One symptom of Multiple Sclerosis is the gradual loss of
motor control as the nervous system loses its ability to send and receive messages
with the rest of the body; signals from the brain to the muscles are
short-circuited, rerouted, and eventually not received at all. Dave first started
noticing a slight drag in his step in 2001, and by 2004, he was stumbling
often; he required the help of a coworker to complete the physical aspects of his
work, and he would take a nap in his car in the employee parking garage every
day. His employer and coworkers were amazingly supportive, but it wasn’t fair
to them for David to continue working in that way, so we decided to look at
other options for the financial support of our family. The decision to quit
Dave’s job came shortly after the MS diagnosis and during the time when we were
starting to change our perspectives about how the world works. Was our belief that
“anything other than a stable, secure 9-5 job is too risky and doomed to fail”
putting us in a self-fulfilling prophecy situation? Were we creating failure
for ourselves simply because we held that belief?
The next couple of years were fun, and scary, and peaceful
all at the same time. We were learning about herbal remedies, energy healing, hypnotherapy,
and other alternative healing methods; we learned about real estate, network
marketing, the stock market, and other types of investments. And as we
broadened our perspectives about the worlds of health and finance, we found a
common undertone that continually piqued our interest. The idea that the course
of our lives isn’t strictly decided by God or by fate, but that we have the opportunity
to partner with God in creating our own lives was showing up time after time.
It seemed that God was using Dave’s illness as a tool to
break us out of the closed-mindedness of our current beliefs. This didn’t mean
that our beliefs or ideas about life were completely incorrect, but we were no
longer afraid to take a look at them and how they were affecting our lives, and, with God’s help, make necessary
changes. Once we opened ourselves up to different perspectives on medicine and
finances, we found it relatively easy to consider alternative approaches to
many other aspects of our lives.
So, HOW does self-fulfilling prophecy work? Is there a
process that I can follow to change the life that I’m creating for myself? How
does the belief that one is “stupid” create poor grades in school? How does
this relate to placebos and laughter in treating sickness, or does it? And what
does this mean for David’s health and our family finances? David and I spent
several years, much study, prayer, and soul-searching, along with a lot of
trial and error, in learning how the process works.
More on how it works next time. J
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