Have you ever wondered how you can stay spiritually and emotionally healthy during a serious health crisis? Or how to stay joyful in affliction? These two questions were ones I would repeatedly ask myself when thrown into a health crisis.
It was completely unexpected, just like the deer who, out of the blue, had walked in front of my car the week before, causing me to apply my brakes firmly. It was a close call, but this news would put the brakes on my entire life, as I knew it for more than a year.
My Story
After receiving a yearly reminder card in the mail, I scheduled my mammogram. The next day, I got a call and had to come in to have three painful biopsies. Two days later, I heard the words no one ever wants to hear: “You have cancer.” I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Me? I had cancer! It didn’t run in my family.
“You have a very aggressive form of breast cancer,” the nurse confirmed during a follow-up appointment. By Friday of that same week, I was sitting in front of a team of seven doctors that had been assigned to me, “Your treatment will require chemotherapy, a mastectomy, and radiation,” they told me in a very matter-of-fact way. On Monday I had been fine, and by Friday I had cancer. My head was spinning, as the unknown made me fearful.
The cancer was HER2 positive, which I soon learned had been treated with a targeted drug since the FDA had approved it on September 25, 1998. Before that, it had been a death sentence.
My initial response was embarrassment. I still don’t understand why I had that emotion, but I did, and I didn’t want anyone to know I had the “C” word. I wondered what I had done to give myself cancer and what “they” would think I had done wrong when they found out. Did I eat too much red meat? Should I not have indulged in that once-a-week glass of red wine with dinner? I was sure it was my fault. Knowing I had done something to cause this, and I would never know what it was so I could do things differently in the future, haunted me. I soon decided God must really hate me.
6 Key Points to Stay Spiritually and Emotionally Healthy
Discover six essential keys to staying spiritually and emotionally strong through life’s toughest challenges, grounded in faith, surrender, and trust in God’s purpose.
- When the shock of my diagnosis started to wear off, and the reality of what I was going to have to endure started sinking in, I ran to God instead of running away from Him. This is the first key to a spiritually and emotionally healthy lifestyle. Share all your feelings with Him, even if you’re angry that He has allowed this into your life.
- I thought about past trials, like the time my husband left me and our two little boys and filed for divorce, and how God had been there comforting me and guiding me. He had never failed me before. He alone had proven to be my very best friend. Remembering God’s faithfulness in your life is key number 2.
- I knew the world often sees sickness as a curse that needs to change. I thought about Paul’s thorn in his side and how he never really understood why, but he followed His Savior faithfully, anyway. That would mean I needed to continue to set aside time to be with my Lord and Savior through prayer, worship, and reading His Word. Key number 3 to maintaining spiritual health and staying emotionally healthy while walking through the fire is spending more time with Him. As I drew closer to God by bringing all my emotions directly to Him, spending time with Him and reading His Word, I started seeing this difficult trial differently.
- Could He be allowing this trial for my good? Could He be using my pain to make me more compassionate, like Jesus? It did not take me long to realize that knowing God and suffering are a package deal. All my life, I had desired to know Him more fully. I had even asked for that fullness, and this trial was causing me to do just that. Spiritual health key 4 is to surrender and trust God. Once you surrender everything to Him, he can work in every area of your life. You must trust that He is working all things together for your good. Ask Him for that kind of faith if you don’t already have it.
- As I walked through this trial, I knew all eyes were on me. This was an opportunity for me to be an example of God’s light. Every morning, I asked God to use every ounce of me for His righteousness. He found ways for me to do that, even from my home. I passed on my testimony and warm fuzzy socks in the infusion center to others who were going through some of the same things I was. I gave out books I had written to neighbors. When I felt well enough, there was always something to do in Jesus’ name. Focusing on others in Jesus’ name is spiritual key number 5.
- I realized this would not go on forever and that this was not my end, no matter what, because I have the free gift of God’s unmerited grace—eternal life. “This too shall pass,” (I Peter 5:10) I told myself, and my strong desire to hear the words, “Job well done, my good and faithful servant” (Mathew 25:21) someday spurred me forward. Meditate on God’s Word, asking the Holy Spirit to bring passages to your mind when you need them is the final key to being spiritually and emotionally healthy.
After four and a half months of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and 28 days of radiation, I was told I was cancer-free. As I was sitting on my porch, something dawned on me. I realized God’s sovereignty at that very moment. My cancer was fast-growing. I had been feeling great! All the professionals said I would never have discovered my cancer on my own. It was five minuscule spots. If I hadn’t received that appointment reminder card and gone in right away, there was a good chance I wouldn’t have gotten an appointment in time.
Nobody but God could have orchestrated these events. This health crisis made me more spiritually and emotionally healthy.
About the Author
Leslie Sousa writes from the great valley of California where she lives with her husband and two Shih Tzus. She is a gifted encourager, mentor, facilitator, women’s ministry leader, breast cancer survivor, and the author of five books. Leslie is a 2016 Federal Court Leadership Program graduate and a Federal Judicial Center trainer. She is a mother of two grown sons and recently welcomed her first grandchild. Leslie has a tender heart for people and her passion is to comfort others as God has comforted her. She shares her wisdom in her devotional titled Sit Still.
Visit her website here: www.JoyFULL.blog.