Life tests even the best of us, and it often threatens to suck out the tiniest flicker of hope inside us. Beloved, we are called to not be surprised by the fiery trial but rejoice because such a thing is not strange.
However, is there a more counter-cultural message out there? It’s not only difficult but seemingly ridiculous to think that inexpressible joy and strength may be ours not in the absence of but in the teeth of excruciating suffering.
Recent studies have found that nearly 85% of people worldwide identify with some type of faith. That is usually what influences the way they think, act, and ultimately, live their lives. No other area tests one’s faith as a crisis, or rather, a series of it.
The quality of our faith during such crisis periods plays an enormous role in determining the course of our future. In this article, we will discuss faith’s role and why it is a massive one when a series of crises strikes.
What Can a Series of Crises Look Like?
The world we currently live in stands as a parable of sorts of the horrors of moral evil. After all, death itself is more certain than life. Everywhere the eye may turn, one can spot some type of suffering.
The faces of suffering are many, ranging from famine to war. In most cases, it breeds insecurity as to how to sustain one’s life. In a 2024 survey, 15% of respondents said that the greatest crisis in the US was inflation and the high cost of living.
Financial insecurity, also one that seems to get worse by the day, can truly become a cause for fear and desperation. What would a series of crises still look like? Let’s create a make-do scenario.
Facing a Crisis Unlike Any Other
Suppose an average peace-loving American family finds itself amid a health crisis in the middle of growing inflation. The middle-aged daughter is diagnosed with a rare and debilitating condition called Thyroid Eye Disease (TED).
According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), TED is characterized by progressive inflammation and damage to the eye tissues. It leads to symptoms like bulging of the eye, watery eyes, swelling, and pain.
The active phase of the disease may last anywhere between six months and two years. There is no knowing as to how much the condition can progress during this stage. Some people even require significant cosmetic changes due to severe disability.
Battling such fears, the family decides to look into the available treatment options despite thinning finances. In the US, TED is typically treated using a drug called Teprotumumab or Tepezza. It is an FDA-approved treatment but one that is costly.
In fact, the expense related to Tepezza is a significant barrier to TED management. With the help of insurance, the family somehow manages to begin Tepezza intravenous sessions. Midway through the course (3 or 4 sessions later), the daughter complains of hearing issues.
She reports symptoms like ear fullness, ringing sensation, and a gradual loss of hearing. According to TorHoerman Law, these are side effects of the drug that the manufacturer, Horizon Therapeutics, was aware of but failed to warn about.
What started as one crisis can quickly turn into another until there is a series of problems to deal with. It can feel like a huge betrayal of trust and the future becomes a dreaded black hole of uncertainty.
What Faith Sounds Like in a Series of Crises
The scenario we just described can evoke a wide number of emotions. As much as the family may experience fear, desperation, and grief, it is equally natural to have righteous indignation toward the betrayal and negligence of the medication manufacturer.
In times like these, what does the cry of faith sound like? How can it help pull through? Let’s take a look.
Hope for Justice
The call of faith is not passive amid suffering. Even as we sit in desolate places, there is no need to settle with the injustice of the age. In the example we just discussed, one of the emotions that will arise is a longing for justice.
The longing to see one’s pain being recompensed in full. Interestingly, the Federal court has certain provisions for it since Horizon Therapeutics has been sued. Over 30 people have filed the Tepezza lawsuit for hearing-related issues.
Since it is a civil tort, average settlements may range between $50,000 and $200,000. Can money compensate for one’s loss of hearing? Perhaps not, but it can help ease some of the financial crisis.
What’s more important is the acknowledgment of one’s suffering and betrayal endured. Faith reveals itself through hope in legal and divine justice. Those are not just stunning realities to observe but even glories to embrace.
Acceptance of Reality
Have you ever wondered why one of the first words that escape our mouths during immense suffering is “Why?” It’s almost natural for the human heart to question a crisis from a viewpoint of meaning or purpose.
Accepting ‘the reality’ often happens when one learns to exercise their faith to submit ‘felt reality.’ Reality is undoubtedly reality but felt reality is one from the sufferer’s vantage point.
Such a reality can be under or overrated based on one’s emotions, thoughts, and assumptions. This is important to understand because one side of the coin of uncertainty is that of hope. For instance, many TED patients who stop Tepezza find their hearing recovers over months.
What if the same fate is reserved for our story’s patient? It’s difficult to make it to that point unless they can use faith even as small as a mustard seed to shepherd their emotions and thoughts in the present.
Our responses are often influenced by our perception of reality. To push forward despite the present suffering, one needs faith to understand that though hard-pressed on all sides, they are not abandoned.
Conviction of Unwasted Pain
Once the felt reality is submitted to divine truth, it’s time to stand on an important conviction. Those with faith know that no pain is wasted. Nothing may seem resolved yet but the faith-filled person knows that all things will be one day.
They take their negative thoughts captive and talk back words of hope to themselves. They understand that they’re fully known and completely loved, enough to live securely no matter the circumstances.
This does not mean such individuals walk about with a wide smile all the time. There may be moments of doubt and desperation but they know where to take these painful emotions. That alone makes all the difference.
Faith screams ever so gently that the pain will work for their good. It will become a testimony for others walking through similar trials.
What often appears to be a series of crises is a good place to evaluate ourselves. Such moments become opportunities to gain insight into our thoughts and actions.
Some of us are chronic overthinkers, and it’s important to know ourselves. As we get to know our tendencies toward should haves and what ifs, we must also know the truth. This truth echoes that we won’t fall into despair as long as we cling to those precious promises even if we don’t see their fruits now.
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