Sometimes I wish all my hair would fall out… Discovering the redemptive work of suffering

My husband recently shared some sad news with me – a 65 yr. old friend of ours has been diagnosed with lung cancer. It was evident my husband was upset by this news, and he started saying something philosophical about the uncertainty of life and the certainty of death…. Blah, blah, blah….

I’m ashamed of this, but I stopped listening to him because I was jealous.
I was jealous of my husband’s reaction, and jealous that this man is 65 (I can only hope and pray that I will live to see my 65^th birthday) and yet, because he has cancer, he will derive more attention and sympathy than all the women combined who lost their lives this past year to LAM yet were only in their 30’s and 40’s. I was jealous of the reality that when people hear the word “cancer” they immediately get all melancholy and philosophical because they pretty much know what the future looks like for the sufferer: chemo, radiation, hollowed eyes, emaciation, fatigue, hair-loss, and potentially, life-loss. It’s certifiable bad news – and I don’t wish to have cancer – heck no. And I certainly don’t mean to minimize its devastation. I’m just being honest with my struggles. I struggle with the fact that because of its prevalence, cancer is known and understood and therefore its sufferers are readily acknowledged, offered compassion, extended empathy and sympathy, and given permission to grieve.

I think this is true for most people suffering from a rare disease: we long to be understood, too.

I’m grieving, too. And it sucks.

The last six months have been miserable for me. But misery is relative and I personally know of many others who have it worse so I refuse to complain and I refuse to share with most people just what’s happening. More than the fear of dying is the fear people will remember me as a whiner. Oh God, no! It’s just that for these last several months it totally sucked to have this LAM-thing going on – physically and emotionally. But because all the things happening to me happened on the insides, no one had to know about it unless I told them.

So like every good Christian feeling compelled to infuse hope to all mankind even while feeling hopeless themselves, I persistently lied and told everyone who asked, “I feel fine.”

So, in the midst of my worst suffering (so far), what I heard most often was this: “Well, you sure look great! You sure don’t look sick!”

*********

One day, in the midst of a childish rant, I told my husband I wished all my hair would fall out. I told him I couldn’t find a way to explain what was happening to me in one short minute and that is about all the time most people will give you. They ask you how you’re doing – but they really don’t want to hear the long truth. I said if my hair all fell out, then they’d “get it” and they’d get all melancholy and philosophical for me, too.

The shocked/hurt look on my husband’s face told me I’d gone too far. We both know many people who have lost their lives to cancer or are currently battling it – my comments were pure disrespect. He said “Sounds like you’re just looking for sympathy.”

I said, “Maybe. Or maybe I just want to be understood.” Since my diagnosis, I had repeatedly told him that the primary emotion I experienced was loneliness. Because LAM is so rare, because to understand the disease I’ve had to spend countless hours in research, because my husband and children and family and friends can’t possibly “get it”, because I have, to date, personally met only one other woman with the disease, and because everyone’s disease progression is so unique, I feel very much alone. 

He thought long and hard, then said, “You know, everybody is dealing with something – and most of those things we cannot see. I think most people feel alone in their suffering. Maybe we all just need to treat EVERYONE with more sympathy and understanding.”

My husband is wicked smart.

Maybe you are dealing with fibromyalgia. Maybe it is COPD. Or Lupus. Maybe it is a son/daughter who won’t speak to you anymore. Maybe you don’t know how you’re going to pay next month’s bills. Maybe your husband doesn’t love you anymore.

Maybe your child has leukemia. Maybe your mother has Alzheimers. Maybe you’ve been diagnosed with a mental illness. Maybe you just lost your job. Maybe you’re not sure you can keep going anymore.

All these things – and many, many more – are things unable to be seen on the outside.

And as you walk around your neighborhood, or go to the mall, the grocery store, the dentist, the Little League game – wherever – no one knows of your suffering.

Maybe you, too, wish your hair would just fall out so people would be able to see that you’re suffering. Maybe you are feeling desperate to be known in the deepest, truest sense and to be profoundly understood. And perhaps, that is simply our depraved human condition – a whole-hearted, visceral longing to be intimately known and understood… 

Perhaps that is by design, so we fall desperate at the feet of Jesus… 

********

What I am SLOWLY learning in this arduous process of grief and acceptance toward my illness is that I am most definitely NOT alone. First of all, I am not alone because of the truth we are all dealing with something. No one is immune from the pain of this world. At one of my lowest points, I stumbled upon this video called, “It Ain’t Over” by Ed Dobson, a well-known Grand Rapids pastor battling ALS. Although our stories are very different, I immediately felt I had a friend in Ed, because he gets suffering. I instantly felt less lonely.

But even better than finding fellow pilgrims on similar journeys, I am not alone because I have a Savior, who by very definition of that title has come to RESCUE us! He who suffered greater than anyone ever has or ever will – He alone understands me and my suffering perfectly. I do not need a bald head to be understood.

We are not alone, my friends. And never will be.

And so I decided that the point of this suffering must NOT be for me to extract sympathy from others – it was never about me anyway. I decided the point of suffering must be to show the world that even IN our suffering we will glorify the ONE who suffered more than any other, who gave HIS life SO THAT we might have eternal hope and eternal life; and then, we must point others toward HIM.

That, I believe, is the redemptive work of suffering.

Share on Facebook

Tweet