Suffering All Kinds of Grief

Good Morning on this fine Saturday!  I hope this finds you enjoying a restful and peaceful start to your weekend.  If your life is like mine, then I know you were very busy this week and you most definitely need a break.  I’m sure I said, “give me a break!” more than a few times…and you probably did too!

Grief, trials, and trouble.  We all experience it.  Some of you are dealing with disease, chronic illness, and injury, and I understand that this weekend might not be restful for you.  It might be painful and hard and you might even feel like giving up.  Please don’t!  There is hope, and I want to share why.

I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease on January 6, 2012 and it changed my life forever.  At that time my small intestine was so badly damaged that I only weighed 128 pounds, and I am 6 foot 1 inch tall.  I was starving to death from the inside because my own body was attacking me.  I thought I had cancer.  I didn’t know it yet, but the wheat I had grown up eating was killing me.

I suffered terribly the first 4 years of the disease.  I was vomiting and having diarrhea at the same time day and night.  I excreted intestinal tissue.  I couldn’t stand up straight due to the pain in my small intestine.  My wife had to hold my arm as I walked and I could only eat a few bites of rice and drink some water.  That was the first few months of the disease, but that wasn’t the worst of it.  For 4 years I would be knocked to my knees with debilitating gut pain every day.  The only relief I could get was when I would kneel by the stairs and bend forward until my forehead touched the third step.  I would stay like that for hours until the pain subsided.  The doctor called it “dumping syndrome” and he told me honestly they don’t know why it happens to Celiacs.  The disease weakened my muscles and bones, and it has taken all this time just to get to 140 pounds.  My normal pre-Celiac healthy weight was around 160 to 165 pounds.  The doc said I was the worst case of Celiac he had ever seen, but I also exhibited the best healing from where I was.  Praise God!  He said I was lucky to even be at 140 pounds after what I suffered.

There is no cure for Celiac Disease.  The only treatment is a completely gluten free lifestyle.  Gluten is the name for the protein “gliadin” that is found in wheat, barley, rye, and oats.  Less than 1% of us have immune systems that cannot tolerate gluten.  Celiac Disease is not just an allergy.  It is an auto immune disorder, and classified as a chronic illness.  If I eat gluten, then my body will respond by attacking my small intestine and destroying the intestinal lining.  The disease specifically attacks the villi, which are the tiny hair like structures in the lining that are responsible for absorbing nutrients from the food we eat.  Yes, Celiac Disease can kill people if left untreated.  Unfortunately, people with Celiac usually suffer on average for 10 years before they are correctly diagnosed.  That has to change.

We immediately changed out our entire pantry after my diagnosis, but my wife and I had a long road ahead of us.  I found out I can also not eat dairy, soy, eggs, coconut, and especially oats.  I can’t have NSAIDS either.  Of course the way I discovered I couldn’t have those things anymore was through eating them and violently throwing up, and going through the whole process of my body detoxing itself over and over until I figured it out.  On 4-28-2012 I suffered anaphylactic shock from eating an oat bread sandwich that was supposedly “gluten free.”  It was not gluten free because oats are not gluten free.  During digestion oats break down into a similar protein as gliadin, and can cause an even more severe reaction than wheat.  I stopped breathing that day, and Jesus saved me with a mighty miracle!  That story is in my book One Man’s Very Strange Supernatural Life.

It has been 6 years, 7 months, and 11 days since my diagnosis, and I am much stronger now.  I turned 40 this summer.  It has been a deeply painful and glorious journey through my suffering.  I know what it is like to truly be carried by the Lord now.  I was so ill in the beginning of the disease that I became like an old man, and I was only 33 at the time.  My wife had to help me get dressed, walk, and eat.  I was in a horrible state and I believed I was going to die.  I felt that I was laid out in the dust of the earth and I was done.  The Lord had other plans.

That is where hope comes in.  Jesus is alive and He loves you!  Yes, we have to suffer here on this earth because of sin (which I can expand on later), and we will all go through trials, but we can be victorious over every single one of them through Jesus!  Jesus gave me my breath back that day in 2012, so that I could tell the world about Him and what He has done for me.  He wants to do the same for you!

Yes, sometimes God heals miraculously.  In college (back in 1996-2000), I had a friend who was a champion wrestler.  His knee was injured during a match and the docs told him he would need surgery.  I led a Bible study at that time, so all the brothers and I laid hands on his knee one night and prayed for his healing.  He went in for surgery that week, but the doctors said his knee was healed and he didn’t need surgery anymore.  It was incredible!  That friend has been a Pastor since college.  Other times God heals naturally over time, and I’m not just talking physical wounds either.  Come to Him.  Give Him your disease, your illness, and your troubles, and you will see how He makes beauty from ashes.

I posted the picture of the bison because it has deep meaning for me.  The disease left me with very little options for food, but one of the best things that came out of this trial was free range bison meat!  I must do a plug here.  The best company on earth for bison meat is Wild Idea Buffalo Company out of South Dakota!  They are doing everything right when it comes to the land and the animals.  Their bison are 100% free range feeding on the natural prairie, they don’t eat grains, and they are not finished on GMO corn.  If I eat animals that eat grains and GMOs, I will have an auto immune reaction.  The family of Wild Idea are true conservationists in every sense of the word.  I feel connected to the land and the beautiful bison that provide my life sustaining protein source, and I praise God for caring for me so well!

I love that picture because bison are rugged and tough animals that can withstand the brutal trials of nature.  When I look at them standing out there in the cold it reminds me to stand strong in Jesus.  To set my face like flint against this disease and give the fight to Him!  I would not be able to fight this disease like I do in victory and power on my own.  I think the Apostle Peter says it better in his letter 1 Peter.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade–kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:3-7

Amen Brother Peter, amen!  Remember, this is not our eternity.  Everything here is temporary, even our pain and suffering.  There is peace, healing, and forgiveness in Jesus.  He can and will not only heal your wounds, but also your hearts.  He wants to carry your burdens and set you free, and there is no condemnation in Him (Romans 8:1).

I am praying for all those who are suffering today.  You are not forgotten!  If you need prayer or need to talk, I am here for you.  Don’t ever forget how much God loves you!

Bless you all!

Author: Ryan Callahan

Hello, and welcome to my site! I am an independent Christian author (One Man's Very Strange Supernatural Life), blogger, and evangelist for Jesus. My main goal with this blog is to help people come to know Jesus, help people understand the Bible, and to minister to a lost and hurting world. This site is about hope, new beginnings, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love! I'm glad you are here, God bless you! Copyright © 2023 Ryan Callahan. All rights reserved. View all posts by Ryan Callahan