My therapist posed a very interesting question to me in a recent visit. She said “If you had to make a choice between experiencing God’s true joy and peace for the rest of your life but always have serious health issues OR have perfect health for the rest of your life but never know God’s true joy and peace, which would you choose.”
Her question reminded me of a board game I have titled “Would You Rather…” that I really love playing because it asks plenty of questions that make you think just like this. In the case of this question though, I actually didn’t have to think about it at all before I answered her. Instead, I immediately said I’d rather experience God’s true joy and peace, which is rather ironic on some level given how long I’ve gone through pain and suffering with my health.
Most who know me might assume that having perfect health would be a far better choice, but honestly it’s not. I’ve been in great health before in my life and been as far away from God as I could be and it wasn’t pleasant. I had very little joy and peace, if any at all during much of those moments. And any joy and peace I did feel was usually only felt after engaging in some sort of an addiction and thus was illusionary.
Interestingly enough though, I’ve also experienced brief moments in this life where I did feel what I perceive to be God’s true joy and peace. They came during 1999, 2003, and 2005, each lasting any where’s from a month to several months. And it was amazing. No matter what I was going through during any of those times, whether I had health issues that arose, or financial issues, or relationship issues, or any other issue, it just didn’t matter. During those brief periods, I truly felt something so wonderful, I didn’t worry about anything happening to me one bit. Instead, I simply accepted everything was as it was supposed to be.
So while I’ve been striving for better health for some time now and am still waiting for that to materialize, my focus these days is to continue doing what I can in every moment to be in alignment with God’s will. Because then and only then do I believe I will ever experience what’s far more important to me and that’s to experience God’s true joy and peace again.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson