The Purpose of Sickness

I’ve been sick for a couple of days – congestion, aches, chills, sneezing, coughing, etc. The funny thing about physical illness is that it has a distinct way of focusing one’s will. When we’re sick, we just want to be well. At least it seems that way.

As I’m wont to do, I found myself pondering the purpose of physical illness while sipping my Theraflu and warming my soup - admittedly with a somewhat clouded brain, so bear with me.

Nothing screams “here’s the problem” like physical illness. When our heads hurt, our bodies ache, and our noses create puddles on the pillow, the problem seems apparent. Like everybody else, I sought out the normal remedies including vitamin C, rest, liquids, doctor visit, and chicken noodle soup. Today, I feel better.

So what happened? As we’ve often said, what happened depends on the purpose that I ascribe. The individualized self (ego) needs the problem (sickness) to be in the world. This serves two purposes: 1) to keep us distracted and unaware of the source of the problem 2) to create the appearance that we’ve rid ourselves of the problem. In other words, we believe the problem is here (a sick body), and we see the source outside of ourselves (a virus).

In Reality, nothing has happened, but in our insane dream of sickness, we all play our roles. Today I’m the sick one. Tomorrow, it will be you, and I’ll return to seeming “health”. The sickness isn’t gone, it has just moved. These roles demand that we recognize the sickness here and try to fix it here. Doesn’t matter if I’m the fixer or the fixee. Doesn’t matter if we utilize medicine, natural alternatives, or spirituality to minister to what ails us, the result is the same. We simply reinforce the sickness and the thought system that made it.

Health and sickness are two edges of the same sword. Our seeming desire to be well is really a veiled wish to hold on to sickness, an unconscious wish to stay asleep. We only know “health” in relation to sickness. Our idea of health depends on sickness. The pain of the illness is indicative of how badly we want the problem to be here. We will even martyr ourselves to our god of sickness to make it so.

Note: The same can be said for every other pursuit here. Whether it is a “healthy” relationship, bank account, body or planet, the dynamics are the same. The purpose is to keep us unaware of the real problem and focused where the problem is not.

But the sickness isn’t here. The sickness is the thought system that here protects. The thought system is a desert. There is no life in the desert. We can’t fix up the seeming effects of a lifeless desert and call it “health”. (For some reason, I’m reminded of lipstick and a pig.) The only hope in a desert is to leave it. Now, let me be very clear. I am not talking about leaving the world. I am talking about leaving the thought system that the world protects. The only way to do that is through the shifted purpose of forgiveness, which means a shifted purpose for the world. The only obstacle, as we’ve discussed prior, is our willingness.

So, what does that look like? Our day-to-day encounter with the desert reveals little saguaro cacti hands pointing in myriad directions at countless guilty forms. Each telling us that this is the problem and that is the solution – that is the problem and this is the solution. (Okay, maybe this metaphor is where you have to bear with me.) That’s where we get stuck (again, bear), because we don’t realize that we’ve told them where to point.

The solution is remembering that we give purpose to the little pointing saguaro cacti hands. With changed purpose, the little cacti hands of the desert all point back to me, reminding me that the problem isn’t the desert. The problem is my decision for the desert (and by the way, the desert is guilt). Even closer to the truth, the problem is my need for the desert. Only then, can I begin to recognize how badly I must want it, how willing I am to suffer for it. This is useful, because now I’m aware of the obstacle. Now, with awareness of the decision, I can make the only meaningful choice and leave the desert (undo the guilt). From ACIM T.10.IV.5:7 What you have made is so unworthy of you that you could hardly want it, if you were willing to see it as it is. Now, I see the purpose of both sickness and health. Now, healing my seemingly sick body has no meaning, because I’ve given it a new purpose – undoing instead of reinforcing, salvation instead of attack, resurrection instead of crucifixion. Yes, I still sip my Theraflu and warm my soup, but with new purpose, now they serve a different teacher.

I’ve often quipped that the sick are closer to heaven than the healthy. Obviously, this has no meaning in Reality, but the point is that the sick (again read: depressed, unhappy, ill, etc.) are typically more motivated than the “healthy”. For the sick, the pain is acute; it is right there. Motivation is high. Sometimes, the sick have that extra little willingness to consider that there might just be another way. The challenge for us seemingly healthy folks (and I am feeling much better today) is recognizing that “healthy” merely veils the sword and that the real sickness is the value we place on the difference.

T.10.IV.3:1 The Sonship cannot be perceived as partly sick, because to perceive it that way is not to perceive it at all.