Marva J. Dawn is a theologian and educator with Christians Equipped for Ministry of Vancouver, Washington. She frequently teaches and lectures on a variety of topics at seminaries, churches, clergy conferences, and universities throughout the world. In this practical and inspiring paperback she examines the spiritual, intellectual, emotional, social, and physical afflictions that people with chronic illness and disabilities face on a daily basis. The text is peppered with illustrative material from the Bible, which offers hope and plenty of ways to understand suffering, loss, and pain.
Statistics show that 45 percent of U.S. citizens have some sort of chronic illness or condition and that means that more than 135,000,000 people are looking for resources to help them cope. Dawn has experienced blindness in one eye, a serious injury to her foot that put her in a wheelchair for an extended period of time, breast cancer, chemotherapy after a mastectomy, and a kidney transplant.
When chronic illness or disabilities come into our lives, we experience a loss of our dreams of well-being and what we anticipated doing in the future. Dawn takes a hard look at the widespread idea that people bring their illnesses or disabilities upon themselves as direct punishments for their sins or someone else's. Instead of asking "Why?" Dawn suggests that we consider "What is God doing in the midst of this?" and "Where do I catch glimpses of the Trinity's grace?"
She also recommends focusing on our caregivers who are bearers of love and kindness and comfort to us in our times of tribulation. The challenge is to move beyond bitterness and lack of trust into letting God be bigger in our lives and putting our adversities into a global perspective. Dawn deals with the following issues which loom large in the lives of those with chronic illness or disabilities: loneliness, physical pain, unproductivity, worry, boredom, regrets, and depression. She emphasizes that in the Scriptures, God's love for us remains steady: it is this alone that enables us to remain well while we are ill.
