When Alternative Methods Fail

It’s Thanksgiving.  I LOVE Thanksgiving!  (Little known fact about me–I like Thanksgiving best of all the holidays, because it’s the least commercialized.)  I like the idea of giving thanks to God for providing for us.  In fact, I think that we would all be a lot happier if we focused on the blessings in our lives instead of dwelling on the bad things we encounter.  One of the things I have been especially thankful for is natural healing methods. 

That being said, this year Thanksgiving is tough for me.  I really don’t feel thankful for my blessings.  I don’t feel like “feasting” on turkey and all the trimmings.  I don’t feel like visiting and playing games with my family.  I feel like sleeping through the whole thing!  Why?  Well, the last few months have been very difficult for me.  I feel as though natural healing methods have failed me.  One of my clients died earlier this month.  I’ve lost clients before, and I’m sure I will again, but this one was particularly difficult for me because it was my dear mother-in-law.  She passed away from pancreatic cancer just 5 weeks from diagnosis.

I’ve had many people ask how that is even possible with the work I do?!  In fact, I often thought that by being proactive about healing modalities, my family would escape sickness.  But the reality is that we live in a world where bad things happen…even to good, healthy, proactive people.  My family isn’t immune to viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungal infections, or even cancer.  Alternative healing such as the use of herbs has prevented many trips to the doctor, but it isn’t 100% fail proof.  Just as medical doctors call their office a “practice”, alternative providers call their branch of medicine an “art”.  God didn’t create all people exactly the same, and a standardized system of treatment doesn’t work for all people.  Well, didn’t I see this coming?!  No, I didn’t.  You see just a few months before Mom got sick, she had the best readings of her life.  She felt great!  Sometimes the computer won’t detect abnormally dividing cells, sometimes cancer moves in that quick, and sometimes…even when we find something on the computer or have a medical diagnosis, we don’t have time to fix it.

So, what’s the point of being proactive?  Should we just “chuck” the whole thing, and let the chips fall where they may?  I don’t believe so.  The Bible says in Romans 12 to “offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God”.  How can we be of service to God if we don’t care for our bodies?!  Research clearly indicates that people who care for their bodies by eating right, exercising, taking nutritional supplements, sleeping, and enjoying meaningful emotional and spiritual relationships generally live longer and healthier lives than those who don’t.  Notice, research mentions generally not always.  It was interesting though, that the surgeon who met with Mom told her that “she was the healthiest sick person the surgeon had ever seen”!  Mom enjoyed good health most of her life.  My kids enjoyed a grandma who was fun and spunky;  my husband enjoyed a mother who loved him unconditionally;  my father-in-law enjoyed a wife who served him joyfully; and I enjoyed a friend to live an abundant life with me!  Because of the care that Mom had given her body in the years before cancer, she was able to remain relatively pain-free and use her remaining days on earth to minister the Gospel of Christ to all who came to visit her.  Her zeal for Jesus, and her energy for life were evident to the physicians, the neighbors, and her family.  Mom believed in Christ’s sacrifice for her and is now celebrating and worshiping in heaven.  I’ll see her again in heaven some day, but for now, God has called me to continue to share the “art” of alternative medicine with those He places in my path.  I don’t know how long I have to live…no one does.  Ultimately GOD decides when a person’s life begins, and when it ends.

This Thanksgiving season is hard for me because I have to process through emotions of sadness, hurt, and frustration.  I have to grieve for moments that I will never again have with a woman I loved with all my heart.  But I AM thankful…I’m thankful that I had the chance to live life with her…I’m thankful for the wisdom she imparted to me…I’m thankful for the opportunity to care for her…I’m thankful for my family…I’m thankful for health…I’m thankful for LIFE (both here on earth and forever in eternity with Christ)…and yes, I’m even thankful for alternative medicine, because even though it doesn’t always work, it often does, and I’m thankful every time someone e-mails or calls to say how healthy and happy they feel since they’ve been to see me that God chose to call me into this line of work. 

So, my challenge to you today is what has God chosen to call you to that you are willing to thank Him for today?  Happy Thanksgiving!

For Health,

Summer Joy