{"id":2133,"date":"2016-10-13T19:08:46","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T19:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=2133"},"modified":"2016-10-13T19:08:46","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T19:08:46","slug":"the-joy-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/10\/the-joy-of-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"The Joy of Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1842\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/350\/2015\/10\/Second-close-up-of-picture-257x300.jpg\" alt=\"Second close-up of picture\" width=\"257\" height=\"300\" \/>How wonderful it is to have faith! Despite the stresses in the world and the way some denigrate those who believe, persecuting people because they turn to Jesus, my faith in the Lord is the light that makes all the trials of chronic pain and illness tolerable. When I&#8217;m felled by a flare, it is Jesus who lifts me up. When I&#8217;m saddened by\u00a0unkind words from unthinking people, it is His Word that reduces my sorrow to nothing but a faint memory and fills my heart with gladness, instead.<\/p>\n<p>God&#8217;s promise of heaven for those who believe brings me absolute joy and a better goal than pleasing the whims of people who might insist that faith is foolish. Indeed, when I reflect on how greatly God loves me &#8211; and you! &#8211; I cannot help but smile and lift up hearty thanks.<\/p>\n<p>Today, if you are hurting, if someone has insulted you or tried to steer you from your faith, I pray that the pain from such physical or emotional infliction will dissipate as you reflect on Jesus, the love that flows from Him and into our absolute DNA. Hold on to\u00a0faith, and the pain of being ostracized will soon be replaced by Some<em>one\u00a0<\/em> in whom there is only joy.<\/p>\n<p>Peace,<\/p>\n<p>Maureen<\/p>\n<p>P.S. The &#8220;analytics&#8221; offered by this blog program tells me my Content is &#8220;Bad.&#8221; How so like a computer!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How wonderful it is to have faith! Despite the stresses in the world and the way some denigrate those who believe, persecuting people because they turn to Jesus, my faith in the Lord is the light that makes all the trials of chronic pain and illness tolerable. When I&#8217;m felled by a flare, it is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Joy of Faith - 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\/2016\/10\/the-joy-of-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Joy of Faith - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How wonderful it is to have faith! Despite the stresses in the world and the way some denigrate those who believe, persecuting people because they turn to Jesus, my faith in the Lord is the light that makes all the trials of chronic pain and illness tolerable. When I&#8217;m felled by a flare, it is&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/10\/the-joy-of-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-13T19:08:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/10\/Second-close-up-of-picture-257x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpratt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Joy of Faith - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/10\/the-joy-of-faith.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Joy of Faith - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","og_description":"How wonderful it is to have faith! 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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 &amp; 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\/2133","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=2133"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2135,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133\/revisions\/2135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}