POP for a Cause

Accept the way God does things, for who can straighten what he has made crooked? Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Remember that nothing is certain in this life. —Ecclesiastes 7:13, 14, NLT

The second Friday in May each year is celebrated as POP Day—Put on Purple. It is to raise awareness of lupus, an autoimmune condition that affects 1.5 million Americans and 5 million worldwide.* I have been passionate about supporting other causes in the past, but this one recently became personal. A few years ago I started to experience extreme fatigue. Sleep was very comforting, but I would wake up feeling tired again.

It was a very strange phenomenon to explain to someone, but it aptly described how I felt. You probably know someone who feels the same way.

I was ill and did not know it. My condition began to reveal itself slowly when one day I looked in the mirror, and there they were: quarter-sized bald patches on my head. I was terrified. My hair was gone without a moment’s notice.

After years of trying to find the cause, strange bouts of illness, and many visits to different medical professionals, I received a lupus diagnosis, and later another autoimmune condition was added to my record. To date, I continue to fight the battle against autoimmunity, and while it has not been easy, I am comforted when I read today’s text because it reminds me that God is with me in the good times and in the bad times.

Max Lucado writes, “God is plotting for our good. In all the setbacks and slipups, He is ordaining the best for our future. Every event of our days is designed to draw us toward our God and our destiny.”† So if you are facing a difficult situation, do not be dismayed; God will make a way. When I learned of the efforts of others to raise awareness, I joined the cause. Won’t you POP with me about a condition that mainly affects women? You can be a tower of strength, a prayer partner, or a friend to a lupus patient.

Ecclesiastes 4:9 says that “two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed” (NLT). Will you help someone today?

Taniesha K. Robertson-Brown

* “Put on Purple for World Lupus Day,” Lupus Foundation of America, accessed Nov. 14, 2024, https://www.lupus.org/lupus-awareness-month/put-on-purple. † Max Lucado, You’ll Get Through This (HarperCollins Christian, 2015), 127.