Hepatitis C taught me many lessons. First and foremost, there is hope with Hepatitis C. I learned the valuable lesson of how keeping focused on hope and God’s help could get me to a life beyond hepatitis C.

Hepatitis C brings a lot of uncertainty in this life, do you agree? That’s the way I felt when I was diagnosed and facing treatment. So many fill in the blanks. I’m the type of gal who is a planner, likes organization, all though, it seems I am constantly trying to “fix” something to make life work smoother. Alas, I need to hang a sign over my head, “Work in Progress.” Ever felt that way?

One thing Hepatitis C has taught me is to slow down and not get too frazzled over stuff I can’t control. A huge nugget from Max Lucado’s book, “He Stills Moves Stones,” which is a primo book, by the way, loaded with awesome nuggets. He reminds us, “We need to hear that God is still in control. We need to hear that it’s not over until HE says so. We need to hear that life’s mishaps and tragedies are not a reason to bail out. They are simply a reason to sit tight.”

Another huge nugget comes from Corrie ten Boom. Remember Corrie was taken capture during WWII and placed in a German concentration camp. Corrie experienced horrific suffering and did not know what the outcome would be for her. The likelihood that she could die was very great. I encourage you to read her story, very inspirational.

Corrie said, “When the train goes through a tunnel and the world gets dark, do you jump out? Of course not. You sit and trust the engineer to get you through.”

So in the case with Hepatitis C and life, do you believe Christ is the engineer? Do you trust He will get you through this?

During the 20-year span, hepatitis C lived with me, I experienced overwhelming disappointment when my first two treatments did not succeed. I tried not to focus too much on the future because it was so uncertain. But the one constant was Jesus and His promise that He was there by my side, no matter what, He would get me through!

I thought about all the stories all throughout the Bible where people were experiencing great difficulty with uncertain futures, but they never gave up hope, never gave up faith. But they did release their expectations to God and in turn God gave them more than they imagined.

What about you, can you release your life and hepatitis C to Christ? I pray you will and in turn trust Him to get you through this time in your life.

“We have this hope, like a sure and firm anchor of the soul. . . ” Hebrews 6:19

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