{"id":1260,"date":"2014-07-12T19:20:33","date_gmt":"2014-07-12T19:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1260"},"modified":"2014-07-12T19:22:08","modified_gmt":"2014-07-12T19:22:08","slug":"chronic-illness-faith-and-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/07\/chronic-illness-faith-and-the-future.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronic Illness: Faith and the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Maureen<\/a>Fifty years ago, or perhaps even less, someone with a diagnosis of lupus could not expect a “normal” \u00a0lifespan. There was so little understanding of the disease, and few ways to treat the symptoms and flares, proctively or otherwise.<\/p>\n

Today is a bit of a different story, as it is for other chronic illnesses. People still do die from lupus and lupus complications “before their time,” but, as one rheumatologist said, lupus patients today can expect a relatively “normal” lifespan, albeit an uncomfortable one.<\/p>\n

So, with that in mind, it’s a good idea, periodically, to reflect upon the future. And, actually, to envision the kind of life you hope to lead, even with a serious chronic health condition. To put your hopes to prayer, and to work today at being as strong as possible so that your hopes might, with God’s help and your medical team’s support, become reality.<\/p>\n

Often, we color our thoughts of the future with the darkness that is ongoing, painful illness. We might think, “I don’t know…if I have to live with this disease for years, it’s not going to be fun\/easy\/enjoyable\/purposeful.” Or, we might lose sight of the trust we have in God to bring us from today to tomorrow with more than a little bit of solace, comfort, and joy. We might not take steps today that can help us in the future (preparing for “retirement,” for example, or thinking about the care we might need as we age).<\/p>\n

But, God has a purpose for each of us, and a love for us that transcends the pain that clouds our minds and dims our spirits. As we reach to him now, and renew our trust in him, we can lift ourselves out of today and point toward a future that, yes, might still be punctuated with illness, but will also be filled with many good blessings.<\/p>\n

Blessings for the day,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifty years ago, or perhaps even less, someone with a diagnosis of lupus could not expect a “normal” \u00a0lifespan. There was so little understanding of the disease, and few ways to treat the symptoms and flares, proctively or otherwise. Today is a bit of a different story, as it is for other chronic illnesses. People…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,43,379],"tags":[906,29,45,1128,183,19,614,606,1129],"class_list":["post-1260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-encouragement-in-life","category-lupus-2","tag-blessings","tag-chronic-illness","tag-faith","tag-future","tag-gods-love","tag-illness","tag-medical-team","tag-retirement","tag-trusting-in-god-while-living-with-pain"],"yoast_head":"\nChronic Illness: Faith and the Future - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/07\/chronic-illness-faith-and-the-future.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chronic Illness: Faith and the Future - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fifty years ago, or perhaps even less, someone with a diagnosis of lupus could not expect a “normal” \u00a0lifespan. 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She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1261,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260\/revisions\/1261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}