Ask Ligonier
How Can I Balance Serving Others with Dealing with My Chronic Illness?
Thu, 05 Sep 2024
Chronic illness can take a significant toll on both the body and the mind. Today, Sinclair Ferguson offers three ways that we can look to Scripture for guidance on serving the church while still taking care of ourselves. Read the transcript: https://ligonier.org/podcasts/ask-ligonier/how-can-i-balance-serving-others-with-dealing-with-my-chronic-illness/ Submit a biblical or theological question of your own by calling 1-800-607-9386 or by emailing an audio recording of your question to [email protected]. You can also receive real-time answers through our online chat service at https://ask.ligonier.org/. A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://donate.ligonier.org/ Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Full Episode
As someone who suffers from a chronic illness, how do I balance service to others with taking care of my own body? Joining us this week on the Ask Ligonier podcast is Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and also our vice chairman here at Ligonier.
Dr. Ferguson, we have a question this week from someone who suffers from a chronic illness, and they'd like to know how they can balance sacrificial love and service to others with taking care of their own body.
Well, suffering from chronic illness is a suffering that other people don't always see. And I think that in itself can present certain challenges to people. You know, if you break a leg, people are sympathetic and you discover an amazing number of people seem to have broken a leg as well. And there's a community of sympathy.
But I think one of the things that happens with somebody who experiences chronic sickness is that with it they can feel quite isolated. And that sometimes produces a certain sense of conflict within them that they want to do more to serve Christ, but they don't feel able to do more. So I think I would say certain things.
The first is to remember what the cabin staff say when they speak to you at the beginning of a flight, that in an emergency, there will be masks that will drop, you hope, from these compartments above you. And if you're carrying somebody who's a child or you're with somebody who is unwell, make sure you put your own mask on before you help somebody else.
And I think it's not only important, but I think it's liberating for us to understand that God understands our chronic sickness, and He wants us to take care of ourselves. And that's not just an option, that's actually a command. That's part of what it means to love ourselves as we love our neighbors.
We want to care for our neighbors, but it really is a command that we should also care for ourselves. And I'm struck by the fact that when Paul writes to Timothy, remember, he says to Timothy, who obviously himself suffered from some kind of chronic sickness. It seemed to be gastric in nature, but maybe affected other parts of his anatomy.
He says to him, make sure you take care of yourself and take a little wine for your stomach's sake. And he actually says, stop drinking water. And I think that's an indication that there was some conflict in Timothy and that Paul is saying, Timothy, you will not be of use in the kingdom unless you take care of yourself. So it's really important to do that.
And I think it's also releasing to know that the Scriptures encourage us to do that. Because often as Christians, we have this inner drive to do more. And sometimes that drive can lead us astray. So I would say that's the first thing.
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