Holding on to Faith When the Hurt Won’t Heal

For those living with the never-ending physical and mental symptoms of a chronic illness, it’s easy to become so consumed with the nature of their illness that they fail to see that the most important impact is spiritual. Craig Svensson knows from personal experience how hard it is to navigate the challenges that arise when living with an ongoing ailment. In When the Hurt Won’t Heal: Living with Chronic Illness, he helps readers find the path to flourishing spiritually despite the pain, fear, or darkness they may be experiencing.

In his book Svensson shares what he’s learned about God’s comfort and care through his struggles. He offers practical, accessible, spiritual guidance for sufferers and their caregiversto growtrust in God and his daily sustaining grace by providing readers with tools to anchor and encourage the heart amid physical suffering.

Q: Introduce us to your new book When the Hurt Won’t Heal? Who was the book written for?

When the Hurt Won’t Heal provides practical and biblical help for those living with an enduring affliction, especially chronic illness that produces suffering. People who live with hypertension or elevated cholesterol would not usually say their illness causes suffering, but those who live with arthritis, migraine headaches, multiple sclerosis, or many other diseases would. Many people with chronic illness experience persistent pain, debilitating fatigue, limited ability to stand, walk, or sit, and other limitations that makes everyday life hard. My book is written to help them know the fullness of joy Jesus promised.

This book will also enable people who want to help those living with chronic suffering better understand the spiritual challenges chronic sufferers experience. It will provide them with practical tools and timeless truths from Scripture to aid those who journey through life with a persistent trial. It can also be hard to come alongside someone who is suffering, especially walking with them for the long haul. When the Hurt Won’t Heal provides insight and guidance that will equip you to help and not hurt those who are suffering.

Q: Could you tell us about your own experiences that led to writing the book?

I am a pharmacist-scientist by training who lives with multiple ailments. In my mid-twenties I was diagnosed with a rare form of colitis that, while under better control now, was debilitating for the first fifteen years of my marriage. At the same time a new medication brought that disease under some control, I injured my back and have lived with daily pain since 1998. Then in 2005, strange neurological symptoms began to appear, ultimately leading to a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis two years later. Since that time, additional ailments have joined the party. So, I write as a follower of Jesus who is a health professional and a patient living with several chronic ailments.

Through my journey with chronic illness, I have learned first-hand the spiritual challenges that arise when living with an enduring trial—especially one you know will not end this side of heaven. I have also found there is much help and hope in Scripture to guide us through this journey. I have had the opportunity to provide training for biblical counselors on how to help people living with chronic illness, as well as providing classes for patients living with various diseases. When the Hurt Won’t Heal is the fruit of both living with and teaching on this topic for several years.

Q: What is the greatest need for someone living with chronic illness or other enduring trial?

The greatest need is to be steadfast. An enduring trial presents a very real test of our faith. It did for Job, and it will for us. The enemy of our soul would like to use affliction to ruin us, to get us to turn from and on our heavenly father. This is why it is so important to recognize and address the spiritual dimension of living with physical illness.

It is easy to see the problem with our bodies to be the greatest threat to our ability to flourish. In reality, however, it is the spiritual challenges that physical changes provoke that will most impact whether or not we experience the joy Jesus promised to those who follow him. Thankfully, there is much guidance to be found in Scripture that will help us endure the affliction and even grow through it.

Q: How can I live well when the hurt won’t heal, and the pain won’t stop?

A journey through life with chronic illness is like traveling on a road with dangerous ditches on both sides. Swerve to the left and you’ll descend into the depths of despondency. Swerve to the right and your illness will become the focus of your life and the core of your identity. Neither ditch is a place we want to land. To avoid doing so, we must recognize the danger—understanding the spiritual challenges and the destructive direction our hearts are inclined to travel.

It all begins by being intentional with how our heart is molded. Life’s circumstance can shape us, often in ways that do not honor Christ. If my heart is not properly directed, I can become angry and bitter when faced with a trial that does not fade. But if I turn to Scripture, I will find the means to renew my mind, and the trial will work to my good and God’s glory.

For example, when I turn to the account of the man born blind in John 9, I learn that the many years this man suffered had a purpose—for the moment Jesus would appear on the scene and manifest his glory through healing the man. Similarly, my heavenly father has a purpose in my suffering, though I may not see what that purpose is at the moment. Romans 8:28 reminds me that all things ultimately work for my good and his purpose. These truths help put my suffering in perspective and assure me that God is doing something through the suffering.

Q: You write, “Saints in sore affliction often find it hard to pray. This is a time to let Psalms be a template for our prayers, especially psalms of lament.” What are the two parts of lament, and why is it important to actively do both parts?

Lament, as modeled in the psalms, has two simple steps. First, talk to God about your feelings. Second, talk to your feelings about God. Freely express the pain of your heart heavenward. Speak of your sorrow and perplexity. But don’t stop there. Then speak truth to your heart to steady your soul. This is the pattern we see repeatedly in the psalter.

