For me an important part of keeping our eyes on the prize is to practice pausing to praying. Praying makes me think of kneeling/surrendering myself before the Lord. I have found that a lot of dealing with chronic illness in a positive way is surrendering it to God. Not telling Him what the best next steps are or making demands of Him, but simply sharing the load with Him by saying, “not my will but Your will be done”. Reminding myself that our Father doesn’t give bad gifts. He sees way more than what I can see & knows when & how to help us grow in the Spirit.

I have been asked several times how I can put up with such a limited life, but it’s funny I don’t really see it as limiting, sure physically I have more obstacles, but on the whole not at all. It’s not false positivity because there are still days I struggle & it took me a while to come to peace with this new normal for my life. This new normal has been more fulfilling than any other time in my life yet. (Yes, even better than moving to Los Angeles working in film or visiting Europe.) I have felt more purpose & had more successes since my diagnosis than I’ve had in my old normal life. More importantly, I’m living so much closer to God & being filled with His love daily, that I feel the most beloved & confident in who He made me to be than ever before. All because I have surrendered over & over again to His loving definition of who I am & what success is in His kingdom.

There is contentment & peace to be had, but 1st we need to let go of what we want to happen or what our lives should look like, we must surrender. Sometimes we don’t just need healing on the physical level, but on a heart level too. His love is never ending, surpassing all knowledge, it is unfailing & unconditional. Sometimes God uses those big upheavals in our lives to not only remind us of the true prize, but also as a platform for healing ours & others hearts.