Can You be Grateful in the midst of Disease?
By: Shelita Winfield
I have a secret to tell. This has was the hardest article for me to write,
ever. I am quite surprised and taken aback by it. So, I prayed, got quiet
and asked why? I’m sure you have a lot to be thankful for, just like I do.
I am thankful for my faith, family, friends, employment, being in my
right mind and of course material things. You know we are blessed and
if we take a moment to think about the goodness of God we MUST
BE thankful for everything. So by all accounts writing about being
thankful as we enter into the Harvest season should have been easy.
But, why was this so hard for me?
As I listened to the Holy Spirit, I heard the word, “Dis-Ease.” I thought of
the word, disease, but the contracted word dis-ease is what I literally
saw in the Spirit. I began to think about all the times I was dis-eased,
which means uncomfortable, stretched, tired and disappointed.
It was in those times that I prayed more, thanked God more, listened
more and showed him more praise. It was in the midst of being dis-
eased that I was able to receive just a little bit more of the blessings
God had for me. I continued to ponder the meaning of the word dis-
ease.
As I surfed Facebook one evening an acquaintance, we went to college
together and belong the same sorority, shared her battle with cancer
in a social media post. You see, this isn’t the first time she was in this
fight. In fact, it is her third battle with this dis-ease.
Yet, this time, I was able to be in “the trenches” with her through social
media. She had emergency surgery on her birthday as the dis-ease in
her neck wrapped around her spine. It paralyzed her. The date of the
emergency surgery was October 21, 2016. On October 23 she took one
step, and two days later on the 25th, she sat up in a chair for 3 hours
and stood up on her own.
She walked on the 26th of October, which was less than 7 days after
having a tumor removed that rendered her immobile. Each day her
ability to move and walk improved. She went from being paralyzed to
being able to do squats on Nov 3.
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