We need to be careful not to leave our prayers at simply the complaint of our circumstances or the anguish of our souls. We want to move from turmoil to trust. We do this by speaking into our pain with sure truths from the word of God. These will anchor our lives to something far steadier than our feelings. Besides, our feelings can mislead us. While God given, our feelings are susceptible to wrong thinking. They must be filtered through the lens of Scripture.

Q: What are a few of your favorite Psalms that you lean on?

Psalms 13 and 42 are wonderful model psalms of lament. In Psalm 13, David opens by expressing that he feels like God has forgotten him. His prayers seem to disappear into thin air, and God appears unmoved by his pain. Then David steadies himself by expressing his resolve to trust in God’s steadfast love, regardless of his circumstances. He also reminds himself of how God has dealt bountifully with him in the past. In essence, David preaches truth to himself to settle his soul. In Psalm 42, the worship leaders being led captive to Babylon lament the loss of their joy found in leading temple worship. Yet, amid their lament, they preach to themselves with the assurance that they need not be caste down but hope in God.

In addition to psalms of lament, I am also drawn to psalms that remind me of the majesty of God—like Psalm 8 and 19. I find it so helpful to be drawn out of my own trouble and set my eyes on the grandeur of God. These poetic expressions of the wonder of God’s creation take my eyes off my trouble and onto his marvelous works.

Q: Why is the providence of God a comforting truth for all of us, but especially someone with a chronic physical or mental struggle? How can we learn to trust in God in the midst of suffering?

The providence of God assures me that God is in control at all times, in all circumstance, and in all places. Thus, all things ultimately work toward his purposes. This is the most important message of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. When affliction strikes, its arrival is not outside the providence of God. It has been sifted through my good Father’s hand. It is not simply that there is a God who controls all things, but that the one who controls all things is my Father. His love for me is so great that he sent his only begotten son to die for me, to pay the price that I could not pay so that I might gain a heaven I could not earn.

Trust comes as we gain experience showing us that the person in whom we place our trust is trustworthy. Reviewing how God has worked in our lives (or in the lives of others) in the past can provide tangible evidence of his trustworthiness—which can give me confidence to trust him in the present.

Q: What are the four main spiritual challenges of living with persistent suffering?

Those living with an enduring trial will often struggle with guilt, anger, fear of man, and anxiety. False guilt can arise if we erroneously tie our suffering to sin, as the disciples did to the man born blind. That doesn’t mean that there is never a link between our suffering and sin, as shown in 1 Corinthians 11. However, most suffering does not have a link to specific sins in our lives. We can also struggle with guilt about how our limitations due to illness place a burden on our spouses or others. Yet, we did not seek the disease that has descended on our lives and disrupted things for others. In addition, God is every bit as sovereign in their experiences as he is in ours.

Some Christians will also experience anger that God has not brought healing and relieved their suffering. This can easily lead to bitterness, which is a cancer to our soul. Like real cancer, such bitterness must be dug up and discarded if we are to thrive in this world. Still others will succumb to the fear of man, weighed down with concern about how others view them in light of the physical limitations that illness has brought.

Many live with what are called degenerative diseases—illnesses that will only get worse, creating increased limitations on their physical abilities. They can easily become anxious as they think about what may happen if they lose their ability to work, to walk, or to see. Rumination on what the future brings can weigh a person down. The Word of God reminds us that our future is held in the Father’s hand, and he will walk with me every step of the way, so I need not worry.

Q: How does a chronic illness weigh on the sufferer’s family and friends? What encouragement does When the Hurt Won’t Heal offer them?

It is easy for one with chronic illness to be very self-focused. Yet the lives of family and friends can be greatly impacted when they walk alongside a person with illness, especially a debilitating illness. Studies have shown that people who provide care for those with chronic illness, such as spouses, suffer more worry and depression than the patients themselves. My book will help them not only better understand the spiritual challenges for the sufferer, but also for themselves.

When we truly link our lives with another person, we can either mutually encourage or discourage one another in response to the trials that beset us. Realizing the danger to our souls during such trials will help us to chart a path together that will honor the Lord. We can use biblical truth to encourage one another to remain steadfast in the face of whatever may enter our lives. We can remind one another of the hope of heaven in the darkest hours.

Q: Many people struggle with why God allows suffering. As a person who suffers from an illness, how would you answer this question?

First, it should be recognized that the why behind God allowing human suffering is a struggle for us all. Job struggled mightily with the why behind his suffering, as did David in many of the psalms he wrote. So, we should recognize that the unsettled feeling is common. Second, we must recognize that we live in a broken world. The fall of Adam and Eve disrupted the divine order of things in the sense that this world does not work as originally designed. In every suffering we see, there is a thread that is traceable back to Genesis 3 and the fall of man. It was man who broke the world, not God. Yes, he could have made us robots incapable to transgression, but he didn’t, and none of us would likely want to live in a such a world.

It is also important to remember that our God can use even evil to accomplish his purposes. The greatest evil ever done was the crucifixion of the sinless son of God, yet through the great evil of the cross, our redemption was secured. Surely God can use the lesser evils in our lives to accomplish his purposes as well.

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