Back in 1996, doctors suspected that I had either multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s, or Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-ALS).  I was sick beyond belief and lived in constant pain.  I couldn’t sleep at night, had frequent panic attacks, and suffered with severe neurological problems.  Those are just a few of the many symptoms that I had.

Because the symptoms overlapped between the 3 diseases, a doctor suggested that I be admitted into Shands Teaching Hospital in Gainesville, FL.  Perhaps they could get to the bottom of my constant state of dis-ease.  But to tell you the truth, I was sick of being sick.  I was over it!  I couldn’t take it anymore.  At one time, I even asked God to put me out of my misery and asked Him to take me home.  But I soon realized that was a silly request.

Friends came over to lay hands on, to lift me up in prayer.  The next day my life began to turnaround.  It’s a long story.  To hear more, you’ll need to read my book WARNINGS of Disease.

But that’s not the point.  The point is, I wanted to know WHY?  Why was I sick and diseased?  Why did I have neurological problems?  But no doctor could answer my questions.  So I decided to find the answers myself.  And did I ever find them!

Word studies are popular among Christians.  Since the Bible was written in Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek, word studies help to determine the true meaning of a word within its biblical context.  But studying the root of a word has many applications.  There is much to be gained from doing a word study and really searching for the true meaning of a word.

I started out with the word - SYMPTOM.  Why?  I had lots of them!  Over 100, to be exact.  A symptom is a physical or mental condition of disease, that is particularly apparent to the patient.  A symptom is a sign of the existence of something, most often an undesirable situation.

Symptom originates from the Greek words sumptoma ‘chance, symptom,’ and from sumpiptein ‘happen.’   This basically means that symptoms happen, they come about.  But when you look at the definition of happen, you’ll see that for something to happen, it is the effect or result of some action or event.  That means that something is responsible for a symptom when it takes place.  There is a cause!

Many people have the tendency to blame their symptoms on their body. I did it all the time, until I realized that blaming my body was in essence, blaming myself without taking the responsibility for what I did.  In other words, if the symptoms that I was experiencing had been diagnosed as MS, Parkinson’s, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, that would have meant that something that I was doing was causing the symptoms to happen.

Going back to the word SYMPTOM, I began searching for synonyms.  I am the queen of synonyms!  The Thesaurus has always been one of my favorite books.  When I was a kid I used it to write essays for school.  One time, I received a failing grade on a paper because the teacher thought one of my parents had written my essay.  She reasoned that I was much too young to know such words and to have such a good command of the English language.  My mother set her straight, but I’m diverging, again.

Synonyms for SYMPTOM include manifestation and sign.  A symptom is a warning, a hint, and a clue.  A symptom is also an expression and indication of something, it is evidence and proof.  But proof of what?

A symptom is the consequence and product of an event.  A symptom is a testimony.  A symptom is the result of something else.  A SYMPTOM is the effect of an action.  In other words, something that I was doing was causing my symptoms!  By doing a simple word study, I came to realize that my symptoms were a direct testimony of my actions.  They were evidence and proof, formal witness, that their existence was a witness of my deeds.  Essentially, I was responsible for my symptoms!

Then, I had to step back and look deep within.  I came to understand that when I suffered with symptoms, my body was giving me a warning, a hint, a clue…

[TO BE CONTINUED...]