"May you prosper and be in heath even as your soul prospers." 3 John 1:2
In 2019 I crashed.
It happened before—I'd had a physical crash in 2004. I was stretched too thin and my body just said no!
But this time it was different.
My dad had passed away at the end of January after several challenging years and an extremely stressful final six months—time with him that I wouldn't have traded for anything.
Just when I thought we might find our way to our "new normal," Bob had a heart attack! In fact, they had to shock him back to life on the way up to Wausau. A stent was inserted and he was good to go home. I thought I was handling everything really well. And then it started. I had almost lost him. I felt overwhelmed. Stressed. Anxious. My body would start shaking. It became a cycle of severe acid reflux followed by anxiety/panic. I could feel it coming on and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. Round and round and round. My diet became more and more limited until there was very little I could tolerate.
My nurse practitioner ran some tests and found nothing significant. I had an upper GI that showed only a slight signs of acid reflux. I looked healthy on paper but I was loosing more and more of myself everyday. I really wanted to avoid taking meds. I felt like that would simply cover up symptoms without getting to the root cause—why this was happening. I had tried supplements and herbal remedies and they weren't doing the trick. I prayed. I recited memory verses. I used spiritual warfare. I asked friends to pray—often. I even visited with a Christian counselor a few times so my friends wouldn't tire of me processing all that was going on. And yet, all the things I usually did to combat anything similar did not work at all. NOT AT ALL.
I told Bob that I felt like this was spiritual battle like none I'd ever faced before. After losing a ton of weight I started losing a pound a day no matter what I did. I felt like I was literally FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE. One night I tried some meds I'd been given and just kept on hand, but taking them made it all horribly worse. I remember laying on my bedroom floor crying out to the Lord and He softly asked if I was ready to stop trying to fix it and look to Him to do it His way. I said a resounding YES!
The Lord brought to mind a book that my daughter-in-law Amie had given me the previous — A More Excellent Way. It talked about the spiritual roots of disease. Dr Henry Wright said disease happens because of a breakdown in relationships—between Me & God, between Me & Myself, or between Me & Others. He also said that 80% of all disease had a spiritual root.
I found a website on the book jacket, and realized that the author had started a ministry in Thomaston Georgia called Be In Health. Be In Health is based on the scripture verses in I John—"May you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers." After telling Bob that I felt like I was literally "fighting for my life." I considered doing the For My Life Retreat in person, and as I prayed about it, my desire moved from “just wanting to escape physical symptoms and be healed” to wanting “my soul to be prospering and at peace no matter what happened physically.” I was desperate. with all the weight loss, I needed immediate help. So rather than wait until the next in-person retreat in Georgia, I signed up for the online version of the retreat - 22 hours of teaching and ministering online. I cannot begin to tell you how very thankful I am for this ministry.
I literally got my health and my life back!
Update: It's October 2020 and I cannot believe what a stark difference there is in my whole being! I'm no longer just surviving. I'm THRIVING!
I share my take-aways from the Be in Health online retreat here.
If you are looking for help:
Exposing the Spiritual Roots of Disease is a newer, simpler version of A More Excellent Way and I'd highly recommend it.
Or check out the Be In Health Ministries site to learn more.