Rachel Lundy's Blog, page 18

A Daily Fight to Stay Satisfied in Jesus

Today is the last day of Invisible Illness Week. Thank you to my faithful readers who have been coming here each day! Thank you to everyone who has encouraged me this week through emails, comments, and sharing my blog posts. Thank you for caring and for helping to spread invisible illness awareness!

Today I would like to share this short message from Joni as my final invisible fight blog post.



Joni Eareckson Tada: It's a daily fight to stay satisfied in Jesus.
"Ours is a daily fight to stay sati...

Helping a Friend in Her Invisible Fight

Do you have a friend who lives with a chronic illness? Is someone you care about going through a daily invisible fight? It is easy to want to help a friend, but it can be hard to know how to help a friend who is facing a battle that you don’t understand. Here are a few ways that you can reach out to your friend and help her in the invisible fight.
Communicate with her. Let her know that she isn’t alone. Let her know that you see her and that you care. There are plenty of ways to communicate th...

Fight the Good Fight of Faith

It is Invisible Illness Week, but whether you have an invisible illness or not, if you know Jesus as your Savior, I have encouragement for you today from God’s Word.
We all face hard things in life. You may be fighting an invisible illness, or you may be struggling in some other area of life. No matter what you are going through, I encourage you to persevere in the fight of faith! Keep your eyes on Jesus and “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight...

Fighting Against Gravity

Yesterday I mentioned that my body does not counteract gravity very well. Today I would like to tell you a little about my fight against gravity.
In a healthy person, blood vessels constrict when the person sits or stands. This vasoconstriction counteracts gravity and keeps blood flowing back up to the heart, lungs, and brain. Because I have dysautonomia, my blood vessels do not constrict well when I am upright. This means the longer I am upright, the more blood I have pooling in the lower hal...

My Invisible Fight

Each day with an invisible illness is a fight against my body. I fight to wake up. I fight to make my body move. I fight to get out of bed. I fight to spend time with my family. I fight to think, communicate, read, and write. Through it all, I fight for joy.
My invisible fight begins in the morning when I start waking up around 10:00 or 11:00 am. Every morning I wake up with a miserable, sick, and weak feeling in my body. It overwhelms me, and I start praying right away. I can’t think clearly...

30 Things 2015

In 2009 Lisa Copen started a "30 Things" meme. Each year hundreds of people with invisible illnesses fill this out and share it on their blogs and social media. I think this is my fifth time filling this out. It is interesting to me to look over my old "30 Things" and see which answers change and which answers stay the same each year. 
You can visit the Invisible Illness Week website to read what others have shared for their 30 Things.

1. The illnesses I live with are: POTS, Gastropar...

Invisible Illness Awareness Week 2015

It is Invisible Illness Week! This is a week when the invisible illness community comes together to encourage each other and to help spread awareness of invisible illness. We want to let those with invisible illness know that they are not alone, and we want to help those who are healthy know how they can reach out to their friends who have an invisible illness.
Earlier this year I was wondering how much longer I should participate in Invisible Illness Awareness Week. My illness becomes less in...

What I Didn’t Know About Chronic Illness

"After many years, I have discovered something new about invisible illness.

I have lived with an invisible chronic illness for most of my life, but until I became very ill in 2004 there was something I didn’t know about invisible chronic illness.

I didn’t know just how hard and physically challenging it could be.

I didn’t know how exhausting it was to do what appeared to be easy tasks..."

Please join me today at the Invisible Illness Week website where I am sharing something I didn't know about c...

Hold Me, Jesus

This summer my husband was asked to sing "Hold Me, Jesus" in church. It wasn't a song he had sung or played before, so he practiced it a lot here at home leading up to that Sunday. As providence would have it, the week Will was practicing the song was an especially difficult week for our family. We were all weary and overwhelmed by life with a chronic illness. During that challenging week we would find ourselves singing or humming this song. Even the children joined in. The words of this song...

Five Minute Friday: Learn

"You have dealt well with your servant,    O Lord, according to your word.Teach me good judgment and knowledge,    for I believe in your commandments.Before I was afflicted I went astray,    but now I keep your word.You are good and do good;    teach me your statutes.The insolent smear me with lies,    but with my whole heart I keep your precepts;their heart is unfeeling like fat,    but I delight in your law.It is good for me that I...