Cheryl Schatz

Lin,
Thank you for your tender words!

It is most unfortunate when Christians hurt other Christians whether out of fear, ignorance, or plain old cruelty.  Strong internal hurt can bring stress and along with it adverse conditions in the body.  It can also bring a blockage between our experiencing God’s love if we let the hurt develop into bitterness and anger.  I have tried hard to focus on prayer for the other person because this helps to keep bitterness at bay.

You are so right that focusing on God’s glory, his Sovereignty and his Almighty power will work to keep our minds stayed on him instead of our circumstances.

To all my blog friends,

I have been physically struggling for awhile and one of my blog reader’s encouraged me privately to share my struggle with my blog friends.  I thought a long time about how and what to share and then decided to post a few words publicly and then without getting too specific, I would share a few more details only in the comments section.  In hindsight I am so glad that I opened up and shared.

Yesterday one of my friends from California who catches up on me from my blog, read what I had written and gave me a call asking for more details on my diagnosis.  After listening to all of the details, she is convinced that I have been misdiagnosed and that all of the physical effects will be gone within six months.  There are two diseases, both stress induced, that are often misdiagnosed as each other because their appearance is the same.  The differences are subtle but very significant.  The second disease is self-limiting and will run its course within about six months even without medication but it also has a high success rate of a complete cure with a particular antibiotic given over a two week period.  The first disease has no cure.

I now have a great sense of hope that God is going to heal me completely even though I wasn’t given any hope by the doctor.  I did my own research on the internet looking at both diseases and their onset and I too am now convinced that I have been misdiagnosed.  My doctor wasn’t in today but an assistant gave me the prescription for the antibiotic that has helped many others.  God-willing I will get some relief soon and be back to my old self within two weeks.

It isn’t always easy to open up about personal matters and there are many more details that I haven’t shared that would not be appropriate to share publicly, but this is one case where opening up was very helpful for me.  I would like to publicly thank Cynthia H. from California for being God’s special angel by sharing with me her own private journey and how her own disease that she battled 30 years ago was almost certainly what I have instead of what I was originally diagnosed with.  By sharing her story with me she gave me hope.