’s gift we really want. All we can do is have faith that, just as obstacles have been up in our way, we have been given depths of strength by God to face the adversity in life ill-health can bring.