Something good can come from hurt feelings about Hepatitis C, a good look at where you’ve been and how blessed you really are. I recently spoke with someone who made a comment about ‘how awful my life has been’ the last few years regarding my Hep C and treatment.

It was like a slap in the face. It hurt my feelings. Even though Hep C has been rough and treatment was difficult, I have never regarded my life in any form to be ‘awful.’ In fact, I feel just the opposite, extremely blessed. I believe it is how you look at things, half empty or half full.

Regardless, our lives intermingle with others who have never experienced Hep C or treatment and see it only through their narrow perspective. When a chronic condition comes to live with you, you can either curl up and be miserable or choose to see life differently, blessed beyond what the disease or treatment brings into your life. Barbara Johnson said it so well, “Pain is inevitable, Misery is a choice.”

No one can understand exactly what you have been through or what you are feeling unless they have walked in your shoes, and even then they are still looking at your life through their lens, not yours.

We can either React or Respond to someone’s comments. Instead of reacting out of anger or hurt, I was like the little child who took my wounds to my (Heavenly) Father. He showed me once again how loving and faithful He is to understand and care about my pain.

I asked Him to show me from His perspective, not mine how to deal with my pain. He showed me in Jeremiah 30:17 NIV, “But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds, declares the Lord, because you are called an outcast, . . .for no one cares.” Notice he said, you are “called” an outcast, Do you even call yourself that or perhaps feel like you are? The truth is to God YOU are not an outcast, YOU. You may feel that no one cares but YOU are His, He cares and YOU are loved! You matter to God!

And in Jeremiah 31:3-4 NIV, . . . “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt. . .”

Whoa! I had to read that one again and again. Now I know he is talking about rebuilding Israel, and all that was going on during Jeremiah’s time. But His word is also relevant today and what I’m going through. His word is targeted for you and me. Do you feel like you’re life is or needs rebuilding from the inside out? I certainly have felt that way at times. Good news! Jesus is in the restoration business.

Psalm 34:17-18 says, “The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to broken hearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.”

So instead of reacting out of hurt and anger, the Lord whispered to my heart, “respond with loving kindness and forgive, that’s what I did for you.”

This entry was originally published on Life Beyond Hepatitis C, and is reprinted with permission.