It’s early Saturday morning and I’m running in the grass behind my house. It’s quiet. The blue sky is brightening and flowing over me like an ocean. I’m happy in Jesus as I’m meditating on Peter’s words on spiritual leadership and using them to inspire my prayers (1 Peter 5:1-12).
Suddenly it feels like a wicked hand thrusts into my gut and wrenches my bowels!
I’m overcome with a painful bout of diarrhea. I want to sprint to the toilet, but I can barely walk. For a 1/4 mile I stagger along and cry out to God to help me.
This is embarrassing! Maybe I shouldn’t tell you about this! But I think it’ll be worth it in the end because at times you also have big problems and pains and so do your loved ones.
How I Cope With Celiac Disease
An hour later, after four trips to the toilet, I’m dehydrated, depleted, and scared.
“That’s one of the worst Gluten attacks I’ve had,” I tell Kristi. “This is why it’s so hard to eat out and travel. I feel so restricted. I’m afraid my Celiac Disease is getting worse! ”
Then we go through the drill of rehearsing everything I ate in the last 24 hours and trying to figure out what had gluten in it.
Over and over I say Jesus’ beatitude to myself: “Blessed are you Bill with Celiac Disease for the Kingdom of the Heavens is open to you.”
The smile of God reaches my face and even into my irritated bowels! I’m praying to keep myself always in God’s kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy! (Romans 14:17)
Kristi needs to get to the airport, but I might have another attack? We delay as long as possible. Finally I decide to try. Thankfully, peace returns to my bowels and Kristi catches her plane.
Receive God’s Best Blessing!
You probably won’t be able to give thanks in your trials simply by telling yourself to do that. Instead you need to train your body to rely on God’s grace to form you into becoming the kind of person who would rejoice in the Lord when bad things happen.
One way to do this is to practice saying Jesus’ beatitudes over yourself. First, you need to re-think what they really mean because normally they’re used like self-help advice: “Be poor in spirit and God will bless you.”
But the blessing is not in the condition — it’s in the kingdom.
So pray with me: “Blessed are you (your name) with (your problem), for God’s domain of righteousness, peace, and joy is available to you now.”
I show you how to think, pray, and live by Jesus’ beatitudes (and many other teachings of his) in my book Your Best Life in Jesus’ Easy Yoke: Rhythms of Grace to De-Stress and Live Empowered.
Many people have told us that this book rivets them to Jesus! It shows them how to become more peaceful in stress and more loving to God and the people around them. It’s great for personal devotions or as a small group resource.
