Duchenne Awareness Day comes around every September. Thank-you if you’re someone who recently supported the campaign for a drug to help. Duchenne is a very rare progressive muscle wasting disease. It’s a condition that’s close to my own heart as we lost my sister-in-law to this neuromuscular disease. Normally it’s only boys who are affected, so her condition was even more rare and had the experts baffled.
Our son also suffers with Duchenne. He has fractured his skull, and broken his leg twice and is now dependent on a wheelchair to get around. There’s a cloud hanging over us every single day, it’s hard to see your child getting weaker rather than stronger. We are constantly preparing for and adjusting to decline. I’m sure you have similar clouds, anxieties and pains, mental or physical health struggles, relationship difficulties. Maybe you wonder why God doesn’t just take it away.
In one of my Bible readings this week I read the seemingly paradoxical words of the apostle Paul that he is “sorrowful yet always rejoicing.” This is a wonderfully realistic way to live. It is neither annoyingly positive, nor depressingly negative. Here is someone who recognizes life is hard, there’s times when it’s so hard that he’s tempted to give up, it’s not all right, it does hurt, and yet, he’s rejoicing because he knows the Lord is in control and He is good.
But you may wonder, how can Christians be sorrowful and rejoicing at the same time? Do we suffer from split personality disorder? No. We are sorrowful because we live in a fallen world and we are affected by the brokenness. And yet, Jesus said to his disciples “in this world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” And that is how we can rejoice even when we are facing troubles. We can know that, no matter how intense, how painful, for those who belong to Jesus, they won’t last forever.
There is a day coming when He will wipe away every tear, a day when there will be no more suffering for the Christian, only endless joy. When you know you have a holiday coming up, it changes your perspective, gives you a spring in your step, gives you hope. When you know eternity with Christ is just round the corner, you can rejoice!
Ah, you say, that’s just wishful thinking. Well, it’s certainly true that faith in God has been shown to help people’s mental well-being, but it’s more than just wishful thinking. Our hope is based on what happened in history to the man Jesus Christ, that he died and rose again. He’s beaten death, and promises resurrection bodies to all who trust in him.
In the Lord’s kindness, Duchenne Awareness Day happens to fall on the anniversary of our son’s baptism. Not that baptism saves anyone, but it’s a wonderful sign for all those who will come to trust in Jesus that they belong to him. As we arranged our son’s baptism all those years ago we had no idea it was the same day that Duchenne is remembered. It’s almost as if the Lord was saying, every year as you remember Duchenne, you can be sorrowful and yet rejoice. Be sorrowful at the brokenness, but rejoice that I’ve done something to take away the brokenness forever.
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