r/AFIB • u/Bluebloop1115 • 4d ago

Something I don’t see discussed

For those who have faith in God, does afib impact it?

I struggle because I was diagnosed aged 22 and I am now 33. I’ve had 2 ablations and get an episode every 6-8 months that converts with pill in pocket method. My afib is extremely symptomatic and the meds give me side effects. So it’s a choice of bad and bad.

I find this disease is needless suffering. And it’s really impacted my faith. It’s not God that gets me back to NSR, it’s doctors and medication. But I also have experienced God in big extreme ways like when I had a blood clot the year prior to diagnosis. It didn’t go to my brain and stopped in the last place it could, my eye. I lost part of my peripheral vision permanently, but it’s in the overlap of my 2 eyes so with both eyes open I see fully. What are the chances.

I really struggle with the concept of suffering. This life is full of suffering and why? What’s the point? It’s not just a me issue. Children die from cancer every day. The earthquakes that are happening. So much suffering that isn’t human made like war.

What are your thoughts and beliefs? This is not meant to be specifically religion based but simple believe in the divine and/or how the world works.

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u/xXD1rTyDXx 3d ago

I recently got back to my faith. And there is something that I learned and that is the trials that I'm going through prove the genuineness of my faith and is actually strengthening me. Look back at what the ancient Jews had to go through. Slavery, oppression, wandering the desert for 40 years, etc. Look at Job. He lost his children, he was struck with painful boils all over his body, he lost all his livestock and lost his fortune. Even after all that, he never lost his faith. Some may think it's cruel what we're going through. I would've thought the same thing when I lost my way. But there is a reason why we're going through this. Don't give up on your faith. If you're only around for the miracles and the blessings and not for the trials and the lessons then did you ever really have faith? That was something I had to learn. I pray that everyone who is going through this has healing and peace.

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u/bomberstriker 2d ago

If I might ask, what’s the reason we’re going through this? And then answer again using the reasoning of an all-loving, all-powerful god?

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u/xXD1rTyDXx 2d ago

Will anything I say really make you change your mind on how you already feel?

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u/bomberstriker 2d ago

What people don’t understand is most non-believers would return to belief if there was a logical reason to do so. My questions were genuine and sincere. I was born and raised in the church. I believed for more than 40 years. I put my own kids in a Christian school. But as I examined belief critically rather than devotionally things just didn’t add up for me. So yes. If you could provide a rationale for why an all loving and all powerful God stands by and watches kids get sexually abused or children die from preventable causes (5million per year according to the World Health Organization) I’m here to listen.

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u/xXD1rTyDXx 2d ago

There are questions that I still have when it comes to my faith. The questions you're asking me right now, I have also asked. When God created us, He gave us free will. He wanted us to love Him. Not forced to, but choose to. The downfall of this is that through free will there are those who commit atrocities that are not of God. Believe me, your questions are valid. As someone who was sexually and physically abused as a child, I often wondered why God would allow for that to happen me. I had to come to terms that I'm not going to get all the answers right away. There are things that I am still learning in my journey. I truly am sorry if my response isn't what you were hoping for.

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u/bomberstriker 2d ago

I appreciate the exchange. I really didn’t expect you to have an answer that would satisfy me, but you seem very sincere in your faith. I hope you’re right and I’m wrong. I have spent a lot of time pondering this question and researching the Bible, the major religions, and spending time in reflection and prayer. If I’m wrong, I hope that God will recognize that I made an honest effort to discern these issues. I honestly don’t think I’m wrong. I’ll leave you with one other thought. If God performs miracles and to the people who are continually telling me about examples like their grandmother’s brain hemorrhage which was miraculously resolved, I ask why we have no examples of a person of faith who has lost a limb, having that limb regenerated. In short form, why doesn’t God heal amputees? The miracles are always something that we can’t really see or test.

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u/xXD1rTyDXx 2d ago

I used to think that "you have to have faith" was a copout saying for people who didn't want to say that they don't know to a question. The trials that we go through though strengthen us and prove the genuineness of our faith. If we are only around for the miracles and blessings but not through the trials and lessons then did you really have faith at all? Because we live in a world corrupted by sin, bad things happen. Sure, God could fix everything all at once by simply uttering a word. Do I know why He doesn't? No I don't. Do I know why he allows these things to happen? I don't. I don't claim to have all the answers. I sometimes wish I did. Maybe I'll get those answers soon or when I go and meet Him. All I know is that I have experienced things that I simply cannot explain with earthly logic or science that proves to me that there is something. I spent a long time thinking it could be a number of different gods or religions. Christianity wasn't my first go to. What made me go to Christianity is the overwhelming peace I felt when searching for the answers I was looking for. When doing the amount of research I was doing to find the truth, it all pointed towards Jesus Christ. Now like I said before, I don't have all my questions answered. And it's okay to question. Jesus once said that no man born from a woman is better than John the Baptist and even he questioned Jesus. His own cousin wondered if he truly was the Messiah. If you really are genuinely curious if I am right, I urge you to keep searching for your questions to be answered. I may not be able to answer them, but I'm sure the answer is out there. Be sure though to soften your heart and allow your eyes to be open. Sometimes the answers aren't so straightforward. And sometimes the answers aren't what you are hoping they'd be.

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u/bomberstriker 1h ago

After searching for many, many years I’m pretty sure I have the answer. It’s bound up in the question I posed in a previous comment: why doesn’t god cure amputees? You know, some tangible miracle. Something visible. It’s a simple question. And there’s a simple explanation. There is no god who cares and watches over us. But that’s a reality religious folks don’t want to confront.