I serve the God of heaven and earth. Nothing is impossible for Him. At the name of Jesus, I’ve seen people healed of deafness, crippling arthritis and terminal illnesses. I’ve witnessed the power of Pentecost throughout my life and have absolutely no doubt about what the Holy Spirit can accomplish.

However, I also spent years suffering from Parkinson’s disease. I recently experienced my own miracle of healing and have been symptom-free since Oct. 29, 2017. That’s a story all its own, which I love to tell.

But my testimony is not the focus of this article. Instead, I want to reflect on the struggle of those who have lived with, or are living with, chronic illness. I’m not writing to highlight the things I’ve been through, but to encourage those who are wrestling with the same irony.

Regardless of how much faith you feel or don’t feel in a specific moment, suffering is a reality when you have a disease that remains with you for months or years — especially when that disease is medically incurable. You can’t confess it away or eliminate it simply by thinking differently. It forces you to face your mortality and come to grips with how to relate to the God who can do all things, when He has not yet done the one thing for which you keep pleading.

At certain stages in my battle with Parkinson’s, you wouldn’t have noticed much more than my right hand shaking a little as I drank a cup of coffee or tried to sign something. Other times, the symptoms were impossible to conceal or ignore.

I didn’t know much about Parkinson’s before I started living through it. I didn’t know that there are seasons when the pain is so intense you can hardly bear it, but there are. I didn’t realize it changes the way you access memories, so you have to learn new ways to organize and remember, but it does, and you do. I wasn’t aware that it altered your facial expressions, causing you to look upset at times when you are perfectly happy, but that happens.

When I was well rested, I often seemed fine. However, after exerting myself physically or emotionally, it wasn’t unusual for my body to become so affected that stiffness set in throughout my right side, causing me to look like I had an injury.

Sharing all the ways in which Parkinson’s affects the body and mind is beyond the scope of this article, however. This is a message instead about the irony of Pentecost and Parkinson’s, spirituality and suffering, miracles and mortality.

Living with a progressive disease that affects multiple aspects of your life, while at the same time serving a God of signs and wonders is a bit ironic, isn’t it? I laid my shaky hand on a good number of people whom God, in His grace, miraculously healed — even when I was at my weakest and lowest points.

If it sounds like I’m angry, you’ve misread my tone. I’m simply confessing that in my human frailty, some things are beyond my comprehension. I’m thankful that I don’t have to understand everything.

What I do know is this: Embracing the irony of suffering in my body while being absolutely certain of God’s ability to heal enabled me to learn some spiritual truths with greater clarity than ever before. I want to share a few of those lessons.

I laid my shaky hand on a good number of people whom God, in His grace, miraculously healed — even when I was at my weakest and lowest points.

We don’t have to be perfectly healthy for God to use us. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, the apostle Paul wrote, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (KJV). Paul was willing to embrace his own weakness so that God could more fully reveal His power through him.

I understand this more day by day. Sometimes when we’re in a weakened physical condition, our faith is stronger than ever. When we are healthy, it is easy to trust in our own ability. However, during seasons of suffering and weakness, we learn to trust more in the power of Christ.

The challenges we go through become signs to others of God’s power and grace. In Isaiah 8:18, the prophet declared, “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts … .” (NASB).

God does not simply work signs and wonders through believers. Rather, our very lives become signs and wonders to those around us. When people see us facing challenges and moving forward in faith, it becomes a sign to them of God’s power and grace at work within His people.

We are to live out His grace each and every day. While we look for the signs and wonders we desire, we should seek to live as signs and wonders to those around us.

The suffering we experience now will be fully overshadowed by God’s glory in the future. In Romans 8:18, Paul writes, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

If we’re not careful, it’s easy to obsess over the hardships we face in this life. Being aware of our hardships, and even mourning over them at times, is not the same as having a pity party.

Real faith is not pretending that we aren’t suffering. It is being absolutely convinced that our present condition will be eclipsed by the glory of God, and that whatever we endure in pursuit of His presence is worth it.

I am absolutely convinced that the Creator of all things is who He says He is. Yet I know what it’s like to continue suffering, even after praying the prayer of faith. What should we do when this happens? I suggest that we keep believing.

We should keep expecting and anticipating total healing in this life. At the same time, we should follow after God wholeheartedly, no matter what, and learn everything we can about His grace as we walk through dark valleys.

We can trust Him. We don’t know the future, but we know the One who does. We can trust His wisdom, His timing, His plan and His sovereignty. I’ve noticed something about all those people in the Bible we call heroes of the faith: They weren’t so heroic in most senses. They were actually quite flawed. They did a lot of things wrong.

What set them apart was faith didn’t let them quit. No matter what, they kept looking to God and listening for His voice. Even when it hurt, even when they were discouraged, they persevered. When others fell away, and when their friends told them to give up, they held tightly to faith. And as they walked with God through trials and experienced His faithfulness, their faith grew even stronger (Romans 5:3-4; James 1:2-3).

In the height of my personal battle with illness, I never knew when God would heal me. I sometimes doubted whether He would heal me at all. However, I knew this: If men and women whose faith God celebrated in Scripture didn’t quit, somehow the faith that comes by the Holy Spirit would keep me from quitting as well.

In one of my favorite miracle passages in the New Testament, Jesus says to a man who had been bedridden for years, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk” (John 5:8).

Sometimes, we have to make a decision to get up and put one foot in front of the other, in faith. Often, we must make that choice before anything has really changed. So, to those who are suffering and finding things a big ironic: Get up. Let’s walk this faith journey together.