When Life Hands You Setbacks

Setback is an interesting word, sometimes used to kindly say something isn’t going according to plan. But what exactly is a setback?

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, one definition of setback is “defeat or reverse.” Sadly, many respond to life’s setbacks with an attitude of defeat.

Another definition of setback, however, is “a checking of progress.” In other words, it’s a minor bump in the road. Yes, it may slow you a little, but you keep pressing on.

A Personal Setback

I’ve experienced what I am choosing to view as simply a setback in the past seven months. One week after I last wrote, I caught COVID-19. I came through well, considering my then-moderate asthma was not under control yet.

The difficulty came after the illness itself left. I developed long COVID-19 symptoms. I couldn’t walk distances of a few feet without triggering asthma attacks. I couldn’t talk because my chest pain and shortness of breath were so bad. The fatigue was so strong, I had to limit myself to one thing a day, or I would be so wiped out, it would take me two or three days to recover. It was at this point in October that I went on medical leave.

God led me to a new primary care physician and a good pulmonologist. They ordered tests that showed what was wrong — an unusual experience for me — and medications that provided relief. Around Christmas, I finally felt almost normal.

Then I caught COVID-19 again.

A Repeated Setback

I had planned to return to work after the first of January. However, with catching COVID-19 for a second time, all the inflammation that I’d had in the summer came back triggering similar symptoms.

My symptoms are still not better, and it’s now March. Because of the demands on my work department, they couldn’t accommodate my health needs anymore, and I was let go. It feels as if this keeps getting worse and worse.

Responding by Looking Up

When we’re faced with setbacks, it’s difficult to respond correctly. Right now, I want to dwell on how bad it feels and wallow in that. Instead, I should focus on what I know is true about God and do the next right thing.

Here’s the truth I’m grounding myself in:

God was not caught by surprise.

He knew this was coming because He knows all things. Job 37:16 calls Him “perfect in knowledge.” Romans 11:33–34 marvels over the magnitude of God’s knowledge: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?’”

In her book None Like Him, Jen Wilkin wrote, “God does not learn. Learning implies change, and as we’ve already considered, he is unchanging.” God did not need to learn about COVID-19 or long COVID-19 as my doctors and I do. He already fully comprehends the disease and its aftereffects.

Wilkin went on to say, “Though learning is wholly foreign to God, it is wholly foundational to being human.” While I am learning what my newest normal looks like and if it will stay this way, I also need to re-learn to trust God in these circumstances.

God has a plan.

Jeremiah 29:11 is one of my favorite verses: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

I’ve also come to love Romans 8:28–29, though I found it trite when I first faced difficult health battles. I had to grow in my understanding of what is good. Good is growing in conformity to God’s Son. Anything that God brings into my life that allows me to become more like Christ is good, even if it doesn’t feel good. According to James 1:2–3, “the testing of [my] faith produces steadfastness.” And once steadfastness has its full effect, I will be “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” In other words, I grow in Christlikeness through trials.

God’s plan is to only allow that which will make me more like His Son.

God will provide.

Throughout the past few months, I have seen God provide exactly what I need. I have not gone without, and I have been able to pay bills when I need to. “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). He will continue to do so.

Setbacks aren’t meant to hold us back. They’re meant to point our gaze upward.

Next Steps

I’m not sure what my future holds, and I appreciate your prayers. For now, I’m pursuing freelance content creation. If anyone knows someone looking for a freelance writer or content marketer, let me know!