We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)
Chronic Illness
YOU’RE INVITED TO STEP IN
Today, we invite you to step in, slip off your shoes, and stay awhile. Read. Explore. Discover.
Chronic Joy isn’t a place of quick fixes or savvy advice. We don’t offer pat answers or simple solutions. Instead, we invite you into community as together we learn, share, wrestle, pray, and lean into the precious truths of Scripture.
We’re so glad you’re here. Welcome!
Blog Posts
Two Are Better – Caregiving Together
(We sometimes feel like we’re living in a situation comedy.) Flashes of joy and humor feed our hearts, lift our spirits, and help us through the days. Our greatest help, however, is our relationship with God.
Honoring Our Limits
Our limitations do not limit God. Chronic illness challenges do not diminish His care. As a loving Good Shepherd, He offers grace.
Renovations
The ringing hammer and whirring saw blade have me thinking about renovations in my own life. I want the updated character and a more beautiful external appearance, but I often want it right now and don’t want to do the required work.
Books We Love • Chronic Illness
DISCOVERING HOPE: Beginning the Journey Toward Hope in Chronic Illness
Cindee Snider Re
This 10-chapter study invites participants to experience radical hope and compassionate change in a life with chronic illness.
No matter how dark the days, how wild the storm, how deep the valley, or how long the winter, there is hope.
There is always hope.
FINDING PURPOSE: Rediscovering Meaning in a Life with Chronic Illness
Cindee Snider Re
What if purpose looks different than we believe?
In this 10-chapter study, author Cindee Snider Re invites participants to release cultural and traditional definitions of purpose and, instead, embrace God's timeless definition. Rooted in His Word, His definition is as refreshing as a gentle spring rain.
EMBRACING WORTH: Understanding Your Value in a Life with Chronic Illness
Cindee Snider Re
This 10-chapter study powerfully reminds us that our value isn’t found in what we can or cannot do but in Christ alone. Regardless of what we’ve lost through chronic illness, this isn’t the end of our story. Despite our circumstances, in the midst of the hard when we’re not sure we can take even one more breath, God is still good.
I TAKE YOU IN SICKNESS & IN HEALTH: Marriage with Chronic Illness
Cindee Snider Re
Rejuvenate, revitalize, rekindle, and reconnect with this insightful and enriching 10-chapter study (designed just for couples) that offers you and your spouse a safe place to grieve, heal, grow, dream together, and thrive as one – in sickness and in health.
A Book of Comfort for Those in Sickness
P.B. Power
Suffering need not be a dark experience. While illness brings time to think, the natural tendency of our thoughts may not be comforting. Sickness may end activities we once enjoyed and might make us dependent upon others. Feelings of pain, uselessness, or anxiety about the future may be very real. This book offers comfort for just those times.
Broken Body, Healing Spirit
Mary C. Earle
For centuries, Christians have turned to the Benedictine practice of Lectio Divina (sacred reading) to pray the Scripture and deepen their experience of God’s presence in their lives. In this gentle book, Mary Earle (who has suffered from serious illness of her own) explores how this ancient practice can be used to “read the text of our illnesses,” and, in doing so, discover God’s presence and guidance even amid pain and suffering.
Chronic Illness: Walking by Faith
Esther Smith
Physical symptoms and limitations change all aspects of life, leading to losses and to unique challenges that are difficult to navigate. Discover encouragement and practical applications showing you how to release guilt and shame, ask for help, balance work and rest, and get through days of difficult symptoms.
Glorious Weakness: Discovering God in All We Lack
Alia Joy
Weakness does not disqualify us from inclusion in the kingdom of God. Instead, it is our very invitation to enter. Anyone who has struggled with feeling inadequate, disillu-sioned, or just too broken can find hope. This message is an antidote to despair, helping readers reclaim how God is good, even when life is anything but.
Hurting Yet Whole: Reconciling Body and Spirit in Chronic Pain and Illness
Liuan Huska
What do we do when our bodies don’t work the way they should? What is healing when one has a chronic illness? Can we still be whole when our bodies suffer? Liuan helps us redefine what it means to find healing and wholeness even amid ongoing pain.
Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain and Illness
Maureen Pratt
Using a combination of Bible passages, her own observations and insights, and prayer, Pratt provides help on issues that include dealing with isolation, coping with medical expenses, and learning to say “No.” Written with unstinting honesty and humor, Peace in the Storm will help readers identify their own spiritual and physical needs.
When There Is No Cure: How to Thrive While Living with the Pain and Suffering of Chronic Illness
Craig K. Svensson
How do you live well when the physical foundation of your life is crumbling? This is the challenge for millions who live with diseases for which there is no cure. These incurable ailments produce a life of constant pain, fatigue, numbness, dizziness, and other debilitating symptoms that create chronic suffering. Can you thrive in life while experiencing the suffering persistent sickness provokes? Drawing on his expertise as a pharmacist-scientist as well as a fellow sufferer of several incurable diseases, Svensson helps to steer readers through the twists and turns of life with chronic illness.
You Gotta Keep Dancin': In the Midst of Life's Hurts, You Can Choose Joy!
Tim Hansel
Life can be tough. Stress, disappointment, heartache, and hurt are all part of the human condition. While pain is unavoidable, misery is optional! No matter what your circumstances, you can choose to be joyful. In Hansel’s powerful account of God’s working in one man’s physical and emotional suffering, he and we discover the real meaning of joy.
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Life becomes inspiring, not in spite of the problems and the hard hits, but because of them.
“Life becomes inspiring, not in spite of the problems and the hard hits, but because of them.” (Joni Eareckson Tada)
God has graciously sewn laughter into our days, bright moments tucked among the shadows of illness and pain…
“God has graciously sewn laughter into our days, bright moments tucked among the shadows of illness and pain…” (Cindee Snider Re)
What is the hardest thing about chronic illness?
“What is the hardest thing about chronic illness?” (Cindee Snider Re)
What is the most unexpected blessing of chronic illness?
“What is the most unexpected blessing of chronic illness?” (Cindee Snider Re)
What if illness – the stripping away of our health, our dreams, our understanding of who we are and what our future holds – is really a gift?
“What if illness – the stripping away of our health, our dreams, our understanding of who we are and what our future holds – is really a gift?” (Cindee Snider Re)
Describe chronic illness in five words.
“Describe chronic illness in five words.” (Cindee Snider Re)
The longer I live with serious chronic illness, the more I pray for my faith to be deepened.
“The longer I live with serious chronic illness, the more I pray for my faith to be deepened.” (Maureen Pratt)
With a chronic illness you can’t wait to enjoy life.
“With a chronic illness you can’t wait to enjoy life.” (Karen Dockrey)
“Our culture habituates us to noise, to rushing, to an inhuman pace. When illness forces you to stop – to spend days or months or years in diminished activity – there may be a hidden mercy.” Mary C. Earle
“Our culture habituates us to noise, to rushing, to an inhuman pace. When illness forces you to stop – to spend days or months or years in diminished activity – there may be a hidden mercy.” (Mary C. Earle)
Audio
SHARING LIFE, DISCOVERING HOPE AND A FEW FUNNY MOMENTS
CHALLENGES AND JOYS OF LIVING WITH CHRONIC ILLNESS
Video
Love One Another – A Step of Faith
(Galatians 5:13b)
Bring your nothing. God wants to take our nothing and make it into something beautiful for His Kingdom. Let’s “…serve one another humbly in love.” (35 minute message followed by Q&A)
THROUGH CHRIST, WE ARE STRONG
Joni Eareckson Tada
“I’ve got strength sent straight from heaven. Joy hard-fought-for and hard-won.” Click here to watch and be encouraged.
CHOOSING JOY IN SUFFERING
Vaneetha Rendall Risner
“Pain is what draws us to God.” Click here to watch.
6 STRUGGLES WE FACE IN SUFFERING AND HOW THE GOSPEL SPEAKS TO THEM
Sarah Walton and Kristen Wetherell
“Loneliness strips away the external comfort found in those around me, driving me to find comfort in Christ alone.” Click here to watch and glean Gospel comfort.
YOUR LABOR IS NOT IN VAIN
Esther Smith
“Any activity, no matter how small, that fills your day that you do with a reliance on God and for the glory of God is the work of the Lord.” Click here to watch Esther.